Can You Beat a Ticket by Pointing to Errors

My question involves traffic court in the State of: Massachusetts

I received a ticket for failing to signal in heavy traffic from middle to "LLANE" which I am assuming means left lane and also for going "90+ in a 65 zone". It was marked as a 90/17 speeding offense and was clocked and estimated but no radar was used.

First of all, I am nearly positive I wasn't even speeding (and absolutely positive my speed was below 70). In addition, I was never in the left lane between the time I got on the highway and was pulled over. But, before I even get into fighting the fact that I am not guilty of the supposed offenses, there are many problems with the ticket itself.

First off, the wrong date is on the ticket and I can very easily get a witness to support an alibi for what I was doing at the date and time on the citation. Second, the officer filled out a section of the ticket that it instructed the officer to only fill out if there was a criminal offense (the speeding violation and marked lanes violation were both marked as civil offenses). He also failed to sign the ticket and did not instruct me to sign the ticket while also failing to verbally tell me what my violation(s) were, all of which is required in Chapter 90C Section 2 of Massachusetts law which states the following:

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Said police officer shall inform the violator of the violation and shall give a copy of the citation to the violator. Such citation shall be signed by said police officer and by the violator, and whenever a citation is given to the violator in person that fact shall be so certified by the police officer. The violator shall be requested to sign the citation in order to acknowledge that is has been received.

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If this isn't enough, I believe I can get the video from the cruiser of the offense (correct me if I'm wrong) which will have the date and time. If I have access to this, I will be able to prove that I was never in the left lane and that the date is incorrect on the ticket.

In addition, I also can get a written testimony from a passenger (hopefully they will understand, I am a freshman in college and she is a high school senior in a town over an hour away and shouldn't miss school to attend my court hearing) regarding my speed and the fact that I was never in the left lane.

I feel like I have a strong case; I contacted an attorney's office and have a consultation within the next few days and hope to find one that won't be too expensive (ideally do not want to spend more than $150 in total) to help me with how I should go about everything in court. I am just wondering if it appears i can beat the ticket and also anything else I should do and/or have prepared for the hearing.

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Quoting NFG

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First off, the wrong date is on the ticket and I can very easily get a witness to support an alibi for what I was doing at the date and time on the citation. Second, the officer filled out a section of the ticket that it instructed the officer to only fill out if there was a criminal offense (the speeding violation and marked lanes violation were both marked as civil offenses). He also failed to sign the ticket and did not instruct me to sign the ticket while also failing to verbally tell me what my violation(s) were, all of which is required in Chapter 90C Section 2 of Massachusetts law which states the following:



If this isn't enough, I believe I can get the video from the cruiser of the offense (correct me if I'm wrong) which will have the date and time. If I have access to this, I will be able to prove that I was never in the left lane and that the date is incorrect on the ticket.

In addition, I also can get a written testimony from a passenger (hopefully they will understand, I am a freshman in college and she is a high school senior in a town over an hour away and shouldn't miss school to attend my court hearing) regarding my speed and the fact that I was never in the left lane.

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OK, so how difficult would it be to correct the date, you already sound like you know what the violations were, also have you sign the citation and have the officer sign it as well?

Better yet, if the date discrepancy is that big of an issue, then even if you can prove you were not there on that date, what are you doing in court making these arguments with a copy of the same citation you're arguing you were not there to receive?

And even more better :D, the questions that the court will likely put to the test are:

1) How do these errors impact the possibility of whether you committed the violations or not? And...

2) How did those errors impact your ability to defend yourself?

I don't see any prejudicial effect at all actually, maybe you can come up with something!

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Quoting NFG

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I received a ticket for failing to signal in heavy traffic from middle to "LLANE" which I am assuming means left lane and also for going "90+ in a 65 zone". It was marked as a 90/17 speeding offense and was clocked and estimated but no radar was used.

First of all, I am nearly positive I wasn't even speeding (and absolutely positive my speed was below 70). In addition, I was never in the left lane between the time I got on the highway and was pulled over.

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So are you claiming it was mistaken identity or are you suggesting that the officer made the violations up?

Because simply saying "I wasn't speeding and I was never in the left lane" is not likely to win you the case!

I would wait and see what the attorney has to say... My guess is that he will either try to (if he agrees to represent you) or suggest that you should see what kind of plea bargain you can get. But to suggest an outright dismissal, I think that is afar fetched assumption!

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Quoting That Guy

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OK, so how difficult would it be to correct the date, you already sound like you know what the violations were, also have you sign the citation and have the officer sign it as well?

Better yet, if the date discrepancy is that big of an issue, then even if you can prove you were not there on that date, what are you doing in court making these arguments with a copy of the same citation you're arguing you were not there to receive?

And even more better :D, the questions that the court will likely put to the test are:

1) How do these errors impact the possibility of whether you committed the violations or not? And...

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I know they CAN argue that but there are a lot of unquestionable errors on the citation. I really would want to avoid this route if possible but if he made so many errors on a single citation, can't his judgement be questioned?

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2) How did those errors impact your ability to defend yourself?

I don't see any prejudicial effect at all actually, maybe you can come up with something!

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How could I defend myself? He didn't even tell me what my violations were until I asked after he handed me the ticket, license, and registration two feet away from the highway. And he didn't even mention the lane violation.

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So are you claiming it was mistaken identity or are you suggesting that the officer made the violations up?

Because simply saying "I wasn't speeding and I was never in the left lane" is not likely to win you the case!

I would wait and see what the attorney has to say... My guess is that he will either try to (if he agrees to represent you) or suggest that you should see what kind of plea bargain you can get. But to suggest an outright dismissal, I think that is afar fetched assumption!

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I am saying he made the violations up to try and get a college student for driving drunk - I have a sticker of my college on my car. I absolutely was not going anywhere near 90 mph, let alone above. I don't see how it's a far-fetched assumption, from the very beginning he was trying to find alcohol and was visibly frustrated that there was nothing, which very well may have led to him making the errors on the citation and giving me the maximum fine short of a criminal violation.

The wrong date and the officer’s failure to sign the citation are your best defenses. Clerk-Magistrates and judges generally don’t care whether a citation is signed by the violator or not. However, a citation not signed by the issuing police officer is very likely to get dismissed. Also, the law does not require the police to verbally tell you what the violations were, the citation speaks for itself.