Traffic Ticket - Trial by Declaration?
 

I got a ticket in February and they have sent me a notice indicating I have the option of using Trial by Declaration through the mail. Any idea how to use this? Is it to my advantage at all?

How does this affect your chances of the officer not showing up?

Any info would be appreciated. The court is LA Superior.

TIA

David

Trial by Declaration is just another sham put forth by our shameless traffic court system. You might as well just send the check in along with your declaration. All the "judge" (and I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a clerk) does is read your declaration along with the officer's report. The officer has no more obligation to show up than you have. Money in the bank. All this serves to do is to fool those who still don't understand the real intent of traffic enforcement, or the new rules surrounding that enforcement.

With our modern "no proof required" standard of evidence used in traffic court, it is very much up to you to prove innocence, rather than up to the prosecutor to prove guilt. The standard of evidence (at least here in Washington) has been reduced to "preponderance" from "beyond reasonable doubt". "Preponderance" simply means "51%" (however the hell they measure that...) of the "evidence" says you are guilty. In most courts, the fact that an officer felt strongly enough about your behavior to stop you pushes it well past that invisible "51%" line. You are fighting your way back from there.

In practical terms, the only way to win a traffic case here in Washington is on a technicality. If you are well enough versed in police procedure regarding traffic enforcement, and the laws governing their procedures, that is the direction you need to go in your declaration. Find something the officer did wrong, or neglected to do at all. Anything else, unfortunately, is just wasting your time. Since you (like the rest of us) are probably not that well versed, it would serve you best to hire a lawyer who specializes in picking that brand of flychit out of the pepper.

http://www.ticketassassin.com

Start here.

Like Jeff says only here you have to send in the "bail", the fine, with your "declaration". I have done it twice and got the same answer, YOU LOSE.
Then you have the option of filling out more forms and trying again and even eventually going to real court.
I couldn't even get them to reduce the fine. YOU LOSE.

It's a free shot, as you can appeal the decision if you lose to a regular trial. It was recommended in this book and I won the one case that I tried it on. My understanding is if you were cited by a CHP, they're less likely to respond to this than a regular trial.

I'm not sure on this, but I think that if you loose a trial by declaration you have to pay the full ticket amount and you don't have the option of traffic school.

I agree.

I just beat two tickets with trial by declaration. What are the specifics of your ticket, I might have a template I could email you.

Caught on radar, 20 over the posted limit, clear and dry, no traffic. The street is so wide, really enough room for 6 lanes, but actually 5. I had no idea the speed limit was 30.

There are now several roads around our area that got bumped up from 35 to 40 because most were driving faster than 35

Sounds like you were dead to rights. I would think your best chance would be to contest the correct usage of the radar or hope the cop doesn't show up (or respond to the Trial by Written Declaration). There's lots of stuff you can do to make the police jump through hoops to comply with your discovery requests, including obtaining a copy of the officer's notes, usually on the back of the ticket. You've got a fairly good chance the police will fail to comply and you can have the ticket dismissed. That book I suggested above gives you the complete rundown.

Thank you.

take it to trial, make the bastards go through the process. if the cop doesn't show up it gets dismissed.

Sorry for the late response. You definitely want to do the declaration before you take it to court. This way you get two shots at winning. Oh by the way ask for as many extensions as you can get first. This is very important. The longer you draw this out the better chances you have. Here is a link with a bunch of templates for your declaration.
http://www.ticketassassin.com/docs/forms.html
Your template should be example one under "basic speed law" 22350. My last two tickets didn't involve radar, instead the officer paced me. Those templates are not on this list, but I have those too.

Great advice. A buddy of mine did this, when he finally had his court date the cop couldn't remember the situation and the ticket was immediately dismissed.

Damn! I should've posted here when I got a ticket here in cali as well, and I KNOW the cop didn't have me on radar! Bookmarked for future reference...