A traffic conviction can add hundreds of dollars to your yearly auto insurance premiums. Fight Your Ticket shows you how to handle your case in traffic court, get the right kind of hearing and win. Attorney David Brown provides you with the detailed tactics you need to: prepare and present your evidence argue before a judge cross-examine a police officer's testimony get your case dismissed appeal a decision determine the consequences of your violation Thousands of Californians have used the previous editions of this bestselling book to win their cases. Meticulously revised, the 10th edition provides the latest legal information, including: fines and penalties Internet resources how Proposition 36 affects driver's licenses

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A. A Typical Case You're driving home from your friend's place after a beautiful, romantic Friday evening. It's 2:30 in the morning. As you're reflecting on this, you suddenly realize you took a wrong turn someplace. You're now in the middle of a quiet residential district and realize you should turn around. You look for traffic coming from either direction and all you see is a car parked about three blocks away with its headlights on, so you make a U-turn. Suddenly, in your rear view mirror you see a flashing red and blue light that seemingly grows out of the parked car. You begin to pull over to the right to let it pass. Instead, the car follows you to the curb. You realize you've just been pulled over by the police. As soon as your car stops, the officer has his high-intensity spotlight pointed at you. Then, you hear his door slam, the sound of gravel under his boots, and finally you see a big, grim face just behind the flashlight pointed into your eyes. Before you get a chance to ask him what's the problem, he says, "May I see your driver's license, please?" You fumble through your wallet, slowly and carefully, since he has his hand uncomfortably close to the butt of what looks to be a very big gun. Finally, hands shaking slightly, you hand him your license. (Don't you feel like a common criminal?) The police officer returns to his car and uses the radio. A minute later he returns, hands you your license, and unemotionally says, "You made an unlawful U-turn in a residential district. Sign here, please," and he thrusts a three-part form in your face. You meekly sign the ticket (which he tells you is not an admission of guilt, but merely a promise to appear), and he hands you a copy. You gaze at the ticket, wondering how this could be happening to you. The officer spins out, off to catch another "criminal." Your first thoughts might be: Should I just pay the ticket? (After all, didn't I break the law?) I wonder how much my insurance will go up. Will they revoke my license? If so, how will I get to work and support my family? If you don't fight the ticket, you may very well end up: paying a fine you can barely afford; paying a higher insurance premium for the next three to five years; and starting or adding to a bad driving record with the DMV. B. Should You Fight Your Ticket? Police officers know that very few people -- perhaps one out of 50 -- ever contest their tickets. Even those who do are often so unprepared and nervous that they have a tough time winning anyway. So police officers will occasionally cite motorists in situations where they know that the ticket probably wouldn't stand up in court if the motorist bothered to contest it. Does it make sense for you to fight your ticket? The answer is that it depends. There are some people who almost always answer this question with a proud and forceful "yes!" unless they have done something incredibly stupid or dangerous (such as driving through a busy school zone at 50 mph). But there are others who don't believe in spending large amounts of time fighting cases where there is but a small chance of winning. It might be wise to try to separate the hopeless cases from those with a reasonable chance of success. (On the other hand, thousands of seemingly hopeless cases are won when police officers fail to show up in court to testify.) A determined person can achieve great success in traffic court if he or she knows what to do.

 

1. First Things 2. How to Read Your Ticket 3. What are the Consequences? Fines, Jail, Your "Record," and Insurance 4. Speed Violations and Radar 5. Other Moving Violations 6. Tickets that Don't appear on Your Record 7. The Serious Offenses (Misdemeanors) 8. Driving Under the Influence (DUI) 9. Should You Fight Your Ticket/Should You Get a Lawyer? 10. Fighting an Infraction Citation 11. Preparing for Trial 12. Trials Before a Judge (Without a Jury) 13. Handling a Misdemeanor Charge: Arraignment to Jury Trial 14. Sentencing 15. License Suspensions by the DMV 16. Appealing a Conviction 17. Staying Out of Trouble 18. Where Do We Go from Here? Appendix Index

A clear, thick and comprehensive manual to help the Californian beat what he or she perceives as a bum traffic rap.

 

A surprisingly easy read … the book is a top-notch primer.

 

Written in accessible lay language, Fight Your Ticket is packed with practical information... every driver should keep a copy of it...

 

Attorney David Brown David Brown practices law in the Monterey, California area, where he has represented both landlords and tenants in hundreds of court cases -- most of which he felt could have been avoided if both sides were more fully informed about landlord/tenant law. Brown, a graduate of Stanford University (chemistry) and the University of Santa Clara Law School, also teaches law at the Monterey College of Law and is the author of Fight Your Ticket (CA version), Beat Your Ticket (the national version), The Landlord’s Law Book, Vol. 1: Rights and Responsibilities; The Landlord’s Law Book, Vol. 2: Evictions and co-author of How to Change Your Name in California and The Guardianship Book for California.

 

Fight Your Ticket in California by David Brown
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