I am a traffic attorney and I will be happy to help you with this. There are several venues of fighting this available to you, depending on how much time and effort you want to invest into this. The good news is that you have not had a ticket in 7 years, which makes you an excellent candidate for a plea bargaining deal or a favorable court judgment.


1) You can fight the ticket by requesting discovery to see if there is anything wrong with the radar certificate. Also request officer's radar training records, notes, etc. Sometimes the police is so sloppy, they don't provide the necessary documents in the discovery, which means they cannot introduce them later at trial. In that case, you would have to object and say that such documents should not be admitted into evidence because you were not provided an opportunity to examine them in discovery. Some jurisdictions require you to serve your discovery request upon the prosecution and file a copy with the court, some limit the scope of discovery. So, call the court clerk to see what the requirements are and adjust this discovery request template accordingly to suit your case:
[date]
To: [XXXX Court, XXX District Attorney]

From: [Your full name and address]

Re: [Ticket/case number]

I am requesting full discovery for the above case, including:

* The front and back of the ticket
* Officer's notes
* Log book of the officer for the day of the violation
* The citation issuance policies in effect for the police department on [the date of your alleged violation]
* Radar/laser device make, model, serial number, options, and age
* Radar/laser device calibration certificates and calibration log sheets for the year before the violation (and months following if available)
* All other maintenance and repair history of the radar/laser device
* Failure and error rates of the radar/laser device
* The officer's certificate of competency
* Records relating to the training received by the officer regarding the use of the radar/laser device including including dates, location, and instructor name and address
* The training materials used by the officer when training on the radar/laser device
* Date that the officer first used the radar/laser device
* The full witness list
* All sworn affidavits
* All other evidence to be used by the prosecution

[Signature]


2) Appear in court and try to plea bargain with the prosecuting attorney right before the hearing. You would have to agree to plead guilty to a lesser offense which carries lesser fine/points. Your clean driving record will help a lot.

3) If the prosecutor is not willing to give a deal, the judge likely will if you show up to the hearing to explain the situation, bring up all the mitigating circumstances, clean driving record financial hardship.

4) Even if none of the above works, traffic school may be an option to reduce/erase the points from the record. Traffic schools can be completed online, sometimes for as little as $25, and may result in insurance premiums decrease, as well as point reduction.

You do not necessarily need an attorney, unless you absolutely cannot have this go on your driving record. An attorney would probably charge $500+, there is no guarantee of a win and, to be honest, there is nothing an attorney can do that you cannot do yourself. All they usually do is get you a standard plea bargaining deal which you already know how to get anyway.

However, many attorneys offer free initial consultation, so you have nothing to lose by calling up a few of them to get some free tips or at least find out where you realistically stand. In evaluating attorneys, make sure they have satisfactory answers as far as plea bargaining strategy, what realistic outcome they expect, experience, etc. To find a suitable paid lawyer at a decent price, I recommend you start your search here: http://www.cobar.org/directory/