When someone obtains a traffic citation in America their most common response would likely be to either pay up or ignore it. However, in my experience the individual who obtains the traffic citation has a reasonably good chance of beating the citation if they do their due diligence on the citation and follow certain steps. I have had experience with beating one traffic citation of my own and assisting two other individuals beat three traffic citations. At this moment I have a win rate of 4 out 5 or 80%.
Trial By Written Declaration
In California and some other states you have the right to a trial by written declaration on traffic citations. This trial is a written trial and is not in person. Having a trial by written declaration is advantageous to the individual issued the citation because:
A) Many police officers do not respond to these trials by written declaration and if they do not respond you are supposed to win these trials because the judge or commissioner would see that their is no evidence that you are guilty. In America you are innocent until proven guilty and if there is no evidence presented against you, you should get your case dismissed or get a not guilty verdict. I say "should" because some judges might not care that there is no evidence against you and enter a verdict of "guilty" anyway.
B) You do not need to take time off work or other activities to go to the court house. You can even submit these by mail.
C) In the event you receive a verdict of "guilty" on your traffic citation from a trial by written declaration you have an automatic right to a new trial. If you choose to have a "trial de novo" or new trial you will have a regular in person court trial.
In my experience using trials by written declaration for myself and others I have obtained a 50% win rate. Two citations were dismissed via a trial by written declaration and two citations were found guilty.
There is one draw back to the trial by written declaration. Unfortunately you need to post the bail or the cost of the citation to have a trial by written declaration in California unless you show up at arraignment and plead not guilty and ask for a trial by written declaration and ask the judge or commissioner for a waiver of the bail requirement due to a financial hardship. However, the judge very well may deny your request for a waiver of bail.
Trial in Court
You can also win your citation by getting it dismissed because the officer does not appear.
I have helped two people beat citations whereby the officer did show up in person at the courthouse. One individual allegedly drove through a red light and was issued a citation. She was victorious in court and obtained a not guilty verdict because the officer cited her for the wrong vehicle code. She was cited for going through a circular red light. The problem was that she allegedly went through an arrow red light. She raised this issue before the traffic commissioner and asked the officer if that was indeed true and the officer said yes and the commissioner threw the case out. It is very important that the officer actually mention everything that needs to be mentioned on the specific vehicle code you are charged with.
Discovery of Traffic Citations
In America you are entitled to discovery that the other party has. However, you need to request it. If you request discovery and none is provided you can get your case dismissed. In another case I helped someone file a discovery motion that requested the traffic survey for the stretch of road that the citation was issued on. As it turned out, there was no valid traffic survey created from within five years of the date the citation was issued on that stretch of road. The officer showed up and dismissed his own case because of that. In that particular case we were also able to get the body cam footage which was interesting to watch.
If you are interested in obtaining some California traffic citation discovery paperwork for yourself I would recommend getting it for free from freedomtaker.com. They have a link to download a discovery motion under a section of the main page of the website under the title "speeding tickets - a novel approach."
Disclaimer: Richard Bogolub is not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Victory Asset Recovery, LLC does not give legal advice. If you want legal advice you should contact an attorney.
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