I recently had been ticketed for 70/45 in a work zone. The offense took place in Detroit, and if paid for without contest, would have costed me more than $250 in fines plus hundreds of dollars more in insurance costs, especially since I'm a younger driver.
Anyway, I set a formal hearing date at the 36th District Court and showed up. The officer showed up and signed into the courtroom, but left for a break or something similar, and wasn't in the room at the time (typical officer break habits). When I was called, I pointed that out and motioned for dismissal. The matter was dismissed before me in seconds, despite the fact that the officer had signed in, and didn't just recall the case.
The point is that you should ALWAYS fight your ticket if you were ticketed in a large city, since the chances that the officer doesn't show up or isn't present in the room increase significantly. That day, about 50% of the traffic cases were dismissed due to an officer no-show. After speaking with the prosecution, I learned that that percentage is similar in most other large cities. The belief around here that the officer always shows for a court date may be true in smaller, less populated juridictions, but in larger ones, the system is usually much more complex and confusing, and some sort of miscommunication is beyond common.
But one thing confused me. I was in a courtroom which called traffic civil infractions along with other charges, like misdemeanor offfenses such as drug possession and DUIs. There was a defense counsel team who were there for assisting those with more serious charges, and spoke on behalf of them. But when I was initially called, there was a defense counsel who started to talk for me also. Eventually, I cut him off and told him to sit down, since I didn't want any other counsel. I was always under the impression that for civil infractions, defendants don't get any court-appointed counsel, especially since they are decriminalized in Michigan. So why was there one here??? I didn't even know who the person was, nor had I ever even engaged in conversation with the person; how can he defend on my behalf?

