Will this be useful in court?

[GnarMachine]

I am a younger driver in MA (you lose your license for 90 days with your first speeding ticket here if you're under 18). However I am as close to positive as I can be that I wasn't speeding.

So far I have a plotted map showing that my braking distance was significantly less than what it would have been had I been going the ticketed (supposedly radar'd) speed.

I also have a number of letters from friends, my employers, and a school internship program noting that I use my license for work, I use my license for school, and that I am a very cautious driver. I also am working on getting a letter from my driving school instructor (took driver's ed sort of recently, as I am a younger driver) noting that I am a skilled and cautious driver.

The conditions out on the road at the time also would not have permitted me to be going the speed the officer claims I was.

Will these things be of a benefit to me in court?

Thanks for any help!

[Stealth Stalker]

If you go in there with that information, and present it intelligently and without attitude, that is about the best you can do to hope for the judge to give you a deferred deal. But if it goes to trial, they are going to rip you apart. Especially if you don't know how fast you were going, only "close to positive" that it wasn't speeding.

I dunno about how they handle it for juvenilles in MA, but chances are you are probably better off just giving the thing to a lawyer and forgetting about it.

I hate lawyers with a passion. They should all be tortured to death on the courthouse steps. But, unfortunately, they write the rules to the game you are playing. If the matter is really important to you, then you MUST get a lawyer to handle it. Any other course of action is admitting to the court that you really don't care about the matter, or about their system.

[GnarMachine]

Thanks for the reply. I am absolutely positive I was not speeding, although from what I have heard of others, telling a judge or magistrate that you were simply not speeding comes off as arrogant. So I'll have to see what happens, though I know for a fact I was actually slightly under the speed limit since I had been driving a bit more cautiously for the conditions (my car doesn't handle exceptionally well in the wet) and I had been coasting down a slight incline.

I wish I could get a lawyer, although I simply cannot afford one, as they want to charge what seems like an arm and a leg.

Is there a good way to say that I positively know I wasn't speeding? I could use the most polite tone possible, but still feel that it would come off as insistent and a bit rude.

Thanks again for the reply.

[GnarMachine]

Does anyone else have another opinion on this or anything to share?

[Suf Daddy]

Still have to beat the ticket on its merits.

The CM hearing may actually work for you.

Its your first shot and you get a do over called an "appeal the finding/decision"

Don't admit to anything as the officer reading the citation will take notes for if it goes to trial.

-Suf

[Montu]

what method was used to determine your speed?