Should I take a ticket to court and fight it if I was mistakenly accused of speeding?
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Should I take a ticket to court and fight it if I was mistakenly accused of speeding?
I received a ticket last week. When I got the it, I was parked and exiting my car and a police car pulled up behind my and flashed its lights. The officer proceeded to approach me and raise his voice at me and yelled that I could have killed someone and how he saw me and it looked like I was going fast while he was going the opposite direction approx. 2-3 miles back. I was confused and did not know where the street he had just mentioned was until he I was unsure if I had been on the same street. He also then started to yell about how he should arrest me for the supposed 70 mph in a 40 mph zone and even went as far as to accuse me and the passenger in my car of being on drugs. He also asked to see identification for the passenger in my car. Should I take this to court and fight it?
Asked on April 25, 2017 under General Practice, Tennessee
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
You are unlikely to win outright: it will basically come down to your word vs. the officer's as to whether you were speeding, and as you can imagine, the court will almost always believe a trained, sworn, and neutral (no personal stake) officer over the accused speeder. But if you go to court and speak to the procecutor ahead of time, explaining that you do not think you were speeding (and that if you were over the limit, you were not as fast as the officer says you were) and have an otherwise good or clean driving record, while he is unlikely to dismiss the case entirely, there is a reasonably good chance he will let you plead to a lower speed or lesser offense, reducing your points and fine. Be very calm and respectful when talking to the prosecutor; offer to take a "defensive driving" course if he wants.
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