January 19th 2010 by Natalio Pereira
How to Fight a Photo-enforced Ticket in Five Easy Steps
1. Fight the red-light camera ticket in a California court, if you are not in the photograph at all.
Although the judge could fine you for contempt of court if you refuse to snitch on the driver, in most cases your ticket will be dismissed when you refuse to answer the first time.
2. Fight the ticket if you were not the driver, but a passenger (Caution on this step).
Try to stay out of court and fight the ticket by mail. If you refuse to answer in court, the judge can fine you for contempt of court for a question which you likely know the answer to as a passenger.
When you fight the ticket by mail, the police will ask you who was the driver. Legally, you can't be compelled to answer or remember that in your reply. If you were a passenger and not the driver, don't mention that in your reply. You should not make the police's job easier.
It's possible the police officer will fail to make the connection that you were a passenger in the photograph. What the police will probably do is pull the photos of everybody living at your address and try to identify the driver. If they can't, you will probably win.
3. Make an informal discovery request
Your discovery request should be long and thorough for the red light camera. The request should include at least the following:
- a copy of the original contract between the government agency and the red light camera vendor, including all updates, ammendments, renewals, extensions, revisions, etc.
- all invoices from the red light camera vendor to the government agency
- maintenance records for the red light camera
- high-resolution images taken to identify the driver
- the entire 12 second sequence of the red light video
- first five warning tickets and last five warning tickets for each approach, as required by California Vehicle Code 21455.5. Confidential information about the driver should be redacted.
- radar speed survey within 1/2 mile of the intersection
- signal timing charts for the intersection
- the source code used in programming the red light camera
4. Apply for a trial by written declaration - only if you are sure you want to fight the ticket instead of going to traffic school.
This step will require much more work from you, but you may end-up saving yourself $500, points on your driving record, and possibly increased driving costs. For someone who drives for a living, this step is definitely worth it.
A police officer in California gets paid overtime to show-up in court, but generally gets paid nothing for a trial by written declaration. In 30% of cases, the cop doesn't fill out his written declaration at all, which will lead to your case being dismissed.
5. If you lose during the trial by written declaration, get a trial by de Novo and go to court to tell your story to the judge.
Only in traffic cases can a defendant get a second shot at winning.