Law enforcements ability to write traffic tickets has limitations. For one, a law enforcement official can only pull over and write one citation at a time. The governments found this to be too time consuming and it cost too much money.

So now technology has developed to the point where different ways have been cleverly created to give out tickets quicker and less expensively.

So the government in its great ‘wisdom’ decided it wasn’t collecting enough money with the old system.

There are just too many factors: First, they have to hire the cop to pull you over. This also means the use of a police vehicle which also costs money. Next, the traffic stop itself is a dangerous situation for the officer and potentially other drivers or pedestrians. Third, after it’s all said and done, the driver may still end up driving away without a ticket (if the officer decides to just give a warning).

Lastly, during the time it takes to administer a traffic stop about a dozen other cars go by speeding… more money down the drain! But that was then, this is now!

Now, introducing the photo radar. It is the latest tactic on the governments part to make money. Oh, in the name of safety of course. In just a few minutes a photo radar can catch many cars speeding on a single road.

With photo radar also known as traffic cameras, speeding tickets are simply mailed to the offender. Talk about customer service!

Photo radar has been effective for municipalities. It has saved tremendous amounts of time and resources of police departments. It maximizes resources available for other enforcement, conviction rates went up, and also your insurance premiums.

The age of photo radar is still in its infancy. To date, there are only 20 or so states that employ this method of speed detection – California, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio and Washington to name a few.

However, the popularity of photo radar is growing by leaps and bounds.

More and more cities across the nation are beginning to catch on to the money making potential that photo radar has. Its relative simplicity and monetary benefits makes photo radar a good choice for many cities.

Cash strapped cities are finding out that when they install photo radar it gives them immediate money generation.

Just think about it, within a short time a photo radar can take pictures of many speeding motorists, what it would take many officers to accomplish traditionally.

So how exactly does this photo radar work? What it does is take a picture of your license plate when the built in radar gun catches you speeding. Its programmed to take a photo at a predetermined speed.

Say the speeding limit is 55 mph on a stretch of road but it detects a car cruising at 60 mph it will take a picture.

So when the photo radar unit detects a car passing it at a speed over the predetermined speed it will take a picture of your plate. This picture is stored and the process keeps going on 24/7. Courtesy of big brother, bundreds of drivers can be ticketed this way.

When the database of the photo radar is accessed at a later time, they photos will be examined inaccurancies.

The clarity of the license plate will be examined to see if it is readable. If it cant be it will be discarded.

When a clear license plate is found it will be run through the bureau of motor vehicles database to see who it is registered to. If its a male and there is a male behind the wheel of the car, BINGO, a citation will be on its way to the registered owner. Ah the beauty of photo radar.

This process is repeated until all the pictures from the photo radar have been gone through, until the next batch arrives. Please let this article be a warning for you to look out for photo radar enforcement!

Learn more about beating speeding tickets. Stop by Janet Mcintyre’s site where you can find out all about traffic violations and the best advice to getting them dismissed.

There have been, over the years, some pretty pathetic defense strategies when it came to fighting a traffic ticket. Someone would read some information somewhere or use some advice from a relative or friend.

Below I have listed the top five mistakes you can make when fighting your traffic ticket. I hope you too will see the futility in them and refrain from using these worthless defenses.

Mistake #1- Delaying the traffic court date

Most would advise you to get a continuance. The claim is the longer your can postpone the traffic court date, the bigger the chance the police officer wont show up. This makes no sense and isn’t a good strategy to fight a traffic ticket.

Do not try to delay your date with the traffic court. You will not increase the likelihood the officer wont be there and thus having your traffic ticket thrown out.

The question I’ve always had was if you do put off your court date, what do you do when he still shows up?

Then what? Police officers get paid overtime to show up to traffic court.

Mistake #2- Requesting evidence before traffic court.

By law you do have a legal right to see everything the prosecution plans to convict you with. This process is called ‘discovery’ and can be useful in a murder trial. But this isn’t a murder trial and doing so can actually hurt your case.

Requesting evidence before any kind of trial tells the prosecution you are planning a defense. He will see this as a challenge and will undoubtedly prepare accordingly, making your chances of winning almost impossible.

Do yourself a favor and don’t even contact the court about anything related to your traffic ticket. You don’t want them to know your familiar with the proceedings of traffic court.

Mistake #3- Doing too much needless research.

How many of you like to spend your free time at your local courthouse researching piles upon piles of law books? There’s absolutely no need to do this research. It’s time consuming and not to mention boring.

Only rarely would it be prudent to look up a law so you know how it may be worded, other than that it is needless to do this with most traffic tickets.

Mistake #4- Going after the police officers credibility

If you go to traffic court with the idea you are going to attack the officers credibility, don’t waste your time. You can forget getting your traffic ticket dismissed. Saying the officer didn’t use the equipment properly, or that he singled you out or any number of other excuses are useless.

Don’t ever go into traffic court with the idea you are going to challenge the police officers training on the use of the radar gun. This will only draw scrutiny from the judge, who will accept the officers testimony that he is properly trained on the use of the equipment.

Its just understood that the officer has the proper training on the speed detecting equipment he or she used to give you a traffic ticket. There’s no question about it. Say you do try this defense, where are you going to get the evidence the judge will ask for to support your claim?

Mistake #5- Going to traffic court unprepared

This is by far the biggest mistake people will make when fighting a traffic ticket. They go to court, thinking they’ve done their homework, when in reality everything they did leading up to the trial was in vain. They’re research was done the WRONG WAY and as a result, they lose their case before they even had a chance to defend themselves.

Those who did no research go to traffic court with the notion that they can just tell their side of the story and the judge will see things their way and dismiss their traffic ticket. Yeah right!

Look, I know the thought of going to traffic court can be a little scary for some, but this isn’t a murder trial. It’s just a simple traffic ticket. Traffic court is set up to be extremely ‘user friendly’ due to the large amounts of people who go there every day.

If you avoid these 5 mistakes you will have a better chance of winning your case in traffic court, and hopefully getting that traffic ticket thrown out.

Want to find out more about traffic tickets, and how to beat them? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site for the the best advice and information on traffic violations.

There are two main differences between traffic violations. Knowing which kind you have can be very important when determining how to handle your particular situation.

Sometimes if your ticket is not a serious one that gets reported to your auto insurance company, you may be better off just paying the fine and not challenging it in court.

Traffic violations come under two main headings. They can either be moving violations or non moving violations. They usually involve smaller fines and can be something as simple as a parking or headlight ticket.

Plus, as a bonus they do not show up on your driving record, which means your auto insurance company won’t find out about them.

Some common non-moving violations include: improper registration, failure to use seatbelt, broken taillights, no license plate, no license lamps, and improper parking.

The fines for non moving violations are normally small, like around $50 or less. So its usually better, just from a hassle stand point, to pay these types of violations and not waste hours in traffic court.

However if the ticket can cleared easily you should certainly try. For example a ticket for a non working tail light can be dismissed if you show proof you fixed it in most cases.

On the other hand, a moving violation is any law broken by the automobile driver while the vehicle is in motion. This type of violation is distinguished by the term ‘motion’. While a non moving violation is charged against the vehicle, a moving violations are charged against the driver of a vehicle. While usually only classifies as infractions or misdemeanors, serious violations can be felonies.

In most locations moving violations involve both a fine and points being assessed to the record of the driver. As points accumulate harsher punishments can be imposed such as being ordered to take driving classes, or even having your license suspended.

In the US fines are in set amounts that can vary from $50 or so, up to and even surpassing $750 in some instances. In other countries traffic violation fines can be set proportional to the individuals income, and judgments of $100,000 or more aren’t unheard of!

Common moving violations include: speeding (by far the most common violation) , running a stop sign or red traffic light, failure to yield to someone with the right of way, failing to maintain a single lane, not stopping for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, crossing the gore (striped area), failure to secure a load to a truck, driving in a car pool lane illegally, or driving too slow for road conditions, particularly in a left-hand lane

Some of the more serious types of moving violations can include racing, driving under the influence, and vehicular homicide.

Also, traffic violations can either be criminal or civil. They both come with fines and points on your record, but a criminal violation is the only one that can get you jail time.

Sentences handed down in criminal violations are obligations to the state for acts committed. The term ‘state’ can be a city, town, state or federal government or any other kind of m municipality. These are moving violations to avoid at all costs, obviously.

Want to find out more about moving violations? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site on how to choose the best traffic defense for your individual needs.

On average, over 100,000 drivers get speeding tickets every day. Thats 36,500,000 traffic tickets yearly.

One in every 6 drivers will get a speeding ticket this year.

The average speeding ticket costs $150.00.

36,500,000 x 150.00 = $5,475,000,000 That’s almost 5 and a half BILLION dollars per year in speeding ticket fines alone.

The average raise in insurance costs for one speeding ticket over the course of 3 years is $900.00.

Take 36,500,000 and multiply by $900 and you get 3.28 BILLION ($3,285,000,000) in extra money made by insurance companies from increased auto insurance premiums.

Most people simply pay their speeding tickets instead of fighting it in traffic court. (over 95%!)

The other 5% who make an effort to fight their ticket usually have their case dismissed or receive reduced charges that don’t get reported on their driving record.

There are almost 200,000,000 licensed drivers currently in the US.

40% of the time the police officer doesn’t show up in traffic court. This is grounds for dismissal.

Paradise Valley, Arizona, in 1987 became the first town in America to use photo radar.

Brooklyn, Ohio became the first city to mandate seat belts while driving back in 1966.

The demographic that receives more speeding tickets are the 17 to 24 year drivers.

Males receive more speeding tickets than their female counter parts.

More women than men fight their speeding tickets in traffic court.

Seventeen year old drivers are more likely to be involved in an accident than any other age group.

Two men in Seattle were fined for their speeding horses. In 1879.

Henry Ford’s first motor vehicle, built in 1894, only went forward.

In 1868 horse buggies and also pedestrians in London were the first to use the precursor to the modern day traffic lights.

Washington D.C. area photo radar cameras since 1999 have been responsible for almost 3,000,000 traffic tickets worth almost $200,000,000.

The wife of the Prime Minister of Canada has the first known filed speeding ticket on record. She was busted doing almost a tremendous 10 mph above the posted speed limit.

Speeding tickets are handed out to doctors more than any other type of profession.

The average traffic cop will cost a city about $75,000 per year in salary, bonuses, and benefits. This same police officer will make the city an average of $200,000 per year in traffic ticket fines! That’s one hell of a profit margin.

The top ten states for writing speeding tickets are:

1. Ohio 2. Pennsylvania 3. New York 4. California 5. Texas 6. Georgia 7. Virginia 8. North Carolina 9. Massachusetts 10. Connecticut

Want to learn about fighting speeding tickets? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site for more information on beating traffic tickets in traffic court.

This article should give some hope to people who have received speeding tickets because there are ways to fight speeding tickets.

One thing you could do is file a discovery request with the prosecutor to acquire any documents relating to your case. These documents could include things such as the calibration records of the radar or speedometer of the car that clocked your speed. You would want to do this in advance of your traffic court date so you would have time to go through them for inaccuracies. But the possible downside of this is reminding the officer who gave you the ticket to show up in traffic court.

Beat the beam: When you fight speeding tickets, note that speed-measuring devices such as radar and laser (a.k.a. LIDAR, or Light Detecting and Ranging) are subject to human error. In some instances, officers have failed to give sufficient proof of proper LIDAR positioning, and subsequently the cases were dismissed.

Go for technicalities: In order to fight speeding tickets, keep in mind that if certain elements of a ticket are missing, the case can be thrown out. For instance, if the officer’s name and signature are illegible and if the badge number is illegible as well, then it should be dismissed.

You want to keep brief your report of your side of the argument to the judge when you go to traffic court to fight speeding tickets. Remember that the judge has very limited time for each individual in traffic court. Use visual aids to help your argument such as a photo of an obscured sign by a tree or bush.

Officers rarely have a good reason for missing traffic court. If you go to court to fight speeding tickets and the officer isn’t there and the court asks for a continuance you should respectfully object. This is an example of winning your case by default and it happens more often than you might think.

Obviously not getting a speeding ticket in the first place is the best way to fight it! Speeding tickets and other traffic violations can increase your car insurance for years to come.

Learn more about how to fight speeding tickets. Stop by Steven Swihart’s site where you can find out all about fighting speeding tickets and other advice on getting prepared for your day in traffic court.