Traffic Ticket Myths
Do not believe everything you read or hear about traffic tickets. Some myths and things “not” to do…
1. Do not rely on what the police officer tells you on the road about your ticket. If the officer gives you wrong information, intentionally or not, no judge or court or enforcement agency is going to do anything about it. There are more reliable places to get information about your traffic ticket than from the one person who is issuing you the ticket and will appear as a witness against you in court.
2. Do not rely on what you “heard” from a “friend” or “read somewhere”. First, there is a lot of wrong information out there. Second, your “friend” is giving advice based on one, maybe two incidents or experiences. One or two incidents don’t make a traffic ticket expert.
3. The “overpayment” myth. The myth says that if you are convicted of a traffic ticket, you should pay a few dollars more to the court because the extra payment will prevent the DMV or other agency from “closing out” your case and therefore you’ll avoid points and potential insurance increases. The reality is that if they don’t accept your payment you are more likely to be treated as someone who completely failed to pay altogether. We know of no agencies that reward a motorist and refrain from taking certain penal actions because the motorist has paid the wrong amount.
4. Do not believe that all the rules of the road must be posted somewhere on the road. Yes, there must be some “notice” letting you know that what you did or are about to do is prohibited, but this “notice” may exist in a statute book or driver manual. Make sure you are aware of all traffic and driving rules, posted or unposted.
5. Do not assume that a traffic court or the DMV can’t make a mistake. It happens all the time and will continue to happen until human beings and the machines and procedures they create are 100% accurate Review all documentation carefully and bring any mistakes to the attention of the proper individual or agency.
6. Do not go to court under the impression that your “simple, logical explanation” will win a judge over without issue. Remember that there is an officer who issued the ticket who will see it and explain it differently and tell the judge just that.
7. Do not consider a PBA or equivalent card constitutes a “get out of the ticket free” pass. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. We heard of plenty of situations where an issuing officer didn’t care at all who you knew and what card you had.
8. “Traps” don’t exist and “it was a trap” is not a defense. Enforcing areas where drivers commonly commit certain violations isn’t a trap-it’s smart. It’s a different story if you feel the officer created a traffic condition or situation that forced you to commit the violation.
9. Retaining a traffic ticket lawyer is not guarantee of success. In some cases unrepresented motorists win and in others represented motorists lose. It’s fair to say, however, that advice from and representation by an experienced traffic ticket attorney will indeed greatly increase your chances of success.
10. “One size fits all” books and websites that guarantee methods for beating speeding ticket or other traffic tickets are bogus. We’d like to meet the web marketer (and that’s all it is-web marketing) who knows what every judge in every court in every town in every county in every state in the entire country is thinking and how they will rule on whatever magic tips the particular traffic ticket system brings to the table.
11. The “Red Car Bias” myth. A common notion is that red cars receive more speeding tickets than other color cars because of their flashiness or because the red color creates an optical illusion that makes the cars appear to be going faster than they really are. There is no data to support the assertion that red cars receive more traffic tickets nor data that suggests red car owners pay higher insurance rates.
12. Do not go to court under the impression that a single mistake on your ticket means your case will automatically be dismissed. Sometimes it’s just not that relevant.
13. Do not ignore a traffic ticket that you received in another state. Don’t be under the impression it will just go away. The interstate Driver License Compact is an agreement between participating states that share information regarding certain types of traffic convictions and there are only a handful of states that are not members of the compact. There is also the National Driver Register, a database of information about drivers who have had their licenses revoked or suspended due to serious traffic violations. States provide the register with information about these serious offenses, and those in the database can be denied licenses in other states.
