fight your ticket and win in california 14th (2011)

Attorney David W. Brown
Fight
14th Edition
• Successfully present your case in court
• Challenge speeding citations and other violations
• Determine if your ticket is beatable
California
in
Ticket & Win
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 e Trusted Name
(but don’t take our word for it)
14th edition
Fight Your Ticket
& Win
in California
Attorney David W. Brown
LAW for ALL
FOURTEENTH EDITION JULY 2011
Editor JINAH LEE

Cover Design SUSAN PUTNEY
Production MARGARET LIVINGSTON
Proofreading ROBERT WELLS
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Brown, David Wayne, 1949-
Fight your ticket & win in California / by David W. Brown. — 14th ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Summary: “Provides proven techniques for challenging nearly every type of traffi c violation in California courts.
 e 14th edition is updated to incorporate changes in California law, enforcement policies and fi nes”—Provided
by publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4133-1396-3 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-4133-1396-5 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4133-1573-8 (epub e-book)
1. Traffi c violations—California—Popular works. 2. Traffi c courts—California—Popular works. I. Title. II.
Title: Fight your ticket and win in California.
KFC477.B76 2011
345.794'0247—dc22
2011002078
Copyright © 1982, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011 by
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Acknowledgments
is book could not have been published without the generous assistance of many people.
I’d especially like to gratefully acknowledge the major contributions of Ralph (“Jake”)
Warner and Peter Jan Honigsberg, whose incisive editing and folksy phraseology have
added readability, clarity, and brevity to this book.
Also, a big smile and an even bigger chuckle for Linda Allison, whose characteristically
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anks also to Nolo editors Spencer Sherman, Janet Portman, Patti Gima, Lisa Guerin,
Rich Stim, Albin Renauer, and Steve Elias.
Special thanks to Attorney David Olenczuk, who has been putting this book to practical
use while developing even more elaborate strategies to contest unjust traffic tickets. David
incorporated these strategies into the sixth edition and essentially made it a new book.
Finally, many thanks to the webmaster of www.highwayrobbery.net, for his thorough
critique (on the site) of the 11th and 12th editions. He has helped to make each
subsequent edition a more up-to-date resource.

Table of Contents
Your Legal Companion for Fighting Your Ticket
1
First ings
A Typical Case 4
Should You Fight Your Ticket? 4
Overview Chart 6
2
How to Read Your Ticket
What Are You Charged With? 10
Are You Really Guilty? 10

Other Information on Your Ticket 12
Types of Tickets 13
3
What Are the Consequences?
Fines, Jail, Your “Record,” and Insurance
Generally 18
Overview of Specific Violations 24
Out-of-State Tickets 28
4
Speed Violations and Radar
e “Basic Speed Law” (VC §§ 22350, 22351) 32
“Technical” Defenses to Basic Speed Law Charge 33
Substantive Defenses to Basic Speed Law Charge 39
Speeding on Bridges, Tunnels, and Overpasses (VC § 22405) 43
Exceeding Maximum Speed Limits—55 to 70 mph
(VC §§ 22349, 22356) 44
All About Radar 46
“Laser” Detectors 57
5
Other Moving Violations
Not Stopping 61
Improper Turning (VC §§ 22100–22106) 62
Being Rude (Miscellaneous Violations) 66
Non-DUI Alcohol-Related Offenses 74
Illegal Drug Use/Possession 77
Motorcycle Helmet Laws (VC § 27803) 77
Violations Involving Accidents and Insurance 77
6
Tickets at Don’t Appear on Your Record
Parking Tickets 82

Equipment, License, and Registration Violations 84
Other Nonmoving Violations 87
Federal Government Tickets 90
7
e Serious Offenses (Misdemeanors)
Generally 94
Common Vehicle Code Misdemeanors 95
Reduction of Misdemeanor Offense to Infraction 106
8
Driving Under the Influence (DUI)
e Offenses 109
Penalties the Court Can Impose 113
How Alcohol Interacts With Your Body 116
Blood or Breath Tests for Alcohol 120
License Suspension Penalties and Procedures 126
Dealing With a DUI Charge 127
9
Should You Fight Your Ticket/
Should You Get a Lawyer?
ings to Consider 136
Do You Need a Lawyer? 141
10
Fighting an Infraction Citation
Preliminary Steps for Fighting an Infraction 150
Contacting the Court Clerk 165
Arraignment 168
Requests You Can Make at Arraignment 172
Motions After Arraignment 183
After Your Motion Is Granted or Denied 228
Courts Refusing to Hear Motions Before Trial 228

11
Preparing for Trial
Overview of Formal Infraction Trial With Officer Present 232
Getting Your Materials Together 233
Motions You May Want to Make Before Trial 242
Preparing to Deal With the Officer’s Testimony 244
Testimony Presented on Your Behalf 281
Cross-Examination by the Prosecution 287
Final Argument 288
12
Trials Before a Judge (Without a Jury)
Introduction 290
Understanding the Courtroom 291
Trial Procedure 292
13
Handling a Misdemeanor Charge:
Arraignment to Jury Trial
Introduction 304
Arraignment 304
Making Deals 306
Selecting the Jury 307
Trial Procedure 311
Jury Instructions 313
Closing Arguments 317
e Judge Instructs the Jury 319
14
Sentencing
Time for Sentencing 322
Possible Sentences 322
Motions to Vacate Sentence 325

If You Appeal 330
15
License Suspensions by the DMV
Too Many Violations or Accidents 332
Driving With a BAC of 0.08% or More 335
Refusal to Take a Blood, Breath, or Roadside “PAS” Test 336
Automatic Suspension or Revocation 338
Holding a License in Abeyance 341
16
Appealing a Conviction
Possible Grounds for Appeal 345
e Steps in an Appeal 350
17
Staying Out of Trouble
Avoiding the Traffic Officer 386
Being Pulled Over 390
Talking to the Officer 392
Arrests, Searches, and Seizures 399
Preparing for Your Trial—Notes and Pictures 403
Accident Citations 403
18
Where Do We Go From Here?
A
Blank Forms
Informal Discovery Request
Proof of Service by Mail
Request for Trial by Written Declaration
Request for New Trial (Trial de Novo)
Demand for Court Report or Electronic Recording of Proceedings
Peremptory Challenge

Order to Attend Court or Provide Documents
Notice of Appeal and Record of Oral Proceedings (Infraction)
Proposed Statement on Appeal (Infraction)
Index
Your Legal Companion for
Fighting Your Ticket
Y
our first thoughts after getting a ticket
might be:
•Iwonderifmyinsurancewillgoup.
•ShouldIjustpaytheticket?(Afterall,
didn’tIbreakthelaw?)
•Willthestaterevokemylicense?
Police officers know that very few people—
perhaps one out of 50—ever contest their
tickets. ose who do fight are often so
unprepared and nervous that they have a tough
time winning. Occasionally police officers cite
motorists in borderline situations where the
ticket may or may not stand up in court even
if the motorist bothered to contest. In some
situations, the police officer may be convinced
that the ticket was merited and—with all due
respect to the officer—you may feel quite
differently.
It all comes down to whether or not you want
to take on the system and fight your ticket.
e message of this book is a simple one. If
you want to fight your ticket—whether for
parking or for a moving violation—you can

only do so effectively if you’re well prepared and
know your rights.
To help you fight your ticket, we:
•instructyouonhowtolookup,read,and
understand the specific law you allegedly
violated so you might discover a few
technicalities of your own (Chapter 2)
•explainthevarioustraclawsthataremost
commonly violated (Chapters 4–8)
•tellyouwhichviolationsgoonyourrecord
and which ones are likely to raise your
insurance rates (Chapter 3)
•explorethemostcommongroundsfor
defending against a ticket issued under
these laws (Chapters 4–8), and
•provideinstructionsonhowtousethese
defenses to get your ticket dismissed
(Chapters 4–8).
We also:
•helpyoudecidewhethertoghttheticket
(Chapter 9)
•giveyoustep-by-stepguidanceonthe
necessary procedures for fighting your
ticket, suggest effective shortcuts and tactics
where appropriate, and explain how the
sentencing process works in case you lose
(Chapters 10–14), and
•showyouwhenandhowtoappeala
conviction, and how to fight a license
suspension by the DMV, should the worst

happen (Chapters 15–16).
Finally, in Chapter 17, you’ll find tips on
what to do the next time a police officer pulls
you over. You’ll learn how to be a good observer
and look for things that will help you fight your
ticket more effectively later on. And in Chapter
18 we have a few suggestions for how the traffic
enforcement system can be improved.
In summary, if you have a reason and a
motivation to fight your ticket, this book is
your how-to manual, guiding you through
the process and explaining the traffic laws in a
down-to-earth, easy-to-understand manner.
●

1
CHAPTER
First ings
A Typical Case 4
Should You Fight Your Ticket? 4
Overview Chart 6
4 | FIGHT YOUR TICKET & WIN IN CALIFORNIA
A Typical Case
You’re driving home from your friend’s place
after a beau tiful, romantic Friday evening. It’s
2:30 in the morning. As you’re reflecting on
this, you suddenly realize you took a wrong
turn someplace. You’re now in the middle of a
quiet residential district and realize you should
turn around. You look for traffic coming from

either direction and all you see is a car parked
about three blocks away with its headlights on,
so you make a U-turn.
Suddenly, in your rear view mirror you see a
flashing red and blue light that seemingly grows
out of the parked car. You begin to pull over to
the right to let it pass. Instead, the car follows
you to the curb. You realize you’ve just been
pulled over by the police. As soon as your car
stops, the officer has his high-intensity spotlight
pointed at you. en, you hear his door slam,
the sound of gravel under his boots, and
finally you see a big, grim face just behind the
flashlight pointed into your eyes.
Before you get a chance to ask him what’s
the problem, he says, “May I see your driver’s
license, please?” You fumble through your wallet,
slowly and carefully, since he has his hand
uncomfortably close to the butt of what looks
to be a very big gun. Finally, hands shaking
slightly, you hand him your license. (Don’t you
feellikeacommoncriminal?)
e police officer returns to his car and uses
the radio. A minute later he returns, hands
you your license, and unemotionally says, “You
made an unlawful U-turn in a residential district.
Sign here, please.” He then thrusts a three-part
form in your face. You meekly sign the ticket
(which he tells you is not an admission of guilt,
but merely a promise to appear), and he hands

you a copy. You gaze at the ticket, wondering
how this could be happening to you. e officer
spins out, off to catch another “criminal.”
If you don’t fight the ticket, you may very well
end up:
•payinganeyoucanbarelyaord
•payingahigherinsurancepremiumforthe
next three to five years, and
•startingoraddingtoabaddrivingrecord
with the DMV.
Should You Fight Your Ticket?
Doesitmakesenseforyoutoghtyourticket?
e answer is that it depends. ere are some
people who almost always answer this question
with a proud and forceful “Yes!” unless they
have done something incredibly stupid or dan-
gerous (such as driving through a busy school
zone at 50 mph). But there are others who
don’t believe in spending large amounts of time
fighting cases where there is but a small chance
of winning. It might be wise to try to separate
the hope less cases from those with a reasonable
chance of success. (On the other hand,
thousands of seemingly hope less cases are won
when police officers fail to show up in court to
testify.) A determined person can achieve great
success in traffic court if he or she knows what
to do.
In deciding whether or not to fight, you
should first con sider the consequences of giving

up and paying the ticket. Will your insurance
ratesincrease?Willyouincreaseyourchances
oflosingyourlicense?Canyougetyourcase
dismissedbyattendingtracschool?Doyou
want to spend the time and effort it will take to
ghtyourticketeectively?isbookwillhelp
you answer all these questions.
Once you understand the consequences of
not fighting your ticket, you should try to
determine your chances of winning, taking into
account these tips:
CHAPTER 1 | FIRST THINGS | 5
•emainwaytobeattracticketsisto
request a trial with the officer present and
then get the ticket dis missed when the
officer doesn’t show up. ere’s a chance this
might happen to you. You may want to try
your luck. You’ve got nothing to lose but
your time.
•Eveniftheocerdoesshowup,“guilt”
(and “innocence”) is often a matter of
subjective inter pretation. For example,
under California law it’s not illegal to drive
45 mph in a 35 mph zone if it is possible
to show that your 45 mph speed was safe
under the circumstances. (See Chapter 4 on
speed violations.)
•Youmightnotbeguiltyofaparticular
violation, even if you think you are. When
you read the Vehicle Code section, you

will find that the offense you are accused
of committing is more complex than you
might have thought. It may be that you
didn’t do all the things that the prosecution
must prove in order to convict you. We
tell you in the next chapter how to read a
Vehicle Code section with this in mind.
ere are indeed the situations in which
you were in fact scrupulously obeying the law
and the police officer just plain got it wrong.
e radar gun was used improperly, the police
officer’s visual perspective resulted in a mistake,
you were accused of rolling through a stop
sign when in fact you did come to a complete
stop. When you get a ticket under these
circumstances, and realize that you will have to
undergo what can be a considerable hassle to
fight it, you will most likely be torn between
giving it a good fight and cutting your losses by
paying your fine and getting on with your life.
What about the times when you were doing
something wrong, but not wrong enough, in
your opinion, to warrant intervention by a
policeocer?Whilemostpeoplemanageto
obey every traffic rule when they take their
driving test, there are few—if any—drivers
who continue to be the model of good driving
once they get their license. Rather, the aver age
driver tends to find an individual compromise
between fanatical adherence to the law and

unsafe behavior. Most people will commonly
technically violate one or more traffic rules
virtually every time they get in their car—but
usually not, if ever, under circumstances that
pose any danger to them selves or others. In
fact, traveling a few miles over the speed limit
on a clear and dry road will tend to put you
among the snails rather than the greyhounds.
When people are behaving badly or stupidly
in their cars, they are inclined to welcome
a ticket (after some initial grumbling) as a
warning to get their act in order. e prob-
lem is, many tickets are given not for bad or
stupid behavior but rather for insignificant
violations of obscure rules in a book—things
that are, in the classic sense, “mere technical-
ities.” How many times have you seen cars run
red lights with impunity, only to find the blue
light flashing when you have rolled through a
stop sign—however cautiously—at four o’clock
inthemorningatadesertedintersection?e
problem is, when mere technical violations end
up costing $250 in fines, adding points to your
driving record and dollars to your insurance
rates, they have a way of getting under your
skin. You don’t think you deserved the ticket.
Why do the police waste time on you, when
theycouldbedoingseriouswork?
In this situation too, you may wish to fight
your ticket, either for economic reasons or

because you’re just plain mad at being singled
out for what most people do without getting
caught. is book is for you, whether or not
you’re an innocent victim. However, you should
understand that:
6 | FIGHT YOUR TICKET & WIN IN CALIFORNIA
•Beingsingledoutisn’tnormallya
defense unless you can establish that the
discrimination was for vindictive purposes
(almost impossible to do).
•Beingalittleguiltystillmeansyou’reguilty,
although the judge may cut your fine.
•Forthemostpart,thetraccourtsystem
is ineffi cient and corrupt, packed with
police- oriented judges who care more
about feathering their own nests than about
justice. (More on this in Chapter 18.)
In short, to win a traffic ticket fight, you must
either obtain a dismissal or convince the judge
you were innocent.
Parking tickets have their own logic. ese
tickets are given more to fill the city’s coffers
than to regulate parking. e procedures for
fighting parking tickets are quite differ ent from
the procedures for fighting traffic tickets.
Overview Chart
e following chart shows the structure of the
book in graphic form.
Abbreviations Used in is Book
We use these standard abbreviations

throughout this book for important statutes
and court cases.
California Codes
B&P Business & Professions
CCP Civil Procedure
H&S Health & Safety
PC Penal Code
VC Vehicle Code
Federal Laws
U.S.C. United States Code
Cases
A. or A.2d Atlantic Reporter
Cal. App. California Court of Appeal
Cal. Rptr. California Court of Appeal
and California Supreme Court
Cal. California Supreme Court
F. Supp. United States District Court
F.2d or F.3d United States Court of Appeal
P. or P.2d Pacific Reporter
S. Ct. United States Supreme Court
U.S. United States Supreme Court
Rules of Court
CRC California Rules of Court
Opinions
Ops. Cal. California Attorney General
Atty. Gen. Opinions
CHAPTER 1 | FIRST THINGS | 7
How to Use is Book
Parking Tickets &
Equipment Violations:

(Ch. 6)
Request
traffic
school
(Ch. 10)
Pay fine
(Ch. 10)
Appeal (Ch. 16)
If you haven’t received a ticket yet, read Chapter 17 on what to
do if you’re pulled over. If you already have a ticket, keep going.
Determine what you’re charged with and assess the possible consequences
(Chs. 1, 2, and 3). en, read the chapter that covers your violation.
Infractions:
Speeding tickets & radar (Ch. 4)
Other moving violations (Ch. 5)
Pedestrian & bicycle violations (Ch. 6)
Fighting an Infraction:
Decide whether to fight. Review the options available (Ch. 9)
In Person:
Seek court clerk (Ch. 10)
Misdemeanors:
Drunk driving (Ch. 8)
Other serious offenses: Reckless
driving, speed contests, etc. (Ch. 7)
Fighting a Misdemeanor:
Decide whether to handle the case
yourself or hire a lawyer (Ch. 9)
By Mail:
(Ch. 10)
Write a letter: Plead not

guilty, bypass arraignment,
& set trial date (Ch. 10)
Conduct trial by mail
(Ch. 10)
Request retrial (Ch. 10)
Go to arraignment, plea bargain,
& file pretrial motions (Chs. 10, 13)
Set
arraignment
date (Ch. 10)
Bypass
arraignment,
set trial date
(Ch. 10)
Prepare for trial (Ch. 11)
Trial (Ch. 12)
Sentencing (Ch. 14)
Trial by jury (Chs. 11, 13)
Trial without jury (Chs. 11, 12)
Go to
arraignment
& pretrial
motions
(Ch. 10)

●

2
CHAPTER
How to Read Your Ticket

What Are You Charged With? 10
Are You Really Guilty? 10
Other Information on Your Ticket 12
Types of Tickets 13
e Notice to Appear—Officer Observes the Violation 13
e Notice to Appear—At Accidents 14
e Mailed Notice to Appear—Other Situations 14
e Notice to Correct Violation 14
e Notice of Parking Violation 15
10 | FIGHT YOUR TICKET & WIN IN CALIFORNIA
T
he fi rst step in fi ghting your ticket is
learning how to use the information
on it. Most important is the charge
against you, which you need to know to prepare
a defense. And you might even fi nd that the
offi cer used the wrong kind of ticket or made
some other procedural error that might get your
case dismissed.  is chapter tells you how to
read your ticket and use it to your advantage.
What Are You Charged With?
Although not all tickets are alike (we’ll explore
the diff er ences later in this chapter), every ticket
contains the basic information you need to
determine what you’re charged with.
Near the middle of the ticket, usually under
the heading “Violation(s),” the offi cer will have
written a very short description of the law she
says you violated.  is consists of:
•Which“code”youviolated.Alllaws

passed by the legislature are collected in
a set of books known as “codes” (VC for
Vehicle Code, PC for Penal Code, B&P
for Business & Professions Code, H&S for
Heath & Safety Code, etc.). You will almost
always be cited for a Vehicle Code violation.
• esectionnumberofthecodethat
identifi es the violation. In legal notation,
the symbol “§” means “section number.”
•Ashortdescriptionofthechargewhen
moving violations are involved (such as
“speed charge,” “reckless driving”). For
example:
Code Section Description
VC 22350 basic speed law
In addition, on speeding tickets, you’ll fi nd
the “approximate speed” at which the offi cer
clocked your vehicle and the posted or “prima
facie” (abbreviated “PF”) speed limit (VC
§ 40503).  e meanings of these legal terms are
discussed in Chapter 4.
Notice to Appear
Shaded areas indicate spaces subject to modifi cation for local
or agency requirements.
Are You Really Guilty?
Just because a police offi cer has written some
code section on your ticket doesn’t necessarily
mean you violated it. Most laws are rather
complex, so it’s not uncommon to fi nd that
what you did was not, technically speaking,

illegal. By fi nding the code and section number
CHAPTER 2 | HOW TO READ YOUR TICKET | 11
of the law you allegedly violated on your ticket,
you can look up the law yourself to see if you
really are guilty. is may sound elementary,
but even lawyers often forget to do it.
You need the exact language of the law you’re
accused of violating. Chapters 4 through 8 of
this book include the exact language of many
of the most commonly violated Vehicle Code
sections. If we don’t include the statute you’re
cited for, you can find a current copy of the
Vehicle Code (or other applicable code) in a
law library. Every county has a law library open
to the public, and some law schools also allow
public use of their law libraries. You can also
purchase a copy of the latest Vehicle Code from
your local DMV office (issued annually in mid-
March). If you have access to the Internet, you
can find the California Vehicle Code at www.
leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html. Make sure you’re
using the most recent version of the statute—
that is, the section in the vehicle or other code
that applies to your offense—you’re charged
with. (If you need help on how to do legal
research, read Chapter 9.)
Once you’ve found the statute that is cited on
your ticket, read it very carefully. Try to figure
out which things the prosecu tion will have to
prove “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Ask yourself,

“What are the elements of the offense?”
An “element” is lawyer’s lingo for a particular
fact that must be proven by the prosecution in
order to find you guilty of the offense. Some
elements are central to the crime. Others are
what nonlawyers might call “technicalities.”
Either way, every element must be proven
against you in order for you to be found guilty.
For example, our motorist in the first chapter
was charged with making an illegal U-turn. e
law pro hibiting U-turns in residential districts,
VC § 22103, states:
No person in a residence district shall make a U-turn
when any other vehicle is approaching from either
direction within 200 feet, except at an intersection
when the approaching vehicle is controlled by an
official traffic control device.
At this point you should stop and read the
statute again, more slowly. is time draw a
line between each clause, and think about what
it means. For example, this statute could be
divided up as follows:
No person/ in a residence district/ shall make a U-turn/
when any other vehicle/ is approaching/ from either
direction/ within 200 feet,/ except at an intersection/
when the approaching vehicle/ is controlled/ by an
official traffic control device.
To be found guilty of having committed this
offense, the prosecution must prove all of the
following “elements” of the offense beyond a

reasonable doubt:
1. at you (a person) were driving in a
“residence district”;
2. at you drove your vehicle in a 180-degree
or “U-turn”;
3. at another vehicle was approaching within
200 feet or less from ahead or behind you;
and
4. at you were not at an “intersection”
controlled by an “official traffic control
device.”
us, you will want to show that the area
wasn’t a “residence district,”

or that the vehicles
the officer claims were approaching may have
been over 200 feet away, or that you were at an
intersection

controlled by an “official traffic
control device.”

If you can disprove any of these
elements, you’ll be found not guilty.
You will notice that many of these terms, like
“residence district” and “official traffic control
device” are rather ambiguous. When you find
12 | FIGHT YOUR TICKET & WIN IN CALIFORNIA
words like this, you should immediately look
for a definition of those terms somewhere else

in the code you’re working with. In the Vehicle
Code, definitions are listed near the beginning
of the book, starting with § 100.
At this point you may be wondering, “Is a
judge likely to follow such a technical reading
of the law?” e answer is yes. is style of
technical, word-by-word reading is one of the
most important skills lawyers are taught in
law school. Here’s why. e American legal
system under the Constitution and Bill of
Rights provides the defendants in criminal
cases a considerable number of “breaks” in
order to give them a fighting chance in their
battle against the all-powerful State. Although
lawmakers have made many of these rights
inapplicable to traffic court, the courts still
must interpret traffic laws very technically or
“narrowly,” because the government must be
able to point to a law that clearly prohibits
what you did, before you can be found guilty.
is means that you can’t be found guilty unless
the government proves beyond a reasonable
doubt that you violated every “element” of the
traffic offense you’re charged with.
For many violations, it must also be true that
you either intended to commit every element
of the violation, or that you were care less in
doing so. Penal Code § 20 says, “In every crime
or public offense (including infractions) there
must exist a union, or joint operation, of act

and intent, or criminal negligence.”

In plain
English, this means that to convict you, the
state must usually show that you:
•committedalltheelementsoftheforbidden
act described in the specific code section
you’re charged with, and
•hadanintenttocommitthoseacts,or
were “criminally negligent” (careless) in
committing them.
For example, you might be able to successfully
main tain that you acted neither intentionally
nor carelessly since the “No U-turn” sign at
the intersection was not visible, the stop sign
you accidentally ran was blocked from view
by tree leaves, or even that your speedometer
was reading too low. e key is showing you
weren’t reck less or even careless. Just saying you
“didn’t mean to” run the stop sign won’t get you
anywhere.
Finally, even if you really did commit every
element of your violation, you still might not be
guilty if you had a legal excuse for doing so. For
example, if you were charged with driving too
slowly in the left lane (VC § 21654), it is a legal
defense (provided for in the statute) that you
were planning to turn left. You’re not denying
that you were driving slowly in the left lane, but
rather offering an addi tional fact that legally

justifies your apparently unlawful action. Or,
you might have committed an honest mistake,
such as relying on an inaccurate speedometer
that told you you were driving 55 mph, when in
fact you were doing 70. However, it’s up to you
to introduce this fact at trial.
Other Information on
Your Ticket
At the top of your ticket (in the case of moving
or equip ment violations), you’ll find the infor-
mation the officer has obtained from your
driver’s license—your name, address, license
number, etc. ere’s also a place for the date,
time, and place of the alleged violation, the make,
model, and year of your vehicle, and the license
plate num ber. If the officer has made enough
mistakes in these entries, you may be able to
challenge his powers of obser vation when you get
to trial.
CHAPTER 2 | HOW TO READ YOUR TICKET | 13
Occasionally, the officer will write his vacation
dates on your ticket as a message to the court
clerk indicating which dates he won’t be able
to appear at trial. As we’ll see in Chapter 10,
you may be able to use this information to your
advantage by scheduling your trial to occur on
one of those dates.
Finally, your ticket should indicate the name
of the court in which you must appear to pay
the fine or arrange for a court date, and the

court’s address. You will be cited to appear in
the superior court nearest to where the offense
suppos edly occurred. e notice will also state
a deadline by which you must appear. For
juveniles, it may state “to be notified,” or words
to that effect. On parking tickets, there will be
an address where you can mail your fine if you
don’t want to contest it.
Types of Tickets
ere are basically three types of tickets: the
Notice to Appear, Notice to Correct Violation,
and Notice of Parking Violation.
e Notice to Appear—
Officer Observes the Violation
If you were stopped for speeding, running a red
light, or some other kind of moving violation,
you should have received a “Notice to Appear.”
is kind of ticket was created to speed up and
simplify the judicial process from arrest through
trial. When the officer turns on the red light to
pull you over, he technically places you under
arrest.

(See People v. Superior Court (1972) 7
Cal.3d 186, 200; VC §§ 40500, 40501.) While
you are “under arrest,” the officer fills out the
ticket. en, rather than placing you under
actual arrest and taking you to jail,

he simply

has you sign that part of the ticket that says you
agree to appear in court. By signing the Notice
to Appear, you are released from arrest and do
not have to post bail. You are not admitting
guilt, nor are you waiving any of your rights.
If you refuse to sign the ticket, the officer is
required to take you to jail (VC § 40302(b)).
When the officer files his copy of the ticket with
the court, it is considered the equivalent of a
“complaint,” meaning, in the legal context, the
formal charging papers that formally begin the
proceedings against you (VC § 40513).
e forms may vary some among police
departments. Some forms include space for the
number of passengers in the vehicle (in order
to preclude your bringing a “witness” who
wasn’t really with you), the color of the vehicle
(if the officer gets this wrong, you might be
able to discredit his testimony since it reflects
negatively on his ability to observe), and the
weather, road, and traffic conditions when a
speed violation is involved. Sometimes the
ticket will have a little intersection map for the
officer to diagram the way various vehicles were
positioned during the vio lation. Finally, there
will be a place where the officer signs under
penalty of perjury that everything he stated in
the ticket is true. He can only fill this in if he
actually observed the violation.
If you signed a Notice to Appear you have

promised to appear at the court speci fied on the
ticket, and failure to do so is a crime punish-
able by a fine of up to $1,000 (plus a few more
thousand in “penalty assess ments”) and six
months in jail. (See, gener ally, Chapter 7.) In
Chapter 17, we explain that, before signing,
you can demand that the officer specify the
place to appear as the court at the county seat,
if your busi ness or residence address is closer to
the county seat than to the local court where
you would otherwise be told to appear (VC
§ 40502(b)). We’re assuming for now, however,
that you’ve already received your ticket and you
probably weren’t aware of this.