People are always coming up to me and asking me how to fight a speeding ticket when they find out what I do for a living, so I thought it would be a good idea to write it down. That way, the next time someone asks me, I can just email them the article, or direct them to this blog.
However, you are one step ahead of them, because you found this article on your own. Good for you. So to reward you for your diligence, I'm going to give you the information first. So here it is, everything you need to know about how to fight a speeding ticket in Florida. There's so much information here, I had to break it up into two parts. Consider this Part I.
This article is limited to "Florida" as that it is the only place I've fought a speeding ticket. In fact, of the well over 500,000 traffic tickets my firm has fought (most of which are speeding tickets), not one of them has been anywhere but Florida, but I'm confident much of what I'm going to tell you will probably apply to other states as well.
As I've detailed here many times when you get a ticket in Florida, you have three options. You must inform the court of one of these within 30 days of when you got your ticket. Your options are to:
- Pay it (and get points)
- Pay it and elect traffic school (almost as bad as option one)
- Fight it (the option I almost always recommend)
But since this article is about teaching you "How to Fight a Speeding Ticket", we will focus on option 3. There is an additional benefit to choosing option 3 and that's because the ONLY way to actually beat a ticket in court is to fight that ticket. And fighting a ticket in Florida begins with you entering a plea (telling the court what you want to do) of "not guilty" at the courthouse and waiting for the court to set your matter down for trial.
Now that you've told the court you want to fight your speeding ticket, the only thing to do is wait. Depending on what part of Florida you are in, your wait can take anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months. Yes, you read that right, in some of the busier counties in the state, they are so backed up, that it can take almost 6 months to get your case to trial.
Should you care how long it takes? Heck no, the longer the better. In fact, here's a great tip, if it takes longer than 6 months for you to be brought to trial, you may be entitled to having the entire matter dismissed for violation of the "speedy trial rule." (this rule applies to all infractions, speeding or otherwise. I didn't want you to be confused because of the word "speedy."
Recent Comments