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Can You Avoid a Speeding Ticket?


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                        Picture: Denny Muller

Speeding tickets can be more than just frustrating. Depending on your history and how fast you were driving, you might risk losing your license or having it suspended. Some people even struggle to obtain car insurance or have their premiums skyrocket. With these severe consequences in mind, you might be curious about whether you can avoid the full repercussions of a speeding ticket. You might have some luck with these tips below:

Seek Legal Help

Not everyone will contact a traffic ticket attorney after receiving a traffic ticket. However, it might be worthwhile considering. Traffic ticket attorneys can use their years of experience to potentially reduce your charges or have your speeding ticket overturned in court.

Your lawyer might be able to help you prove that the speed limit signage wasn’t clearly visible or that you weren’t speeding at all. Sometimes, stating that the authorities couldn’t provide evidence to prove their speeding ticket is warranted is enough to secure a desirable outcome.

Don’t Apologize for Speeding

Police officers pull people over for many different reasons, like having a light out or failing to indicate. You might think the officer pulled you over for speeding, but you don’t have to admit that to them or apologize for speeding. In fact, it’s best that you don’t. Apologizing for exceeding the speed limit is admitting that you were breaking the law. They can then use that information against you.

Be Pleasant

Police officers deal with angry and frustrated people every day. This, in turn, can make them angry and frustrated. You might provide them with a different experience just by being pleasant. When they approach your window, ask them how their day is going and make small talk. A small amount of humanization in a police-to-civilian conversation might make it harder for the police officer to give you a ticket. There’s no harm in trying your luck!

Ask for a Warning

Depending on how far above the speed limit you were going, you might avoid a speeding ticket just by asking not to get one. Engage in a polite discussion with the police officer and ask if it would be possible to receive a warning instead. The worst that can happen is they say no. If they do, accept your ticket and carry on with your day. You can then start thinking about other ways to reduce or eliminate your violation.

Request a Continuance

Whether you’ve enlisted the services of a traffic ticket attorney or not, you might be able to ask the courts for a continuance. This involves delaying proceedings until a later date. Receiving a continuance doesn’t mean you’ll get out of a traffic ticket, but it might provide some desirable benefits.

You’ll have more time to prepare your defense and gather evidence. In the meantime, the officer who gave you a ticket might have a less clear memory of what happened on that day. That might work in your favor.

There is no sure-fire way to avoid a speeding ticket. However, you have plenty of options for trying to reduce the violation or have the ticket thrown out. Try some of these tips and tricks above, and you might avoid the serious speeding ticket repercussions you thought you couldn’t escape.