Date: Wednesday, November
28, 2001
From: Speed Defense (Anonymous)
Disclaimer: I have never taken any law classes, and I have never argued a case before a court. This is not legal advice, but it can help you prepare for your case. Some of the material below recommends defending yourself against speeding charges. Never defend yourself when your license may be suspended or against anything serious such as DWI. Use a lawyer when the stakes are high.
So you've got a ticket
You've probably seen advertisements for books and videos claiming they can teach you how to get out of a speeding ticket. I recently received a ticket from a cop in an unmarked car who has been picking people off on a road that had an exceptionally low speed limit.
I had received speeding tickets in the past, and I had shown up at the court to have a four point offense reduced to two points, when necessary. This time, I decided to prepare my case without using a lawyer or spending any money. I successfully plea bargained a four point offense down to a lesser charge with no points. Total cost: ~$100 with no points. I believe I had a 50/50 chance of getting all the charges thrown out, but I did not want to risk the four points.
I did a lot of research before going to court. Read below to find helpful resources available on the web, as well as documents I used in my own case. Please send me e-mail if you find any documents or court cases that can help motorists defend themselves against wrongful speeding tickets.
Read this first!
Click below for the most useful comprehensive document I've seen for combating a traffic ticket. This appears all over the Internet under various headings and claimed authorships. I don't know who wrote it, but it's good.
My work
These are the actual documents I used for my case, with most of the specifics deleted.
- discovery_prosecutor.doc (Word file, 25 KB) - My letter to the prosecutor's office asking for discovery. Note that I wrote most of this letter before seeing the "Appendix A - Public Records Request Form" in the User Guide to Successfully Fighting Traffic Tickets . Use that document as the basis for your discovery request. DON'T simply print it out and fill in the blanks because it makes you look like an amateur. You want to look like you've done your homework. Also, make sure the final result fits on one page. Send a copy of this to both the prosecutor and the police department that issued your citation.
- compel_discovery.doc (Word file, 24 KB) - This letter assumes the prosecutor has delayed sending out your discovery materials and omitted crucial items necessary to your defense. Both of these are common occurrences. Adjust the wording to fit your case.
- plea_bargain.txt (text file, 6 KB) - A firsthand account of a pre-trial negotiation between the prosecutor and me.
Police training resources
Below are a some web sites and documents related to police training. If you understand the recommended procedures the officer should follow when using radar, you will be better equipped to cross-examine him or her on the stand. In all PDF page references below, I use the page number from the electronic PDF file, not the numbers printed on the pages.
U.S. DOT National Transportation Library - Speed Limits - This page contains lots of reference material regarding speed limits. I've listed the most relevant material for defense of a speeding ticket below.
- NHTSA Basic Training Program in Radar Speed Measurement (PDF file, 13.0 MB)
- Recommendation for calibration with tuning forks (pp. 48-49)
- Special requirements for moving radar (pp. 50-51)
- Instrument licensing by FCC (p. 51)
- NHTSA Police Radar INSTRUCTOR Training Course (PDF file, 9.3 MB)
- Note that this is the course manual for radar INSTRUCTORS, not ordinary police using radar. This document appears to contain multiple scans of the same pages.
- Description of tuning fork tests, tracking history, interference factors for radar (pp. 104-110)
- "Radio frequency interference - In selecting a site for radar operations, the radar operator should check for the presence of radio frequency interference. If radio frequency interference is present at a level sufficient to produce spurious reading, radar operations at the site should be suspended. The radar operator should check for the presence of radio frequency interference at each site by monitoring the unsquelched audio tone." (pp. 148-149)
- List of some relevant court cases (pp. 168-171)
- NHTSA Basic Training Program in VASCAR Speed Measurement (PDF file, 2.5 MB)
Legal resources
Court decisions
Michigan Speed Measurement Task Force - This task force came into being after the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in People v. Ferency. Warning: This decision says calibration before and after the officer's shift is good enough.
-Speed Defense (Anonymous)
'99 red SV650 (looks faster to cops)