9-11 today, and I get a ticket. I actually wrote a lawyer from beattraffictickets.com. Here's what I wrote him:

Dear Mr. Leiding,

I had just gotten a ticket about 15 minutes ago. After smoking a couple of cigerettes and cursing the Irvine Police Department, I just felt there had to be something I could do. So I asked around and someone had given me your website URL. I'm an 18 year old student soon to attend University California of Irvine and I drive a white Acura TL Type S. What happened was the school has a crosswalk at a busy intersection for students to cross the street, where two cops camp out waiting for their next prey victim. I'm quite aware of these vampires, usually there's only one. Unfortunately today, there were two. Go figure the luck on that one huh. Well, I'm preparing for my little encounter, cruising at 25mph. I'm about 1/4 through the intersection thinking, another day surviving these vultures. Right as I got that thought, the cross guard steps out with his STOP sign, and I'm thinking man what a setup. So as I'm slowly realizing my demise, a thought in bold comes to my mind, I just fell for a setup. The guy knew I was coming, and he didn't wait for me. He just stepped out and thought, hey there's IPD waiting, another one bites the dust. Another black Dodge Durango was crossing the intersection at the sametime I was. The first bike cop went for him, and I was crossing my fingers thinking, wooh that was close. But well, as I mentioned there were two cops. Hence, I got pulled over too.

-Sam

Well... Obviously the reason I'm posting is to see if there's anyway I can beat this traffic ticket. One slight detail I neglected to mention, I requested for the county seed, in my area, a court that is in the middle of a ghetto neighborhood. Cops hate going down there, and it's a pain in the azz. Well, I was denied that request with the reasoning that since the court he WANTED me to go to was closer to home and work for both of us, and that it'd be better for both of us to just go to the closer court. I didn't bother arguing that statement of his, as I saw it pointless. But he then went on to say, "Yeah, it'd be better for you ya know? You don't have to wait in line, etc. etc." Basically he's throwing me the stick and trying to make it so that I just listen to what he says and make the ticket process a bit more convenient for him.

I'm already quite determined to file a continuance on the court date for as long as possible, but I wonder if there's anything else I can do. I swear, IPD just pisses the daylights out of me. But I definitely found him faltering in his speech when I mentioned the seed court, and he tried his best to play it off. I guess they don't get too much practice on their gameface, as residents in Irvine never put up a fight on tickets. They're totally getting it on a silver spoon around here. Well guys, any help would be much appreciated. Even some words of advice or so forth. I wish everyone the best and safety, seeing as how this day is... the day it is. Careful on the streets, there's always a fat ass cop waiting to stick it to you from behind. Hopefully this slug won't appear in court when I finally do go to court.

 

you're in luck, you live in CA! go to ticketassasin.com, it's beaten 3 our of 4 for me.

basically you fight the ticket by mail (trial by declaration).
1. the cop gets paid time and a half to show in court, but has to do the declaration paperwork on his own time.
2. if you lose the trial by declaration you file more paperwork for a trial de novo. That means you get to show up in court for an in-person trial, and nothing from the trial by declaration can be used in your trial de novo. CA is great to let everyone have two chances to fight traffic tickets!

 

You can usually make a deal with one of the prosecutors/court clerks/whatever-they-call-themselves-in-CA if you hire a lawyer. I have sat in court and watched multiple tickets turn into half fine for the least charge, due to the atorney asking for it. If a non-legal person asks for reduction, they look at you like you're crazy. Go figure, tell me that isn't a system designed to screw.

I would be careful pursuing this on your own. It is very easy for a lay person to get themselves screwed, that is why they have lawyers.

 

The unabageler, thanks for the site. That was also recommended to me by a friend. I'm definitely going to do that.