I was making a left turn through a major and busy intersection. As soon as I got through the turn, a cop came straight at me from the direction I was turning into. He pulled me over.

Nice guy. I told him that the light was yellow but he would have none of it…all stated in a nice way. Have a great day. Love your car. He drove off; I held a ticket in my hand.

A month later, I went back to the scene of the “crime” with a notebook and camera. It was immediately apparent to me that, from where he had been parked, the cop couldn’t even see the light. He must have guessed based on the other traffic.

So, I diagrammed the entire “crime scene”. I took pictures. Of particular note, I took a picture of the light from exactly where the cop had been parked. The picture made it clear that the hood around the light made it impossible to see from the cop’s vantage point.

All of information was submitted, along with narrative, in the form of a trial by written declaration. Much more on trial by written declaration in later posts.

The case was dismissed.

I can’t tell you if it was dismissed because of my convincing evidence, or because the cop didn’t show up, or because nobody wanted to deal with all the details.

Most likely, with all of the easy tickets that there are to write, it didn’t pay to use the time to respond to mine.

I mentioned on the previous post that I got ticketed for going 102 MPH. I’m not sure what the speed limit was, but it doesn’t matter because it was way less than 102!

This is very serious because the driver gets 2 points for this. Further, at this speed, you aren’t eligible for traffic school. And, of course, its an expensive ticket…about $500 as I recall.

For my first step, I googled searched as much as I could. What I quickly learned was that I was in a difficult spot due to the above factors. So then I went through one of those attorney search engines; no luck. Finally, I just google searched under traffic ticket attorney and the county that my ticket was in.

I went through everybody’s web sites. all convincing. One of them posted his actually cases, both successes and failures. Except it seemed that about 95% of them were successes. A bit hard to believe, but I held my nose and called.

I didn’t talk to the attorney, but rather to an associate. He asked what the ticket was for and nothing else. Not even whether I was guilty or not!

He said they basically burden the court with paperwork until they give up and dismiss. Lots of labor on their part, so send $4000.

Inexplicably, I suspended all judgment and sent them $4000 and a copy of the ticket. Hold your hoots of disdain please!

Never heard from them, no questions, nothing…..

I kind of put it all in the back of my mind and forget…..

One morning, I notice in my planner that it is court day. I’ve never heard from the attorney. What a boob I am….I am envisioning the police arriving to take me away at any time for contempt. I call the attorney’s office and get a recording. arghh.

angst…..

About noon, I get a call from the guy from the attorney’s office: “Congratulations, your case has been dismissed. thank you for your business.”

I am relieved.

A couple months go by and I’ve never gotten anything from the court. no dismissal, no fine money returned. Again, my mind imagines. There is probably a warrant out for my arrest for not showing up to court.

I call the court and talk to the clerk of the court. There is no record….only notation that the case was dismissed. She has no idea how or why, very strange she says, but don’t worry it was definately dismissed.

A couple of months later a check comes in returning the fines I paid.

Don’t ask me how. I don’t know. But it worked.

Most importantly, many of them give just plain bad advice. I don’t suppose they care so long  as they sell something, though.

Two years ago, I got three tickets within a very short period:

-speeding over 100 MPH (I was going 102)

-speeding over 80 (I had the cruise control on 78)

-illegal turn through a red light (it was not red when I passed over the line)

So, I was horribly guilty of one of them, technically guilty on the second and not guilty on the third.

I ended up with no points on my record, but I did spend several bucks to get to that point.

I’ll tell you the easy one now, with the others coming in future posts.

On the ticket for speeding over 80, I paid the ticket and for traffic school so that it wouldn’t go on my record.

In California, Traffic School is always an easy, if not inexpensive, way out…if you haven’t gone go traffic school in the previous 18 months. More on that later, and the other two tickets as well…..

While we never endorse speeding, all of us make mistakes sometimes. So, it make sense to know where to be hyper-vigilant.

Here’s a great website where users post the location of speedtraps:

www.speedtrap.org

Just go to the site,  click on your state and then the town that you are interested in.

Busted….you’ll see that fellow users have shown you where to be extra careful.

Law enforcement has become downright predatory in using traffic tickets to try to raise revenue.

And it’s getting worse.

I hope to share information about how to avoid tickets. If you get one, you can fight.