Should You Subpoena the Officer When Contesting Your Speeding Ticket?
Your luck has finally run out.
After speeding all over Seattle to and from work, to and from the gym, and to and from anywhere else you were going, the cops finally busted you the other day for going too fast.
And you aren't too happy about it, if for no other reason you don't like the idea of paying a fine for driving safely, though over the posted speed limit.
The way you see it, Seattle speeding tickets and other traffic infractions are a roundabout way for the city to tax its citizens.
But you aren't really sure what to do.
You've heard about people that fought speeding tickets and won, and you've heard of numerous people that paid Seattle speeding ticket lawyers and won, but you aren't sure that you want to pay that amount of money to beat this speeding ticket.
So you decide to do a little research and go it on your own.
And before you even get started you are hit with a question you know is extremely important to beating your speeding ticket: Should I subpoena the officer at my contested speeding ticket hearing? And he's right.
Deciding whether or not to subpoena the officer is a very important question to answer early.
And the problem is, there is not necessarily any right or wrong answer (which is why it is nice to have an experienced speeding ticket attorney on your side to help you make the decision).
But there are some consequences to deciding either way, and we'll talk about a couple of these below.
First, if you subpoena the officer, you get the opportunity to do a couple of things.
First you get the chance to hear his story out of his mouth, instead of the 10 or so sentences he's written on the back of the traffic ticket.
The prosecutor or judge will get the chance to ask him questions about what he did, what he saw, and what he heard during your traffic citation issuance.
And you also get to hear the officer cover his tracks if the information on the ticket is a little suspect.
And second, you get the opportunity to question him about the traffic stop.
This should include pointing out the inconsistencies in his testimony, making sure he followed traffic procedure and protocol correctly, and anything else you can think of.
When it comes to this, I'm sure you can see why it would pay have an experience speeding ticket lawyer on your side to see these weaknesses and point out the problems with the officer's testimony.
Second, if you don't subpoena the officer, you have to only work on what the ticket says.
This means the testimony is limited (except for anything you might have to add).
The judge will admit the ticket into evidence, read the statement, and listen to what you have to say before making a decision.
Like if you subpoena the officer, though, you will have to take this opportunity to point out the problems with the ticket, which you might not know about unless you have been working with traffic tickets for a while.
Either way, I want to end this article with one piece of advice.
Don't subpoena the officer to get him up there and ask him if he is lying about the speed that you were going.
And don't get the officer up there and ask him random questions that have nothing to do with the speed you were going at the time the ticket was issued and the way the officer arrived at that reading.
The judge is just going to stop the questioning and make you pay for your speeding ticket.
And, when you look at your ticket and don't see anything you can use, call a speeding ticket lawyer to help you.
They can almost always find an argument, and if they do they are almost always successful.
After speeding all over Seattle to and from work, to and from the gym, and to and from anywhere else you were going, the cops finally busted you the other day for going too fast.
And you aren't too happy about it, if for no other reason you don't like the idea of paying a fine for driving safely, though over the posted speed limit.
The way you see it, Seattle speeding tickets and other traffic infractions are a roundabout way for the city to tax its citizens.
But you aren't really sure what to do.
You've heard about people that fought speeding tickets and won, and you've heard of numerous people that paid Seattle speeding ticket lawyers and won, but you aren't sure that you want to pay that amount of money to beat this speeding ticket.
So you decide to do a little research and go it on your own.
And before you even get started you are hit with a question you know is extremely important to beating your speeding ticket: Should I subpoena the officer at my contested speeding ticket hearing? And he's right.
Deciding whether or not to subpoena the officer is a very important question to answer early.
And the problem is, there is not necessarily any right or wrong answer (which is why it is nice to have an experienced speeding ticket attorney on your side to help you make the decision).
But there are some consequences to deciding either way, and we'll talk about a couple of these below.
First, if you subpoena the officer, you get the opportunity to do a couple of things.
First you get the chance to hear his story out of his mouth, instead of the 10 or so sentences he's written on the back of the traffic ticket.
The prosecutor or judge will get the chance to ask him questions about what he did, what he saw, and what he heard during your traffic citation issuance.
And you also get to hear the officer cover his tracks if the information on the ticket is a little suspect.
And second, you get the opportunity to question him about the traffic stop.
This should include pointing out the inconsistencies in his testimony, making sure he followed traffic procedure and protocol correctly, and anything else you can think of.
When it comes to this, I'm sure you can see why it would pay have an experience speeding ticket lawyer on your side to see these weaknesses and point out the problems with the officer's testimony.
Second, if you don't subpoena the officer, you have to only work on what the ticket says.
This means the testimony is limited (except for anything you might have to add).
The judge will admit the ticket into evidence, read the statement, and listen to what you have to say before making a decision.
Like if you subpoena the officer, though, you will have to take this opportunity to point out the problems with the ticket, which you might not know about unless you have been working with traffic tickets for a while.
Either way, I want to end this article with one piece of advice.
Don't subpoena the officer to get him up there and ask him if he is lying about the speed that you were going.
And don't get the officer up there and ask him random questions that have nothing to do with the speed you were going at the time the ticket was issued and the way the officer arrived at that reading.
The judge is just going to stop the questioning and make you pay for your speeding ticket.
And, when you look at your ticket and don't see anything you can use, call a speeding ticket lawyer to help you.
They can almost always find an argument, and if they do they are almost always successful.