I’ve gotten about thirty speeding tickets in my short life, but I have zero tickets on my record.
That said, here are my secrets to getting out of a speeding ticket ordered chronologically, from the point of being pulled over to your final options in the courtroom.
Blue lights… you’re getting pulled over
1. Get your attitude right.
Fighting with the police officer never increases your chances of leniency. You want him to like you. Prepare to achieve this goal.
3. Be very polite and do exactly what the nice cop with the big gun says.
Save your pleas until after the basics are finished. Many officers will never speak to you until after they’ve done the basics. It’s almost a litmus test for jerk drivers.
4. Once the officer has gotten your information, ask him politely if you may speak to him about your violation.
If you know you broke the law, admit it vehemently and tell the officer that he was completely right for pulling you over. Honest officers will admit that there is a lot of pride in police work, and, if you can sufficiently satisfy the pride factor, sometimes officers don’t feel it necessary to punish you any further. The better you make the officer feel; the more likely he’s going to like you enough to let you go.
You’ve gotten a ticket, but you still want out
8. Call the officer at work.
Ask politely if you can arrange a time to meet with the officer to talk to him or her about a ticket you got recently. Usually, officers will readily meet with you, the taxpayer, and this meeting has gotten me out of many tickets.
But, don’t go to the meeting and just say, “Will you let me out of this ticket?” You better have a story or some reason to motivate the officer to let you out. That’s just up to you, but just be really nice and try to bridge that officer-civilian gap with a personal story and plead for mercy. The more the officer can identify with you, the more likely he is to want to show you mercy.
Remember always, the officer has full authority to drop your ticket, so remember how important he is in this process. Treat him and pursue him as the gatekeeper to your freedom. Don’t be scared, though. You have a right to try to talk to the officer. You pay his salary.
The court is your friend
11. Follow all court guidelines.
Make the court clerk your best friend. Call the clerk often, and address him or her by first name. You want to make all court employees’ jobs as easy as possible. Also, you do not want to miss any deadlines.
You can’t handle the truth!
14. Understand your trial and your rights.
If you got a ticket, you have been accused of a crime. The ticketing officer signed a sheet of paper swearing that you broke a certain traffic law, and he saw you do it. That sworn statement is called an affidavit, and most tickets say that at the top. Don’t get nervous, though; it’s just a misdemeanor.
First, you’ll have a hearing where you plead guilty, not guilty, or some other plea. Then, you’ll have your trial where you plead your case. Then the judge decides your fate. It’s really not scary at all, and you have every right to participate fully in this process no matter how much you are intimidated.
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