National Motorist Association

[revhead347]

So I got this complete and udder BS ticket last night coming home from a training event. All relieved that I made it through my PC for the year, and I got stopped by a cop. Now, everyone who knows me, knows that I drive like a grandma when I'm not in my Mustang, and I hardly ever get tickets. He said I failed to yield to a red arrow light while exiting the highway. Funny thing is, there is no red arrow, just a red light, and a yield sign. Anyway, out of interest, I paid the $10 for the National Motorist Association downloadable book on how to fight your tickets. It is invaluable resource, and worth every dime. Within the first 10 pages it pointed me in the direction of what documents to download online. I've spent hours in the law library and online hunting around for legal documents, and most of it was a waste of time. For anyone who gets a ticket, I strongly recommend this book. It's worth it just for it's explanation of how the system works.

National Motorists Association Website.

Kurt

 

[hollywoodstang]

Kurt

I thank you for the link, I so needed this.

 

[revhead347]

Yeah, the book gave me a pretty solid way out of this. It makes it clear that when it comes to the court, it's about money. The local courts don't care about your driving record, and really don't like appeals. If it gets appealed, they have to share the penalty with a higher court. If they can get it off your driving record, and keep it in the local court, they are going to keep the entire penalty. I had a suspicion of the light being an illegal setup. The book made it very clear that traffic signals can not be confusing by law. I looked all over the internet for hours looking for some official document to verify my position. The book said I needed a document called the DUTCD. I looked it up, and bam, there it was, all the guidlines published by the state on signage. It also said that you need to decide what's an equitable solution for you. Even if you have a rock solid case, you'll have to go to trial to win. I'm pretty confident that with the evidence I have, I can schedule an appointment with the county solicitor, and get this knocked down to a cheap non moving violation. The solicitor gets to collect some money, and I don't have to waste time going to court.

Kurt

 

[revhead347]

Update. There were work crews out there today, installing the red arrow that wasn't there before.

Kurt

 

[GTA_V6_Mustang]

That sux, they did that crap at my job too. When you pull out of the dealer you could just turn onto the street. Well for like a week a cop would sit outside there pulling people over pulling out of the dealer claiming there was a stop sign. NO SIGN though, not for the 6 years i have been there has there been a sign there. so the very next week boom a stop sign showed up there. lol. And a month later, stop sign is gone again, lol.

 

[revhead347]

Sweet. That **** is annoying. My ticket hasn't show up online yet. Either the court is taking their sweet ass time, or they figured out how tarded they were, and dropped it.

Kurt

 

[Zero Signal]

Maybe the ociffer never turned in his paperwork. I had that happen once and the guy waited forever to turn it in. All I had to do was go down to the court and show a proof of insurance to get the thing dropped, but it was a couple of weeks before they had it on record. The was in Tucson.

 

[revhead347]

It's on there now. $123.00. It's all automatic in Cobb County now. It's not on carbon paper anymore. The cop has a thermal printer in the squad car.

Kurt

 

[Last5.0]

did you take any pics of the light in question, both before and when they were changing it?

 

[revhead347]

did you take any pics of the light in question, both before and when they were changing it?

Of course not. I was going to go video tape it actually. I wasn't expecting them to change the light out 2 days after I got the ticket. I'll file a motion for Discovery on the road works.

Kurt

 

[blksn955.o]

Just curious, what was the officers last name? I think my cousins husband is a Officer in Cobb Co GA...its that or the one next to it. My other cousin is in the final steps of becoming an officer in the area after he graduated with a CJ degree.

 

[revhead347]

It's T. Dodd or something like that.

Kurt

 

[blksn955.o]

It was a long shot but not him...I do remember him saying Cobb was fairly strict on things. Its not like you were street racing in rush hour and took out a school bus. Good luck with the ticket fight.

 

[revhead347]

Went into arraignment today. Got threatened by the solicitor and the judge. Good times. I was going to let them offer to plea it out, but the solicitor got all smug, and made a mistake. He smiled and said, "They say they have you on tape." Oops, now they have to furnish that video. That's going to make it awefully hard for the officer to change his story. I'd be willing to pay something in order to not take another day off work, but if you threaten me, then I'm going to have contest your accusations on principle.

Where was that red arrow again?

Kurt