Six top traffic ticket myths

November 3, 2008 · Filed Under Personal Finance 

Myth No. 1: If the officer makes a single mistake on your ticket, the case will be dropped.

Clerical mistakes such as a wrong number or wrong order of a person’s name are usually overlooked. Material mistakes, like the identity of the driver, the direction of travel, the street where the citation occurred or the description of the vehicle, can usually help a driver win the case. A mistake that involves who, where and how, can be used to beat the case in a trial. If the vehicle was described inaccurately, the officer will usually lose.

Myth 2: If the officer doesn’t show up in court, you automatically win.

There is nothing like automatically winning the case. The case will be dropped if the judges don’t see the officer appearing in the court. Every defendant has the constitutional rights to question their accusers. The case can be re-scheduled if the officer is willing to show up in the court on a later date.

Myth 3: Red car gets more tickets.

There is no official study to confirm that red cars do get more tickets. However, it has been seen that bold colors tend to attract more attention from other colors of the car. And if they are violating the rules, they are easily caught. Red cars can create an optical illusion that makes them appear to be going faster than they really are.

Myth 4: You need a lawyer to beat a ticket.

With a little time and homework, you can beat a ticket without having an attorney and paying for their fees.

Myth No. 5: If you get a ticket in another state, your home state won’t find out about it.

All information is shared between the Interstate Driver’s License Compact and the states participating in it. Reports on traffic violations and suspensions are forwarded to the home state of the nonresident. Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Michigan and Wisconsin are not members of the DLC. Besides, National Driver Register, or NDR, has information about all drivers whose licenses were revoked and suspended due to serious traffic violations.

Myth 6: You can make an excuse to get out of the ticket

If you have violated the laws, you really can’t escape the police officers who filed the case against you. Any explanation you give about why you were speeding is an admission that you were speeding. If an officer logs those explanations in his notes, the statements could later be used against you in court. That’s why, whenever an officer asks if you know why you’ve been pulled over, always answer “no” and just take the ticket.

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One Response to “Six top traffic ticket myths”

  1. ANARCHY-TV.COM on November 3rd, 2008 11:45 pm

    You have a right to face your accuser who you have wronged… this goes back to old English law. If there is no victim, there is no crime. It is impossible for there to be. This is so rudimentary its elementary. If there is no victim, you assert there is no crime, and you demand the case be thrown out. Its that simple for these horseshit laws.

    If the judge argues you have harmed the public good or the state, ask for the public good or the state to step forward. Such things are fictions and idea constructs and have no existance in reality. A representative will not do. Have you harmed the representative? No you have not.

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