A few words on the websites promising a system for beating speeding tickets and the do it yourself books

Came across this article where a EU watchdog has classified a beat your speeding ticket website as a scam.  I have had people come to my office on multiple occasions who have purchased these books or joined up on these websites that either provide a system to beat speeding tickets or claim to tell a member of their site how to beat a speeding ticket.

Let me just say right now that there are many concerns I have with these sites and these type of books.  These websites are almost 100% inaccurate and will not help you in 95% of cases.  Let me repeat that! These websites are almost 100% inaccurate and will not help you in 95% of cases.


They will tell you different "tricks" or different "truths" that simply are not true.  For example:

1. Go to court and schedule your case for trial and the officer won't show up then you can get your speeding ticket dismissed.

This is NOT accurate.  Over 98% of the time the officer will show up for court.  The reason they will do this is because it is their job to show up for court.  If they don't show up then then they won't be a cop for long.  Also, they get paid to show up to court.  Ask yourself this question...If you were a cop would you rather be in a hot black and white giving out tickets or would you rather be in an air conditioned courtroom?


2. Know this magic procedure and use the procedure to your advantage.


Although it does help to know the procedure in a courtroom its not a get out of jail free card.  The simple fact of the matter is that books and websites that claim to know often do not.  Its nearly impossible to find an informative procedure resource for a municipal court.  90% of Traffic Tickets are issued in municipal courts.  So that big fancy book you read or might read on how to beat your ticket and the process you need to use is pretty much useless as it won't give you any specific information on your particular municipal court.


3.  The beat your speeding ticket books and websites are often based on the laws and procedures in a state different than the one you got your speeding ticket in.   Ergo, the law is not the same.  The procedure is not the same.  The advice is not accurate because its based on another states law.

4.  Virtually all of these books and websites will require you to take your traffic ticket to trial.  If you set your traffic ticket for trial you are eliminating many of your options.  You won't be allowed to get an amendment.   You won't be allowed to get a diversion.  You either win or you loose.  The ticket either goes on your record or you win and it does not.  So its risky.  That and considering at least 85% of traffic ticket trials end up in a finding of guilt...The odds are not in your favor.

Now that being said your probably thinking....Of course this Speeding Ticket Lawyer is not going to want me to use the book...He wants me to hire him!

Well let me tell you, if you talk to any attorney that makes their living doing nothing but traffic tickets.  Be amazed... Because there is not a lot of money to be made helping people with traffic tickets.  By the time you talk to the client and explain the process, then call the court and get the ticket set on your docket, then go to court and talk with the prosecutor, then pay the costs, then communicate with the client to show them everything is taken care of, there is a bit of time investment on the attorney.

I help people with traffic tickets and do a good job for them so that they know me.  They consider me to be their attorney.  If something happens down the line then they remember how easy I was to work with and how I communicated with them well.  So they call me again.

Here is the article that inspired this Blog Post.

Speeding ticket avoidance advert banned

By: Josie Clark

An ad for a website promising the "top 10 tricks" for getting out of speeding tickets has been banned by a watchdog.  The website for a membership scheme offering advice and legal representation to drivers who have received a ticket said: "Get your free copy of our top 10 tricks to avoid speeding tickets" and added: "Our top 10 tricks and loopholes to get out of any UK speeding ticket will be automatically delivered to your inbox within minutes. Tell your friends about us - but not the Traffic Police!"

A reader complained that the ad was irresponsible because it suggested that drivers could avoid being prosecuted for driving offences.  Defending the ad, Drive Protect Ltd said the email course being advertised taught people "a legitimate means of being able to disprove or create legitimate doubt on whether or not the offence happened".  It said drivers avoided being prosecuted when a court decided that there was not enough evidence, or where evidence pointed to the fact that the offence did not occur, and believed that the ad was therefore not irresponsible.

Upholding the complaint, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) noted that those accused of speeding offenses were entitled to be made aware of legal advice and that it was not irresponsible or illegal for some or all of that defense to be based on legal loopholes.However, it added that consumers would understand the ad's wording to mean that they could escape the consequences of speeding offenses regardless of whether or not the alleged offense took place.

The ASA said: "We considered that although the ad was unlikely to encourage reckless behavour, it could encourage some individuals to take risks they would otherwise not take because they believed that they could exceed some speed restrictions with impunity and could be seen to minimise the dangers of speeding."

It ruled that the ad should not appear again in its current form.

PA

People Organize in Kansas to express support for Florida Teen's tragic death.

I'm not one to chime in to much on controversal criminal actions but it appears that many people across the nation are outraged with the death of this young man.  I am not sure what exactly happened but its just  a damn shame this kid died. I think that this man needs to stop pretending he is a police officer. 

I understand protecting your belongings and your family, but maybe this man should have just let it go or called the police and let them pursue it.  Police have special training for these types of conflict situations  and there is a reason for that.  This is it.  Normal people aren't equiped to fight crime.

It appears that many other people feel the same way.  Here is the article in the Eagle.

Hundreds march in northeast Wichita to protest Fla. teen’s killing

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/03/23/2268531/hundreds-march-in-northeast-wichita.html#storylink=cpy

By: Dion Lefler

About 500 Wichitans gathered Friday for a march to protest the shooting death of an unarmed African-American teenager at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida — and to call for repeal of a Kansas “stand your ground” law that is apparently more permissive of violence than the Florida statute that has shielded the shooter there from arrest.

The hastily organized protest started with about 250 people, with hundreds more driving by honking in support. Many of those passers-by parked and joined the demonstration, which began at the corner of 21st and Hillside and marched twice back and forth to a nearby Wichita police substation.  The march coincided with demonstrations across the country — some reaching the tens of thousands — protesting the shooting of Trayvon Martin, 17.

President Obama said the shooting should prompt Americans to “do some soul-searching.”

Personalizing the incident, the president said, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Trayvon was shot Feb. 26 while walking home from a convenience store in the gated community of Sanford, Fla. Trayvon, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt in a light rain, had been watching the NBA All-Star game and walked to the store to buy iced tea and Skittles candies.  The local neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, 28, spotted Trayvon and called 911 to report him as a suspicious person. Ignoring a dispatcher’s advice not to pursue, Zimmerman left his car and followed Trayvon on foot, leading to the confrontation where the teen was shot to death.

Trayvon’s girlfriend has said she was on the phone with him until moments before his death and that he was scared that Zimmerman was following him. Police emergency tapes recorded someone screaming for help just before a gunshot, and what may have been a muttered racial slur by Zimmerman.   An attorney for Zimmerman said that his client is not racist and that the facts will show he acted in self-defense. Orlando criminal defense attorney Craig Sonner said Friday on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 that he has advised Zimmerman to cooperate in the investigation. Zimmerman told Sanford police that he shot Martin after a fight.  The controversy went national because Sanford police did not arrest Zimmerman or confiscate his weapon, saying he was shielded by Florida’s stand-your-ground law, which authorizes private citizens to use deadly force if they feel threatened with attack.

The Sanford police chief, who defended the decision not to arrest Zimmerman, has temporarily stepped down pending further investigation by state and federal authorities.  Many of the demonstrators in Wichita and elsewhere have joined in protest in what is being loosely termed the “Million Hoodie March,” a reference to the apparel item — a hooded sweatshirt — that appeared to have raised Zimmerman’s suspicions.  Marchers also waved cans of iced tea and bags of Skittles amid alternating chants of “I am Trayvon’s mother” and “I am Trayvon’s father.”

Treva Smith, marketing director for a home-health-care company, took time off from work to hold a sign reading “I love Skittles, iced tea and I’m black. Am I next?” She said she came to the march in support of Trayvon’s family.  “I don’t think justice has been served and I don’t think it’s going to be served,” she said.  Parrishon Marshall said the law has clearly failed.  “Kim Kardashian, they arrested someone for throwing flour on her, but nobody’s been arrested in this shooting,” she said.  While the marchers were predominantly African-American, a substantial number of white people also joined the protest.  Among them were the Rev. Gary Blaine, pastor of the Hearth, a Congregational church.
“Shoot first and ask questions later is part of the DNA of western society,” he said. “When you get those two things, racism and violence, wrapped together, it’s truly deadly.”

Mary Dean, a leader of the group Kansas Justice Advocates, said she was surprised by the turnout since she’d had only one day to get the word out.  “I really wasn’t expecting this big of a crowd,” she said. “People are really passionate about this issue.”  She carried a sign calling for the repeal of the stand-your-ground law.  “You can be walking with a hoodie and someone thinks you look suspicious and you can be shot? It’s scary,” she said.