| If you want to fight your ticket or traffic violation, you | | | | It's not likely but it's something to keep in mind before |
| can't blindly walk into the court and hope to just explain | | | | spending lots of time thinking of a defense. |
| yourself to the judge. It's going to take some due | | | | 3. Be prepared to ask questions about how court |
| diligence on your part if you want to actually be | | | | works. If there is something that you don't understand |
| declared innocent for your traffic offense. | | | | about court, there is only so much research you can |
| There is a little bit of research that you can do before | | | | do before you get to the courtroom. It's acceptable to |
| you get to the courtroom which can help you in your | | | | admit that since you aren't an attorney that you don't |
| case. | | | | understand the procedures. A judge should explain |
| 1. Look up the infraction that you are charged with. This | | | | these to you if you don't understand what's going on. |
| might be done on a city or county website or you | | | | Going along with something you don't understand is a |
| might have to go down to your city or county court | | | | sure way of losing or agreeing to something you didn't |
| offices to see the laws in place. What you do with this | | | | intend. |
| information is try to figure out what the prosecutors | | | | 4. Prepare as many questions you can think of about |
| actually have to prove to make you be found guilty. | | | | the incident as you can. If the officer can't answer a |
| Take this information and dissect it into pieces and | | | | question or can't answer a question clearly, it makes |
| think about how you could argue against one or all of | | | | them not look as credible in court as you do. Yes, it |
| them. If you challenge just one point of this violation, a | | | | should be a system where you are innocent until |
| fair judge has to find you innocent. | | | | proven guilty, but in this case the officer's word is highly |
| 2. Look for any mistakes on the ticket. It's not common | | | | valued. Get the officer to look a bit confused on the |
| for there to be a mistake but sometimes there are | | | | subject matter and that word is going to be devalued |
| mistakes. If there is one, normally these will be dropped. | | | | for this situation making your chances a little bit better. |