Some people just have a knack for getting out of Traffic tickets. Unfortunately, I am NOT one of those people. If I ever catch the unfortunate sight of flashing lights in my rear-view mirror, rest assured that a $200 Ticket is going to be in my immediate future.

Case in point, I received a ticket a few months ago for making an illegal left turn out of the local YMCA.  The interesting part about this particular situation was that I totally disagreed with the officer’s read on the situation.When he pulled me over, I was very respectful to the officer–as I always am. I told him that I had no idea what I had done wrong.

The officer informed me that I had made an illegal left turn out of the parking lot, and wrote me a ticket for a “failure to obey a Traffic Control device.” This was surprising to me, because I had made that same turn dozens of times, and had seen countless other cars do the same. There were no signs or markings on the pavement that indicated that left turns were not allowed, but instead there was only a slightly angled curb that angled to the right at the end of the parking lot. I had always assumed that the curb was angled that way to discourage people from making left turns INTO the parking lot, and I never had considered that left turns were not allowed.

Of course, I noted to the officer that there were no signs or anything indicating that it was an illegal turn, but he was determined to give me a ticket one way or another. He seemed a bit nervous when he returned with the ticket and simply informed me that if I had an issue with the ticket I was welcome to fight it in Court.

Fighting a Traffic Ticket

To most people, “fighting a ticket” in court means simply hiring a lawyer to show up on your behalf to plea bargain the charge down to a smaller non-moving violation. Many people do this when they get speeding tickets to keep the ticket off their record, and in turn- to keep their insurance rates down.

However, hiring a lawyer to fight a traffic ticket for you doesn’t come without a cost. Unless your cousin Vinny is a lawyer, it will likely cost you $200-$300 out of pocket. In my scenario, I just couldn’t swallow this. Why should I have to pay big money to fight this when I had done nothing wrong? Nope. I was going to have to figure out how to fight this myself.

Doing Your Research

Naturally, I was quite upset by this whole situation. A ticket of this kind would cost nearly $200, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. I knew right away that I was going to do everything that I could to fight this ticket. When I got home, I started searching online for the statute I had been charged with. The ticket stated that I had “failed to obey a traffic control device,” presumably implying that the angled curb was a traffic control device. On a Missouri State website, I found a link to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).  In this official document, I found exactly what I was looking for:

“Section 900.1.8 Authority for Placement of Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD Section 1A.08)

My Court Date

In a way, I was kind of excited to go to traffic court to fight the charge against me. I had never gotten an inside look at the justice system like this, and I was curious to see how it all played out. I printed out a copy of the manual that I had found and brought along some pictures of the intersection. I practiced what I would say in front of the mirror and tried to imagine what the judge and prosecuting attorney would come back with. But once the night of my scheduled court appearance arrived, I never got the chance to tell my side of the story.

Instead, I learned that this “court date” was actually just an arraignment, or a chance to plead guilty or not-guilty. We wouldn’t be allowed to present our side of the case. If I wanted a trial, it would be held at a later date. The first portion of the evening was where all of the lawyers who were present were given the chance to speak to the judge in a semi-private setting. Their conversations were brief and light hearted, and the court happily lowered about a dozen charges for only a handshake and some court costs.

Next, the judge spoke for about ten minutes, explaining how the arraignment would proceed. He told us we had the right to plead innocent to the charges against us, but advised strongly against it. He said that we would be up against a prosecuting attorney who knows the law inside and out, and who tries cases like ours every single day. If we wanted to have any chance at all, he explained, we should strongly consider hiring an attorney. His stern words seemed to have quite an affect on the rest of the defendants, as the first dozen that were called to the stand all pleaded “guilty” to the charges against them, many of them asking the judge if they could go to traffic school to wipe a ticket from their record.

When my name was called, I approached the bench and without hesitation told them that I would be pleading “not guilty.” The judge took off his glasses and looked me up and down. He again reminded me of the District Attorney’s courtroom prowess and suggested that I speak with a lawyer if I wanted to fight the ticket. I responded that the officer was in the wrong when he wrote me the ticket, and I didn’t think that I should have to pay $200 for the officer’s mistake. He sighed, handed me a piece of paper with my official court date (four months in the future), and called the next name on his list.

Writing To The Prosecuting Attorney

I wasn’t sure exactly how I should feel after the arraignment. I had pushed through my nervousness and handled myself in a professional manner. I was still confident that I was in the right, and that I could win if given the opportunity to state my case. But I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps the judge’s words carried some weight. Maybe I was foolish to think that I could handle navigating the chummy waters of a courtroom without an attorney by my side. I decided to reach out to a friend who worked for a nearby city attorney’s office, to get his read on the situation.

Thankfully, my friend had some great advice. He said that without a doubt, the court didn’t want to take my case to trial. Something like this was “small potatoes” and the last thing the prosecuting attorney would want to do is to spend the time and resources required to fight something like this. He said that the statute that I found about the traffic control devices should be enough to clear my name, but that I should try and and settle beforehand. The easiest way to do this, was to write a letter to the prosecuting attorney, stating the details of my case, and asking if they would consider dismissing or lowering the charges against me.

A part of me was a bit nervous to reach out to the prosecutor, as I would be handing them my entire defense on a platter. If they still wanted to prosecute me, they would have the time to tear about the traffic codes even further, to potentially shut down my argument. But the more I thought about it, the more I started to think that this wasn’t a probable outcome. When the attorney saw the details of the ticket, which were clearly bogus, they would most likely move for dismissal. So I typed up the letter, and sent it off.

Three weeks later, I finally received a reply. I nervously opened the letter, and what I found is shown below. Nolle Prosequi, This case is now closed. In other words, a formal notice of abandonment by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit or action. Yes, I fought the law, and I won.

Ahh, the smell of sweet justice.