Comments on: Trial By Declaration: Fight A Traffic Ticket Without Going To Court

By: dorothy Evans

dorothy Evans — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:11:18 +0000

The same thing happened to me last week .I don’t know what to write . What did you say in your declaration?
Thanks,
Dorothy

By: Dj

Dj — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:20:53 +0000

I was riding my little 125cc dirt bike in the ditchs in the country in wyoming, couple of weeks ago. The ticket says i was driving on a road at 6 pm, for a dus. I never seen a cop till 10:36pm that same night for a warrent i had. i went to court on 3 days later and was confused about this ticket. Cuz I called the local p.d. 2 days before this and they say that i can drive a atv or a dirt bike in the ditchs in the country. They are saying they have 3 off duty cops that seen me drive. The week later I was ridin my bike in the ditch out past my house and the cop that picked me up that night stopped me. He just told me that I can’t be driving anything anywhere from fence to fence on any county road. He never gave me a ticket or anything. He just took me home. I’m just so lost about how to fight this dus cuz all the cops hate me, and my wanna be public defender thinks i did it. I’m thinkin about doing the trial by declaration. but I’m just afraid that I’ll lose this.. Any advice will be greatful

By: dianna

dianna — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:27:35 +0000

the same thing haven’t to me. iwas going 15 mph in a 30 mile at 10 pm no traffic . i just passed the line and it was yellow , but turned red in middle . it was aback street a few blocks from myhouse. i’m 55 yr old and never had a wreck and had 1 ticket on a car i was buying and test driving and I didn’t know the headlights came on as soon as you drop emer. brake. I got a 50.00 fine. this one is my court date is on aug 5, 2009. I alway went to traffic school before the hearing hoping this will haelp. I passed it. what do you think? dianna

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:01:57 +0000

I filed a trial by declaration as instructed by David Brown’s book but I was still found guilty. I live in CA. I have several questions and I wonder if anyone can help me with it. I’ve submitted my trial by declaration just few days before the due date. Before that, I went to the clerk at the court to request a copy of the trial by declaration from my officer. The clerk told me that I couldn’t have that copy until after the due date. So I suppose I can’t see what the officer’s written until after the judge has made his decision. In the same way, the officer won’t be able to see mine until the judge has made his decision too. I thought it’d be like a double blind thing where I won’t know what the officer wrote and the officer won’t know what I wrote. Then the judge will decide on both of our statements. But then, in my case, the officer actually read my trial by declaration and responded to it. Is there any law/rule that says the officer can’t read mine in advance and just responded to my statement before the judge makes his decision? I just think that it’s not fair. Does anyone know anything about it?

By: Vakerie

Vakerie — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:37:47 +0000

I’m in PA. I receieved a citation today for expired registraion (it expired 5/30 %nd today is 6/26). I explained to officer I’ve been calling Dpt. of Motor Vehicles/PADOT to find out why new resitration sticker hasn’t come, with no success. Officer said he called and they said it hadn’t gone thru. I said” exactly. I submitted payment weeks ago and never got my new sticker and registration card. I don’t know what else I can do. I keep calling, but it’s hard to even get thru.” He issued a citation for $109.50, and said the plastic cover over my licnense plate is obstruccting the license plate. I told him I recently had it inspected, and they said nothing about it. He looked at my inspection stickers, and insisted the statute says an officer has to be able to see it from a certain distance. I explained that the neighborhood I live in has problems with people cutting off the corner of the plate just to get the stikcer, and I’d purchased the plastic cover in an attempt to deter that type of theft.

My son and I were in my car, idling in reverse waiting to back out and leave as the officer was going by inside our subsidized complex. After he passed, we went out the exit as we always do. He went out the other exit; a bit down the street. When we went past, he pulled out and followe us. In only a few feet I put my turn signal on to make a left turn. At that point I would’ve been out of his jurisdiction, as the township line is right at that corner.

He gave a short blip of his siren, never turned on the light. I thought he might mean it for me, so I turned into an alley and pulled over. The officer pulled in behind me and turned on his lights.

The tickets says we were stopped IN his township, which is untrue. I feel we were targeted because our subsidized complex has such a bad reuptation. We’ve lived here 17 years and never had a traffic ticket anywhewere in my life, nor any type of cause for the police to come to our residence. We are good, law abiding citizens; a rare breed in our neighborhood. He didn’t even fill in the whole address: just Park Springs Blvd. which is the street in our complex. No city/town, state or zip.

He DID completely fill in the address of the magisterial court and police station.

I REALLY need to know if I have a valid ‘leg”.to stabd on to fight this? Would appreciate a knowledgeable reply. Thanks!

By: Susann Buzoff

Susann Buzoff — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:52:37 +0000

I received a ticket for supposedly going 53 mph in a 35 mph zone. About two weeks later I was caught in an intersection by a red-light camera (extenuating circumstances . . . driver in front of me was not paying attention and did not move thru intersection when he should have.) Now I had two tickets which totaled close to $800. I write far better than I speak, so I decided to file a trial by declaration (I live in California). Almost unbelievably, I won both cases and had my bail money returned promptly!!

By: For my peeps in the US this is gold..... - Mashada Forums

For my peeps in the US this is gold..... - Mashada Forums — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:27:44 +0000

[...] This sh*t is like gold if you live in any of the nine states that do this (thank me later): trial by declaration: fight a traffic ticket without going to court [...]

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 11:04:03 +0000

to request traffic school in CA after losing your trial by declaration, you have to write a short letter addressed to “your honor”. Mail it to the court, then they will take two weeks to make a decision. In the letter just state that you would like to request trafffic school, why, maybe you dont feel your guilty but cost vs. traffic school ect…

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:30:50 +0000

Exiting Carpool lane:
CHP Officer did not understand the law about the inner white line in the Carpool lane. His comment was that of “The white line is old and was not removed when the carpool lane was added. A white line marked the shoulder from the past and the line was not removed when repainted for the carpool lane”.
N/B I 405 N/of Del Amo carpool lane is not clearly marked and many points are missing making the motorist believe it is okay to exit Broken Lines.

By: Oscar

Oscar — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 10:50:59 +0000

Manjeet,

Your defense statement from that “some guy” is fine, although it is still very hard to argument.
You have to remember that you are trying to avoid an accident so that you pulled to the right.
And, unfortunately, it appears to the Officer that you were PASSING from the right.

Good Luck!
Oscar

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