When a traffic ticket is issued to someone who hasn’t received a ticket in a long time, or believes the ticket was issued unjustly, it’s perfectly normal for them to entertain thoughts of triumphantly fighting the ticket on their own and having it dismissed.
That said, in the heat of the moment, our logic is generally clouded by emotion.
After you’ve been issued a traffic ticket, the best thing you can do is to sleep on it. Allow your mind to relax so that more rational thoughts can benefit you later on. A traffic ticket is unlikely to have any effect on your budget or license for at least two weeks. You have time to collect your thoughts and plan for how you’re going to address the situation.
When it comes right down to it, you have one of three options:
- Paying the ticket – If you decide to do this, it’s best to do it sooner rather than later. You don’t want to wait for additional charges for a late traffic ticket.
- Ignoring the ticket – This is easily the worst choice you can make in this regard. Ignoring a traffic ticket doesn’t make it go away, and will only lead to heftier fines.
- Fighting the ticket – There are ways of fighting a traffic ticket, but it takes special circumstances and a specialized knowledge of the law to successfully do so—which is why it’s best to contact your Springfield traffic ticket attorney for help.
Ways You Can Fight a Traffic Ticket
There are certain cases where you actually have a legal case against your traffic ticket. Sometimes traffic tickets can be dismissed in the following cases:
- The officer’s equipment failed – If you have proof that the officer’s radar gun was functioning improperly, this makes a ticket dismissal far more likely.
- There are errors on your ticket – If the officer failed to record all of the information on your ticket correctly, such as misspelling your name or getting the make, year, and model of your car wrong, your ticket can be dismissed.
- The officer fails to show up for court – If you’ve decided to officially challenge your traffic ticket, and officer doesn’t show up to court, the chances are good that your ticket will be dismissed.
- Legally justified action: There are times when you can prove that the actions that lead to the issuing of the ticket in the first place were justified, even if they did technically violate the law. For instance, if you can prove to the judge that you ran a red light because you did not want to stop too abruptly on black ice, which would cause you to slide and risk damage to person and property, your ticket may well end up being dismissed.
- Challenge the officer’s perspective: You can challenge the officer as to what he or she claims to have seen. The reason for this tactic is to prove to the judge that the officer was incorrect about what they thought they saw, making the ticket ultimately unjustifiable.
- Mistake of fact: If the traffic control conditions of the road on which you were pulled over were inadequate, faded, or damaged in some way, or traffic lights were malfunctioning, your traffic ticket can end up being dismissed. Of course, you need to be able to prove this in court.
Why Hiring a Traffic Attorney Is Your Best Option
When it comes to fighting anything in court, it’s almost never a good idea to represent yourself. In fact, most attorneys who end up in trouble with the law decide to hire another attorney to represent them. There are many reasons for this:
- The law is complicated – Just because an attorney specializes in one area of the law doesn’t mean he or she can represent themselves in another.
- It’s important to have an objective third party there to represent you – Not only do attorneys understand this, the judge understands this as well.
The most important reason to hire a traffic attorney is that the layman simply doesn’t understand all of the ins and outs of the law as much as an experienced individual who has made the law their career.
If you have been issued a traffic ticket and want to fight it, it’s best to hire an attorney to represent you.