THE 6 WAYS TO ACTUALLY BEAT A SPEEDING TICKET

1) The police officer doesn’t show up to trial
This may seem very obvious but this is likely the best way to beat a speeding ticket trial. Generally if a speeding ticket is set for trial and the police officer does not show to court, the ticket will get thrown out. If you have a speeding ticket in Cook county and the officer does not show to court on the first day, then the ticket will get thrown out. If you are in any other county, you will need to set the ticket for trial and come back a second day.

2) The police officer’s method for catching your speed is un reliable: Can you get a speeding ticket without radar?
Most police officers have the proper technology equipped in their vehicles. The vast majority of speeding ticket violations will be used with a radar gun. However, sometimes police officers will pace your car to determine your speed. If the police officer paced you vehicle and wrote you a ticket for speeding, then police officer needs to show that his vehicle maintained a consistent pace with your vehicle for a certain amount of time and that when he viewed his speedometer that his speedometer was calibrated and in working order. A police officer needs to be travelling the same speed as you and needs to travel in the same direction as you in order for him to properly pace your vehicle.

3) The posted speed limit sign was obstructed

If you are charged with speeding and you did not see the change in speed sign because the sign was obstructed by a tree or possibly by snow then you can argue that since the sign was obstructed you were not aware of the decrease in speed. The standard speed limit is 70 mph for rural freeways, 65 mph for other 4 lane divided highways, 55 mph for all other highways, and 30 mph for all other urban areas unless there are signs stating otherwise. If you are on a highway and the speed limit drops from 70 mph to 55 mph and the sign is obstructed by snow, you can argue that you were travelling the standard speed limit because you did not see a sign. However, if you are travelling 85 mph in a 70 mph zone that will not work because Illinois has a set standard limit of 70 mph for freeways.

4) Defect in the ticket: What happens if the cop puts the wrong name a ticket.
Officers are human and sometimes they will make mistakes on the ticket. Can a traffic ticket get dismissed for wrong information? Before you take your speeding ticket to trial, take a look at the ticket and make sure that the police officer has the correct information on the ticket. Is your name correct? Is the intersection correct? Is the day of the incident correct? In my years in practice I have had several tickets where the officer wrote the wrong name on the ticket or wrote the wrong vehicle or even the wrong date on the ticket. Generally, the prosecutor can amend and fix the ticket before trial, however if the prosecutor does not catch the mistake and the trial begins, it will be too late for the prosecutor to amend the ticket.

5) Necessity
Sometimes (rarely) you can argue necessity to the judge in order to beat a speeding ticket. With the necessity defense, you are telling the judge that you were speeding, but you needed to speed in order to prevent something bad from happening or to help someone out. The best example of necessity is when you are speeding to the hospital with your pregnant wife in the car or speeding to the emergency room because you are a doctor and you needed to save a patients life.

6) Get the results of the radar gun thrown out
a. How to prove that the radar gun is inaccurate
If a police officer wrote you a ticket for speeding and he determined that you were speeding due to a radar gun, then he will need to lay foundation to prove that the radar gun was working. In order to prove that the radar gun was working, the police officer needs to testify that he calibrated his radar gun using tuning forks before and after the issuance of the ticket and that in his opinion the radar gun was working. If he cannot testify to this, then they will not be able to introduce evidence of the radar gun and the prosecutor cannot prove what your speed was.

b. How to beat a speed trap in Illinois

A second way to get the results of the radar gun thrown out is if you can show that the police officer used the radar gun within 500 feet beyond the change of speed limit. For example, if the speed goes from 40 to 25 mph, the officer cannot radar your vehicle until the vehicle has passed beyond 500 feet of the 25mph zone speed limit sign. If the officer radars your vehicle within 500 feet of a change of speed limit, then the judge will throw the ticket out.

[mattcero]

Lawyers love going to court to fight speeding tickets as it's VERY lucrative for them to do so. They'll represent multiple people and charge each for travel time to and from as well as time spent in court to include waiting as if it's their only client that day. If the lawyer is fighting 13 tickets for 13 people, their pay is based on this calculus: 13 x 1.5 hours travel, 1 hour wait, and 1 hour minimum to fight the ticket. So $300/hour x 13 x 3.5 = $13, 650 plus any filing fees they'd certainly add their "markup". Not bad for a short time in court. I saw a lawyer make a ton of cash one time in court as she "moved to dismiss" eight or nine times in a row as the officer(s) who wrote the tickets wasn't in court and all were dismissed. The judge took her first as well so she didn't have to wait too long. All her clients got the good news that she got their tickets dismissed and were blissfully ignorant as a result.

[karenvanderwall]

It should be ruled that if the cop does not show up for court the person should get paid for missing work or the time it takes the person to and from court along with wait time in the court

[xuexizhongwen]

Just had court trial today, police officer didn’t show up. The case was not dismissed. They offered me an adjournment or pay reduced fine.

[doridelicious]

What if? There was 2 cars in front of me and the officer lasered me as far as heavy traffic doing 20mph then stated that that he clocked me at 27mph but my ticket says 30mph do I have a case I would love your feedback as far as being wrongfully ticketed, thank you.!

[IahushaIahuah]

The other way and best way is to gave a dash came with GPS showing speed. Or have Google maps open and have a creek recorder on. Google maps shows speed limit and speed

[BimmerWon]

Time to pull a Saul Goodman. Pray for me that I can wiggle my way out of a 92 mph speeding ticket.

[daMillenialTrucker]

I'm hiring a lawyer, gotta protect that CDL. I was just curious to see how it was gonna happen, by trial.

[billsmith]

Many speed measuring devices require periodic recalibration by the manufacturer or a certified technician . Most FOIL requests from a private citizen are routinely ignored . I generally ask to VIEW the records . You can take pictures of only what's necessary . I have had answers that requested hundreds of dollars in fees to reproduce TOTALLY unnecessary records . It is a ploy to discourage you . And sometimes endless form letters or Emails claiming they are " locating " records . They want you to go away and not bother them .

[johnnyzee]

Hey there...I got a speeding ticket near Glencoe Ontario...a very rural area..the officer was going the opposite direction in which I was travelling. She turned around caught up to me and pulled me over. She claimed that It appeared I was going faster than normal, and when I questioned this she then said she got me on radar. My question:..Does not this type of radar have to be set up first?...I am assuming that she simply cant just press a button to an oncoming vehicle?...Since traffic is so light and OPP cops are hardly ever around It doesnt make sense that she would be patrolling the area for speeders.

[lnternetExpIorer]

The radar calibration before AND AFTER is very important.

[Kanashiseppaku]

They said I was going 71 in a 60 even though my cruise control was at 65 and I was in the left lane. It’s just a bruh moment.

[AmericaFirst]

Do you ask if the gun was calibrated at the first hearing? Or the trial?

[husansharif]

I can ask the officer in Court and of course they will say Yes they did calibrate the speed radar gun, so how do I get proof or request proof that they actually authenticated and calibrated the speed radar gun using toon and forks before and after the stop? I would need proof or evidence they did not calibrate it so how do I prove that? What do I need to request?

[A_Ron]

How much does a lawyer charge in nyc to fight a speeding ticket ?

[brendond.]

Use the 4th Amendment after asking the Judge where is the Victim in the courtroom?
The cop is the witness you are the defendant. So the Judge can not make a ruling and be the victim.

[jmiller]

Is the radar gun accurate when the officer is driving from the opposite direction?

[clairmontcollison]

Can the wrong color of the car cause a dismissal of the ticket?

[bcasey]

Can I show up to court and plead not guilty, pay the fine and get the points removed? (4, officer dropped to 2 already but I’m hoping not to have an insurance spike)

[owenking]

They'll go 120MPH swerving through traffic to cite you for passing an idiot. Off The Record seems good at throwing "gotcha"s out.

[lissettevelec]

I have a question not sure if will be answer but police was in different lane that me I was going north and he was going south he trun in circles refuses to show me the gun he states the gun capture my speed of my vehicle when it's a lot snow cats front of me and back please advise