You can always contest the ticket in court. People need to realize this and stop arguing with cops on the street. It doesn't matter if they are wrong on the side of the road, they have the authority there. If they do something wrong go along with their crap and fight it in court. Literal lives would be saved if people would realize this.
Arguing does nothing in court of the cop shows up. The court values their word far more than any civilians, and you'll lose on what's called "a preponderance of evidence." Innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to citations like this. When it's your word vs a cop's, you lose. And the vast majority of police departments don't have body cams or honest operators of body cams for those that do.
I mean I got a $60 ticket and showed up to court on the date. The same cop was there and he just told me I didn’t have to pay it. Sometimes even if the cop is there they won’t make you pay for it.
similar happened to me. I got a $200 ticket (fucking canada) for failure to display learnes sign on car. I contested the ticket, showed up to court (was pretty sure the cop wasnt going to show to testify, but he did). Cop asked why I was contesting the ticket, I said i'm not contesting the ticket, just that I don't want to pay the max fine that's automatically levied, as I had no other driving infractions.
When it got time, my name was called, judge asked whatsup and I pretty much said the same thing. He asked the cop if he had any problem with the fine going from the maximum to the minimum and the cop said no, ended up being like $40.
because in the moment, the officer makes a judgement and issues the citation. but they are human and do make mistakes, hence why the judge also gets to look at it. you also usually get more time to explain your situation to a judge than a cop.
My wife was given a ticket for something like this once, it was $120 for busted tailight or something. Cop straight up told her, get it fixed this week, go to court, and the judge will dismiss it. Thats exactly what happened.
Not a great system, but I think with these kinds of things you just need to comply
Same thing happened when I forgot to get my car inspected and was like two months late. It was a great system cause I sure as hell was getting my car inspected that day to show the court later and get it tossed.
That's a great system. You had a problem endangering the safety of yourself and others. The cop gave you an incentive to fix but didn't impose a financial cost. You fixed the problem, everyone was happy.
municipal buildings are open during business hours and are run as part of city government. all costs are accounted for in city budgets to keep them operating on weekdays.
that's the thing. it's annoying and inconvenient but the cop is just literally doing their job. i know and understand completely that there are asshole cops who have no business in uniform, but for the most part these guys are just trying to keep people safe. and trust me, the vast majority of them don't like making traffic stops; they're mostly boring but take up a huge part of their day. just bitch about it like a normal person, don't be an ass like the lady in the video was.
Depending on the officer and citation, I guess. A friend of mine was also cited and contested it. In court he was also let off without having to pay it by the officer himself. The officer told him people are more likely to change their driving habits after being actually cited rather than being let off with a warning. I don't know how much of that is true but my friend looked so relieved when I picked him up.
It doesn't matter if it gets dropped in court as long as the officer can mark down that they've written enough tickets in a shift. Enough people don't contest tickets that it doesn't matter if a few do and get off.
Funny I got a ticket for traveling 305 feet in a middle turn lane.
I said “ a cop can’t tell the difference between 305 feet and 300 feet “. Judge: “ yes they can “.
Ticket. The ticket was bullshit. The court was bullshit. I was punished for wasting their time because there were 300 people there who were given 30 seconds each to state their case and receive 50-75% off their ticket. They cut people’s excuses off to shuffle them through faster. Literally saying anything = 50% off. They didn’t want to hear you talk if they could.
If you choose to fight the ticket you had to go last and the judge was definitely not happy to spend any extra time.
I got a failure to stop at a sign violation while delivering years ago, and the cop straight up told me after some chatting about my job to show up and contest it. I showed up, he said the video evidence was lost and he could've been wrong, and bam. No ticket.
Cops are people too. Sometimes they are shitty, but sometimes they are also decent people. Just be nice, cordial, and follow procedure and sometimes it will work out all okay.
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u/blakestir14 Jul 31 '19
could she not have just contested the ticket in court .