Re: Ticket help

["Eric Renneisen" <renneie@hlthsrc.com>]

Romeo Shayne Pavlic' wrote:
> The problem is proving you entered under a yellow light.

Not necessary. All you have to do is place doubt in the judge's 
mind about the officer's observation that you entered the 
intersection illegally. Where was the REO sitting? Could he see 
your traffic signal from there? If not, go take some photos of 
the scene, especially some from his perspective. If he says 
that he was inferring your light from his or from the crosswalk 
signals, ask him if he's ever known a traffic signal to 
malfunction.  ;^)

You can also make some pretty diagrams and more pictures of the 
intersection, and show your approximate position when the light 
turned yellow, and figure out how much distance your car would 
take to come to a stop from traveling at the speed limit. 
Figure into this your reaction time and maybe a second of 
indecision while you check your mirrors for tailgaters. Of 
course, this may all be a waste if the officer just stands up 
and lies about where he saw you when he saw the light change. 
When it's your word against his, you'll _always_ loose. If you 
have a picture from his perspective, you might be able to prove 
that he _couldn't_ have seen you where he says he did, because 
his view is obscured by a bush or a curve in the road.

You may want to check into what the ticket that he gave you 
really means. Will you get points for it? Is it reported to 
your insurance company if you're found guilty? If not, you may 
want to save the hassle and pay it. Of course, if it's 
convenient, I recommend going to court, even if you're just 
going to plead guilty. You may get lucky and draw a lenient 
judge. 

One time when I went to court for a speeding ticket, I 
found that the judge was a substitute and he was letting 
everyone go with a suspended sentence. I was there to fight it, 
but I decided to just plead guilty, and he let me go without 
even a suspended sentence. My sister (lawyer) told me that here 
in TN it's common for the substitute judges to be defense 
attorneys, so they enjoy letting people go (since they're used 
to being on the other side). Another time, the woman just ahead 
of me had the _exact_ same violation that I did, and she whined 
to the judge enough that he reduced her charge to something 
insignificant and let her go with a small fine. When I got up, 
I basically said, "I'll have what she's having".  :^)

IANAL, IUD, etc.

Eric Renneisen
'90 CQ 20V  -  my 'racing-iron'  ;^)
Chattanooga, TN