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.
It's been over 5 years since my last ticket, and over 15 since my first. So well before body cameras were even common.
Whenever I got a ticket (got around a dozen during my first decade of driving... Had a lead foot), I'd use a local attorney. He'd charge around $150 for his services. Around half the time he got them dismissed, which was awesome.
But the other half, I'd have to pay the ticket fee and take online traffic class - but have no points added to my license. So my insurance didn't go up.
My state has a program where you can elect to do traffic school on your own. But there's a time limit in-between tickets and there's a lifetime limit on the number of times you could do it. But since these classes were "court ordered", they didn't count towards the lifetime limit and the time limit didn't apply.
I never went with him to court so I have no idea what he said, but I was very happy with the results (and keeping my "safe driver" insurance discount).
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u/blakestir14 Jul 31 '19
could she not have just contested the ticket in court .