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Trial by Written Declaration

Reli

Reli

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Location
east bay
Moto(s)
01 929
Name
reli
Just curious what do all these "ticket buster" companies do that I couldn't do myself? They say they'll take care of the paperwork with the court. They're talking about the "trial by written declaration" where you get the chance to explain your side. Has anyone seen a copy of what they write on your behalf? Just curious what they write that I couldn't write myself.
 
I dont know what they do, but from what I have read there are a number of things they can do like request recent calibration records of radar guns, cameras etc. Basically if they dont respond in a certain amount of time it could get you off the hook.
 
They tell you who to call, where to send them, examples which have worked for others, and you can write your won and submit them to the site for review.
However, yeah they really aren't much help.
 
Actually they claim they write the form themselves. But you still need to pay the ticket in advance, to the court. And then there's the fee for the company.
 
I believe it is all on the "notice to appear"; you can write an explanation, (lose prolly), do a "trial du novo" (or something) and appear finally and see what happens. I don't think they can do anything more than take your money.

I did once use a firm in SSF who managed to offset the fine to more than cover their fine.
 
I used them before and they took my one page paper and turned it into a 12 page report stating facts and using laws and regulations that I had no clue about.

I beat the ticket.
 
Entoptic said:
I used them before and they took my one page paper and turned it into a 12 page report stating facts and using laws and regulations that I had no clue about.
I beat the ticket.
Click to expand...

well, there ya go. if there is a mistake in the execution of the violation they may find it. could be a worthwhile gamble.
 
Do you have anything easily recognizable about yourself? My old boss received a ticket in the city ages ago and the officer used the word "hippie" during their interaction. He definitely looked like a hippie, but it offended him and they threw it out when he mentioned it in court. The way he told the story was really quite funny and it made me want to test out the theory, aside from that whole perjury thing.
 
I got out of a ticket on my own, using trial by declaration. Aside from the time going to the post office and sending certified mail, I spent 15 minutes total on it once I read how to do it. Seems like if you didn't have much competition you could make pretty good money doing this for people at what I hear is around $100 per.
 
It depends. When "a friend" got a ticket in SF the lawyer from a company, who probably plays golf with the judge, went instead of "a friend" and changed it from speeding ticket to "blocking intersection" with slightly higher fine, but none point violation. "A friend" got a feeling it's a regular thing. Which kind of of shows the scam the city is running.

"A friend" used another service for speeding ticket on HW9. They wrote a written declaration that looked like it made sense. The officer never replied, so can't tell if it was good or not.

Bottom line is you can do all of this yourself. The question is how much your time is worth, and how good you are at writing and knowing the law. As someone who sat in a one or two traffic courts I can tell you most people incriminate themselves within 5 minutes of opening their mouths. Also if "judge" sees you are not a lawyer they try to steam roll through you.
 
i've gotten out of several tickets this way. i used to use ticket assassin's templates.

i've even gone as far as just putting 'not guilty' on the plea and still getting out of the tickets. in my experience it wasn't really what was written, just that they don't fill out their side of the paperwork causing it to be 'dismissed'.

these were my days of living in the san jose suburbs when i got tickets all the time. living in the city now i haven't gotten a ticket in a long time now so not sure what the current effectiveness is. for sure it'll be your best option if you can't do traffic school though.
 
Hmm. So I've found there are two different types of firms. One is actual traffic lawyers. The others are called "legal document preparers".

Ticket Clinic is the former.
Ticket Bust is the latter.

Apparently there's no need to use the former unless you see the need for an in-person hearing?

However, perhaps their success rate is higher, since an in-person hearing would require the officer to show up. In contrast, if you do a Trial by Written Declaration, all the officer has to do is submit a written statement.
 
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I once read the officer is paid to go to the hearing, and they almost always show up, where as they might not get paid to do the extra paper work (sounds be but who knows) and they often have better things to do, so your written declaration has a chance of going unchallenged, in which case you win by default.

The only time I tried it I didn't wiggle out of the ticket.
 
I use ticketbust.com they basically take your statement and turn it into a legal case. Mine came out to be about 6 pages. They break it down into anything that would help your case. In mine they cited previous court cases that were similar that the judge ruled in the defendants favor. They used the wording of the cvc as a defence in part of it also they pointed out how the officer was not in a very good position on the highway to say he saw what he saw.

They send you all the forms to print and fill out along with your legal case, then you have to send it in.

When fighting a case by written declaration beware that you have to submit a check to the court to pay for the fine in case you lose. If you win they take out 50$ and refund the remainder.

I've won 2 cases using this. The one just got tossed out and I lost 0 dollars not even the 50$ process fees.
 
Did it myself and lost stop light ticket (Not a camera) :dunno

Search "Declaration" lots of info here on how to DIY.
 
Aj510 said:
When fighting a case by written declaration beware that you have to submit a check to the court to pay for the fine in case you lose. If you win they take out 50$ and refund the remainder.

I've won 2 cases using this. The one just got tossed out and I lost 0 dollars not even the 50$ process fees.
Click to expand...

What county was this in where you had to pay a processing fee after being found innocent or after charges being dismissed?
 
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