Step IV – Postponing Strategies

Now is the part to set the date for your trial. Most people know that a good strategy is to delay, or postpone the date of your trial. The reason for this is because officers are more likely to forget and not show up in court if the date of the trial is set far away. In this case you would almost always win the case and be granted a dismissal. Another good reason is that the longer you delay your trial, the longer it will take for your insurance will go up if you are found to be guilty. Try to delay your case as many times as you can, but keep in mind to not delay it so long that it is past the speedy trial time limit, since doing so means you would surrender your speedy trial rights. Tips on how to postpone the date of your trial:
- Ask the clerk if the court can extend the deadline to contest your ticket. Take any route to do so to delay your trial.

- Ask the clerk if the court can extend the deadline to contest your ticket. Take any route to do so to delay your trial.

- Call up the court or stop by there about a week before your trial and kindly request the clerk to give you an extension to your trial. He should be able to do so.
- Try it again a second time to coming by a week before your trial and tell the clerk that you need another extension!
- When it is finally time to show up in court, you can try to delay your case yet again by telling the judge that you need some time to seek out a lawyer. The judge should then give you some more time and postpone your trial in order to give you time to seek advice from a lawyer.
That is about as much as you can delay your trial by. The judge or clerk will most likely not give you any more extension unless you have a serious emergency, with demonstrable confirmation from your doctor or a comparable professional.
It is an extremely good idea to try to schedule your trial on the date when the officer who ticketed you is on vacation. You can try your luck by calling in to the police station and request to know when that certain officer will be going on vacation, although you probably will need a good excuse if they ask you why you’d need to know such information. If you’re lucky, someone will let you know and you might find out that your officer is going on vacation soon. That is exactly the time when you should book your trial! If the first phone call doesn’t work, try again and again. You
can even try by calling the officer directly yourself, just don’t reveal what your true motives are.

Step V – Preparing for Court

This is a gather the evidence step. Remember when I said:
Do you know what the officer does in his car, after writing up your ticket? He’s writing up notes with details of what happened, why he is ticketing you, and your reactions to him.

Here are some good news for you. It is your right to request to see what the officer had written down on his notes. However, these notes will not be available to you unless you specifically request them. That’s why it is very important for you to request this because it will greatly help you to fight your case by knowing where the
weakness of your officer’s arguments will lie in, and where he will be strong at. Remember, after a long period of time, the officer will not going to recollect good details about what happened after he had ticketed you months ago. He will most likely remember as much as what he had written down on his notes. By obtaining the officer’s notes, you will pretty much know exactly what the officer will be testifying in court. How to request a copy of the officer’s notes:

- Send a printed (NOT handwritten) letter to the police department saying that you request all copies of any applicable recorded statements and illustrations or any other form of information made regarding your incident by the ticketing officer. Be sure to include the name of the officer who ticketed you, the date when it was issued, your ticket citation #, and your return address. Make a copy of this letter. If within 21 days and you still have not received any copies of the officer’s notes, then take the copy and bring it to court, and ask the judge if he can dismiss the case due to the prosecutor’s failure to supply discovery even upon your written request (show the copy of the letter to the judge). Say that even if you are given the copy of the officer’s notes now, you still would not have the time to suitably prepare for the trial. Many times, the judge will dismiss the case at this time. If not, he will make the officer give you the copies of his notes right at that time and let you have a bit of time to look it over.
If you were able to obtain the notes from the officer, take a close look and see if he had drawn out any diagrams. If he doesn’t, then it is likely that he will not remember much about the incident. Take a look to see if the officer’s notes contain any calculations or numbers. If there are no numbers to back up the officer’s claim, then again, the officer will not remember much about the incident and that should be your plan of attack.

Step VI – The Fight in Court

This is the big one. What you should say to defend yourself, and what you should not say. I will cover all the types of traffic violation here and tell you exactly what to say,
and what not to say.

What NOT to say:

Many people make a mistake by giving these excuses in the hope of a reasonable explanation. Avoid making these excuses at all cost:

- Never say that you were not aware of such a particular law (even if you truly were not aware of it). For example, saying that you truthfully did not know what the yield sign is meant for, that’s why you didn’t yield to other drivers isn’t going to do you anything besides making you look worse for labeling yourself as someone who just doesn’t know the law. You are required to know all the traffic laws when you are on the road, even if they are trivial ones. Unawareness of the law is not an excuse.

- Never say that the officer picked only your car, even though there were others who broke the law as well. For example, if the officer ticketed you for speeding 40 mph in a 30mph zone, do not give the excuse that all the other drivers were going at 40mph, and the officer did not ticket any of them, but instead he came and ticketed only you and it isn’t fair or right. This excuse will never work unless you have condemning evidence of a true motive for the officer to single you out.
- Never say that the officer lied - Ever. The "I didn’t do it - the officer is not telling the truth" argument will get you nowhere.
- Never say that your violation is okay because it did not cause any injury or accidents to anyone or anything. You may not have caused an accident that time when the officer ticketed you, but that doesn’t mean that your dangerous actions are safe to other drivers, which may very well cause accidents in the coming future.