When an officer issues a traffic ticket, most of the tickets are evidentiary in nature. So it is the job of your attorney to challenge the evidence on your behalf. Most of the tickets we fight usually resolve with an amicable agreement with the prosecutor, but sometimes the prosecutor does not offer a just resolution to your matter, so a trial is sometimes necessary. That is why it is important that you hire an attorney to represent you; and it is important that your attorney be prepared in case he/she is required to conduct a trial on the matter.

At Roadside Attorneys, we train ourselves and adhere to a 14 point checklist that we have developed when reviewing tickets at court. And we attend a court hearing, where the witness must attend (usually, the police officer that pulled you over).

Here is our list:

1. Is the police officer (the witness) in attendance at the hearing? If not, the ticket could be thrown out.
2. Did the officer have probable cause to pull you over.
3. If so, did he do so within his jurisdiction? State police can pull you over anywhere in the state but city police have some restrictions.
4. If the police did not observe an infraction, the ticket can be thrown out. If they did observe an infraction, go to the next question.
5. Did the infraction observed by the city police happen within their jurisdiction?
6. If not, did he have a reciprocal arrangement with the other jurisdiction that allowed him to pull you over?
7. If no to #5 and #6, then the ticket can be thrown out and dismissed.
8. If the infraction is speeding, there are three ways for an officer to gauge this. Ask the following:
9. What was the mechanism? The most accurate is laser; then radar; then ‘pace & stop’.
10. With laser, it is usually accurate. We ask for proof that laser was used as indicated.
11. If the ticket was gauged by radar, we ask the following questions: was the officer that used it qualified to use it? If not, the ticket can be thrown out.
12. Was the machine calibrated before and after the shift? If not, the ticket could be thrown out.
13. Did the officer make sure that there was nothing is between his radar and your vehicle?
14. And finally, the last method of gauging your speed is a method called “pace and stop.” This is the least reliable method because it is very subjective. With pace and stop, the officer basically says “I made a visual observation. And I got behind the other car, and looked at my own speedometer.” If that is how the officer gauged your speed, then we can challenge the ticket on the basis that the officer’s own speedometer is not very dependable. Because the officer must be really close to your car and stay there for long enough to gather your true speed. Which is very difficult.