Written by Gregory Monte.
One of the first websites that comes up in a Google Search using the term “speeding ticket” is an article called What to Do After Getting a Speeding Ticket.
But if you are looking for any real helpful advice from this blog post, you will be sorely disappointed. This particular article is just about 100% completely worthless. It contains nothing but trite facts and recommendations that any reader with an IQ above 80 would already know. For example:
“A speeding ticket can cause a lot of problems for you when it comes to your insurance rates, not to mention the cost of the ticket itself.”
“If you choose to pay the ticket, make sure that you pay it by the date on the citation to avoid additional fines and potential problems.”
No, really?
A bit later on in the post you find a section about actually fighting the ticket which is only two paragraphs long. Needless to say, there is nothing of worth there either. Take this final sentence:
“If you go to court, the prosecutor has to present evidence to prove that you committed the violation. At the end of the hearing, the judge will either have you pay the full fine, reduce the fine, or dismiss the ticket completely.”
Positively brilliant, don’t you think?
This is just further proof that most traffic ticket websites are worthless, which is why I have criticized them on numerous occasions. Here is a list of some of those older posts:
- Changing Lanes on a Highway: Is a Turn Signal Required by Law?
- Cops Can Get It Wrong – More Incorrect Traffic Advice from The Internet
- Crossing a Solid White Line on a Highway – Is it Legal?
- Defective Traffic Ticket Defense? Don’t count on it.
- Most Traffic Ticket Websites Are Worthless.
- Now This Would Be a Silly Ticket …
- Pissed Off About Your Traffic Ticket?
- The Traffic Ticket Defense Blog – Its value and legitimacy explained to all of the doubters (and haters) out there.
- Ticket for delaying traffic? Here is a way to beat it.
- Using Google Scholar to Challenge a Speeding Ticket.
- Yet Another Worthless Traffic Ticket Website
If you really want useful advice, you are much better off sticking with the Traffic Ticket Defense Blog. The free resources I provide below are not available anywhere else.
Free Resources
The Basic Speeding Ticket Defense
This is a 9 page review of the most basic way to beat a speeding ticket – even if you actually were speeding. This particular strategy will almost always work, but it does depend on one aspect of the circumstances surrounding your ticket. For the strategy to be effective, there must be an issue with the speed limit signs, themselves. It’s all about the need of states/localities to comply with their “Obedience to Traffic Control Devices” statutes.
Click to Download the Free “Basic Speeding Ticket Defense”
Applying the Traffic Ticket Defense Method to Challenge a Citation.
This is a seven-page, detailed explanation of my three-step method for challenging any traffic ticket. I use the “Driving at a Safe Speed” statute from Pennsylvania to illustrate this method, but it can be applied to any other statute that you might be cited for in the vehicle code.
In addition, no matter what state you live in, the procedure is the same: you need to understand the statute you allegedly violated, look for technicalities in that statute and (most importantly) find case law to support/reveal those technicalities.
Click to Download the Free “Applying the Traffic Ticket Defense Method to Challenge a Citation”
The Pennsylvania Stop Sign Defense Strategy in a Nutshell.
This is a one-page, eight-point summary of the strategy I discovered while researching ways of beating unfair stop sign tickets. It is specifically geared to Pennsylvania but can also be applied to most other states.
Click to Download the Free “Pennsylvania Stop Sign Defense Strategy in a Nutshell”
My Son’s Opening Trial Statement at the Court of Common Pleas.
This is an elegant, one-page, powerfully concise expression of my defense strategy.
The Brief – My Son’s Case Brief for the Court of Common Pleas
- An eighteen-page argument for why an illegal stop sign is not enforceable.
- Requested by the President Judge at Wayne County, PA, Court of Common Pleas.
- A highly distilled application of the Pennsylvania Stop Sign Ticket Defense.
Traffic Ticket Defense Blog 
The claim “[t]he prosecutor has to present evidence to prove that you committed the violation. . . ..” is erroneous.
More specifically, the “innocent until proven guilty” element does not apply in these cases. Rather, the law presumes everything the agent said [on paper, the infraction complaint], is true.
Because of the aforementioned presumption, you must prove a negative. That is, that you didn’t to the act described.
Generally, negatives are avoided in true justice systems, because they cannot be proven. That is, you cannot prove you never poached a deer or otherwise broke some law.
There are situations a negative can be proven, such as, if you were a quadriplegic and where accused of pucnching and kicking a cop on live television in Africa fifteen minutes before you bought a Pepsi in Butte, Montana. But its just more profitable, for the courts, counties and states to presume what the agent said is true.
Keep in mind, if you look up a court rule book, you’ll find it contains civil rules, criminal rules and infractions.
Prior to around the sixties, the latter didn’t exist. A traffic violations were criminal. As such, you have the presumption of innocence and, as said above, the prosecutor had to prove you performed the act cited in the ticket.
Today, one of the best defenses you have, other than the rare proof you didn’t do the act complained of, is, policy and procedure.
That can be as simple looking to a failure, by the agency and agent (cop) to file the ticket with the court in a timely manner.
It might be as simple as bringing several things together. For example, many infractions reference and affidavit or declaration on the back, but which I have never seen. As such, it could be argued the agents filed a defective complaint.
You can seek, via public record requests to the police agency involved, the policies they look to regarding the completion of the tickets. If they don’t follow their own policies and procedures, you have ammo for a defense.
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