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[quote=Anonymous]I recently had to go to traffic court for the first time ever and I went because the officer was such a huge jerk (and I wasn't arguing or anything with him) and I was hoping he wasn't going to show. He did.

I had to sit through several other cases (about 20) until they got to mine, so I had a chance to observe and get an understanding what to expect.  Basically in Alexandria (where I was), it went like this: they hear all the cases for each officer before they move to the next officer. If your officer shows up (and all of them that day did), the officer will bring their reports. When your case is called, the officer goes first and she/he will just read what they wrote: On 1/1/22 at 9am on 123 Park Avenue I saw a red Honda that appeared to be speeding and my radar 123 gun measured its speed as 37 mph in a 25 mph zone. I stopped the said red Honda and issued a citation and summons for going 37 in said 25 mph zone."

Then the defendant will get the chance to speak. He could say: I think the radar gun wasn't calibrated and gave an incorrect reading, I wasn't speeding, my speedometer wasn't working, I didn't know it was a 25mph zone.  I watched people use ALL of these defenses, and more (one even brought GPS photos to show where he started his trip, and where he was stopped, and that there were no speed limit signs between pts A and B so he had no knowledge that he was speeding because he hadn't passed a speed limit sign, I thought this one was clever). NONE of them worked, none. The judge found them ALL guilty because none of those excuses could cancel out the police radar report. If the police officer shows up, and reads that their gun worked, and it registered you as speeding, that's enough for the judge to find guilt and there is basically nothing to persuade the judge to counter it. Not that you have a clean record, not that you think the police office was wrong, nothing. You would have to show that the radar gun was faulty and how can you show that? The police had the automatic assumption of having their evidence be acceptable evidence.

What did work was when I saw an uber driving start crying that he couldn't afford to pay the fine or increase on his insurance and that he wouldn't be able to work if he couldn't drive. It seemed very genuine. The judge told him that he could go to driving school, and if he completed the course within x days (I think it's 60), and he came back to court with his certificate, the citation would be dismissed and he wouldn't have any points. The judge had not given any of the other 20 people who pled their case that option, which seemed kind of harsh, but I took that as a sign that it wouldn't matter than the officer was super rude or whatever else I said, that asking for driving school was met best option. So when I was called, I said simply: "Your honor, I don't believe that it was my car the police officer registered as there was another car passing me at the same time and I do feel that it was other car that was speeding; however I ask that I be given the opportunity to go to driving school as I have a clean record."  Then the judge said: "Well, if you pled guilty under the condition of completing driving school in x days then your citation will be dismissed and erased from the record."

I think the key here was not to immediately plead guilty or innocent, but to humbly ask to go to driving school. In Virginia you can only go to driving school a certain number of times in a certain number of years, but OP if this is your son's first ticket he's eligible. I did it all online. It's a pain, it's around 6 hours long, but you can stop and start it at will. I got my certificate in the mail, came back to court, and it was erased from the record.[/quote]

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