Traffic Tickets Are Defensible To A Certain Extent In Court

Interviewer: Are traffic tickets lien-able, or are they just a matter of paying a fee to get rid of?

Acacia Law Group Lawyer: It depends on your situation. In California ... The reason I started with California is I prefer their system. It's where I'm from, and it's, I think, a more fair system. You always maintain your right to a trial beyond a reasonable doubt, and you have a right to confront all the evidence for generally making your decision. If you want to waive your right to traffic school, and even if you lose a trial, the judge can still grant you traffic school if you made a fair defense. Generally, I'd always advise fighting the tickets in California, because you always can see if the officer shows up and has all the evidence, and you get to see the evidence and then make your decisions on whether you want to take traffic school, or negotiate, or proceed. In Arizona, as I mentioned, unfortunately that's not always the case.

In Arizona, Traffic Schools are Run as a Diversion Program Called Defensive Driving

Traffic schools run as a diversion program. It's called Defensive Driving, where you have to complete the program before your first court date and you don't pay the fine. In California, you pay the ticket, and then you do traffic school to get it removed off your record. In Arizona, it gets dismissed once you complete defensive driving, and you don't ever pay the ticket. That does limit options because you have to be really sure that you want to fight the offence before making a decision to waive the defensive driving. But that doesn't mean you can't get it. There are often times I go to court, a hired attorney, make the argument, "Hey, you know what, we have a right to look at the evidence, talk to the officer ..." Especially with speeding, it's that it needs to be at a reasonable, approved standard, which means you're not necessarily guilty or responsible by going 2 miles over the speed limit. They have to prove that your speed is not reasonable or prudent. That may be an option where you want to look at the evidence and see if the officer has everything available.

The Camera-Ticket Scenario Can be Found in Both Arizona and California

Another thing is with the dreaded camera ticket scenario. They have them both in Arizona and California, but this is one thing the courts are very lenient on and offer defensive driving. When you have a camera ticket, they give you the right to find a procedural error, find any way around that to beat the ticket to begin with. They also allow you to come to court, negotiate, look at all the evidence, and even up to the point before the hearing starts, the judges will still allow defensive driving. I've never seen a situation where a judge has denied defensive driving before the hearing actually starts. I have seen it done for other tickets, but for the cameras, it's always worth the chance to try to fight the hearing and look at the evidence before.  Once you get to the point where you're not eligible for defensive driving, in both states, then, there's no reason not to at least request a hearing. I suppose, if you don't care about the points, and it's not going to hurt you, and it's not worth your time, and you're not fighting tickets, then maybe do it yourself, or don't bother paying an attorney if you can't afford one.

The Two Most Common Avenues of Beating Traffic Tickets are Identity of the Motorist and Jurisdiction

But this is going to affect your record, which is why always request a hearing. I mean, you have nothing to lose. You can always go show up and then plead responsible or guilty if the officer's there, but at least require the officer to be there. Look at the evidence, find out, and then take your chances at a hearing. There's always a hope. The two things that I've noticed that it's possible to beat traffic tickets on is one, of identity. Sometimes the officer will forget to identify you. That's a basis for a dismissal that applies in both California and Arizona. Another basis that I've seen in Arizona is that Arizona's very big on jurisdiction. As you've probably seen online, or on your ticket, trying to figure out which court to go to, there are numerous justice courts, justices of the peace, municipal courts, and they all have boundaries, so if you are sent to the wrong court, or if the officer forgets to testify that you're in that jurisdiction, that's another way to defeat the tickets. And then, as I said, there's always a bit of hope for speeding. Perhaps your speed was reasonable, there's a way to fight it on that. Or challenge the officer's credibility. What did he really see? As I said, it's always worth fighting a ticket if you're not eligible for defensive driving.