How to Fight a Speeding Ticket

If you get a speeding ticket, you may think your only course of action is to pay the fine, accept the points from PennDOT and watch your insurance rates go up. But you do have an option — you can fight your speeding ticket.

Why You Should Fight A Speeding Ticket

The repercussions from your speeding ticket can snowball into serious problems.

PennDOT will add points to your driving record for your alleged violation. If you accumulate six or more points, it can lead to complications like hundreds or even thousands of dollars more in car insurance premiums. You even risk having your license suspended.

A clean driving record is worth fighting for. There are ways you can fight your speeding ticket.

1. Hire A Defense Attorney
   By hiring a defense attorney who is experienced in fighting back against speeding tickets, it is possible to get your charges reduced or even dismissed. This makes retaining a defense attorney a good investment since you may be able to save significantly on your insurance costs for years.

2. Closely Examine Your Ticket
   Your traffic ticket will give you clues as to how your ticket can be fought. Carefully check the ticket for any inaccuracies.

   If your ticket says the police used a VASCAR device to calculate your speed, this is automation that has been shown to be error-prone especially when the police track you over a short distance. VASCAR’s inaccuracies can be challenged in court.

3. Police error
   Human error often enters into the problems of accurately calculating that you were speeding. For example, a police officer following your car to determine your speed may have been distracted, or they may not have followed you for a long enough distance to get an accurate reading. Factors like curves in the road or the darkness of night can call into question the accuracy of consistently tracking your car.

4. If You Were Not Speeding
   The police may have made a mistake when they ticketed you for speeding.

   One example: if an aircraft was tracking cars through Philadelphia’s rush hour traffic and the officer looked down at their controls, they may have lost sight of your car or confused it with another one of a similar color and style.

5. The equipment used to calculate your speed was not calibrated properly.
   In Pennsylvania the automation used to track your speed, such as a VASCAR device, must be calibrated at least once every 60 days. Radar guns have to be calibrated at least once every year. Police car speedometers, used when the police follow you to track your speed, also have to be calibrated at least once a year. If the automation was not calibrated within that time period, it will not produce reliable results that will stand up in court.

6. You must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
   Your lawyer will carefully examine every aspect of the evidence against you to determine where there can be reasonable doubt and then he or she will prove try to prove to the judge that the doubt exists.

How A Philadelphia Lawyer Will Help

When you are up against a traffic violation, you need an attorney who will stand by you every step of the way, work hard to discredit any evidence – and work with you to determine your best course of action.

Pennsylvania Traffic Violation Law

Traffic violation is described and defined under The Pennsylvania Code under Title 75. Read the code here.