Successfully Arguing a Traffic Ticket

You don’t have to be a criminal lawyer to successfully dispute a traffic ticket.  You may need a brief trip to court to get a dismissal but that’s no reason to give up.  Below are some helpful tips based on interviews with real-world police officers.

  • It all starts with the traffic stop

Trained police officers are copious note takers.  Typically, each has a notebook where he/she jots down exactly what happens on every encounter with a citizen, from a casual enquiry to a felony traffic stop.  They use this information for everything from writing up official reports to reminding themselves what happened with a particular subject a month later when they encounter the same individual.

The important part for you is this: however you act during the traffic stop will be noted in the police officers notebook, and sometimes on the ticket itself.  That means if you are rude and belligerent during the stop the court may find out about it during your hearing.  The solution is to be polite, even if you don’t agree with the officer.  Nothing ever good will happen when you berate a police officer.