This is very poor advice.
This isn't how you win.
The court has nothing to prove, and will provide no assistance to a pro se defendant as they are required to remain neutral. They aren't required to explain, interpret, or otherwise give you any sort of leeway, and they certainly won't do any math for you.
The state is required to prove that you violated a statute, and the officers testimony is likely the only proof they will provide.
You will offer your proof that you did comply with the law, with your testimony, and your evidence. The best you'll likely be able to do is your own sworn affidavit.
Absent any certified measuring devices, or surveys, its going to come down to your word against the citing officers. Good luck. You'll need to find a few things:
1. the actual statute the officer claims you violated.
2. any prior cases decided in your jurisdiction.
3. How to proceed.
Your best bet however is to simply hire a lawyer.
He then tells me I am getting a ticket for "Not signalling my intent for a long enough period of time.'
At this point I'm thinking he's filling his quota or trying to make some extra money. I decide to ask to check.
So how much would a ticket for going less than 20mph under be for? $84. And how much is my ticket going to be for? $189.
So basically the cop pulls me over for a bullshit ticket because it is potentially going to make more money than someone who is endangering the road for the rest of the motorists, causing traffic, and doing an offense that is worth less as a ticket. Pure bullshit.
I think tickets that get thrown out should be deducted from the cops who wrote thems paycheck. Keep them from writing bs tickets.
Too bad you didn't record the stop on video. I think everybody should start doing that.
He has the right to challenge the ticket.This is very poor advice.
This isn't how you win.
The court has nothing to prove, and will provide no assistance to a pro se defendant as they are required to remain neutral. They aren't required to explain, interpret, or otherwise give you any sort of leeway, and they certainly won't do any math for you.
The state is required to prove that you violated a statute, and the officers testimony is likely the only proof they will provide.
You will offer your proof that you did comply with the law, with your testimony, and your evidence. The best you'll likely be able to do is your own sworn affidavit.
Absent any certified measuring devices, or surveys, its going to come down to your word against the citing officers. Good luck. You'll need to find a few things:
1. the actual statute the officer claims you violated.
2. any prior cases decided in your jurisdiction.
3. How to proceed.
Your best bet however is to simply hire a lawyer.
That is illegal in most states and he would be in jail now.
In this great state (America's Wang) - I got a ticket two years back for... Wait for it:
Crossing the gore.
WTF??!! I pulled onto the FL Turnpike, behind roughly 15 cars and a dump truck moving at like 35 in the acceleration lane. I said "fuck this" and gunned it and crossed the "V-shaped area dividing the acceleration lane, and the main lanes of travel on a highway"
Florida Highway Patrol was in that pile of 15 cars and the officer was fucking pissed for some reason.
"Sir, do you see those lines painted back there? They are there for a reason! They are there to funnel traffic onto the highway in an orderly and safe manner! And you with your impatience are screwing it all up!"
I deserved that ticket, but plead no contest - begging the mercy of the court - got it down from $185 + 2 points to $50 and 0 points adj withheld.
Are you sure you didn't do the ol' switch lanes and then signal? or the switch lanes an flash it once?
One of my biggest peeves on the road are people who A) don't signal. or B) People who signal after beginning their movement.
The turn signal is a warning. It comes before any change of direction of the vehicle... not after you already steer toward the other lane. If I were a cop, I'd pull every non signal/inappropriate signal using driver over without a 2nd thought.
You shouldn't have told him you were heading down the road to fuck his ugly ass wife.
I took a CA traffic test (got pulled over for going 5 over, probably because I had out of state plates and they were checking me for MJ transportation) and had this question:I teach drivers training in California.
The California vehicle code basically says that you have to signal the last 100 feet of your turn and you only need to signal if your turn will effect other drivers.
I teach them to always signal so it's not open to a cops interpretation.
One cop might think that if someone is within 200' you should use signals. Another might think 500'.
Guess again. While some states are attempting to criminalize this to protect bad cops, most don't.
So, you got a richly deserved ticket for what you did. I'm not really sure why you were given a break.
I don't see why the officer needed to be pissed off to hand out a ticket for pulling a reckless stunt on a busy on-ramp.
This is one of those things man. Like 1am waiting at a 4 minute long red left arrow with nobody in sight, finally you just go through it. It's illegal, but there is nothing inherently *wrong* with it. It's far from a reckless stunt, I just went across painted lines on the freeway when it was perfectly safe to do so. There was virtually no traffic, the dump truck was just being slow as dumptrucks are wont to do. Its just saving time. Up until the 70's it wasn't legal to turn right on red, but they made it legal in most places (because of the fuel thing going on at the time). True, crossing the gore is "illegal", but I didn't hurt anybody by doing it. Sure there "could" be an accident if I didn't look, but I'm not an idiot. Passing somebody on the right is illegal too.
That cop must have just been having a rough day - Seeing me dart out like that and blow by all those other people must have just gotten his goat because he really let me have it.