Beat Tickets! - Questions to ask in court
Obviously we cannot give a boilerplate for every court trial or every circumstance that you might encounter. However, we do give the following examples of questions to give you an idea of how to proceed with your case.
Ask how many failures the company who monitors the system has had. Don't settle for a percentage or an estimate; make them tell you how many they have had. If they do not keep records on this, it is an indication you can present to the court that the system is flawed to the point that the company does not want anyone to know.
You can also use this information to question the company about their records keeping policies. If they don't keep records and report problems, how do they know there was no problem with the system when it took the picture?
Question the company about their maintenance policies. You can compare this with the standards recommended by the manufacturer.
Most radar manufacturers have web sites that make this information readily available. Also, find out who is maintaining the photo radar systems and how much training the technicians have had in each phase of the system. You might just find that the technician is well acquainted with radar, but does not fully understand the entire systems functions. If so, how can he be sure a malfunction did not occur?
One other avenue you might want to explore is who issued the citation. Find out what information the officer used to determine his reasonable suspicion. You might find that the officer has less of a basis for a citation than in a normal traffic stop situation. Use this to challenge the issuance of the citation.
The reasonable suspicion is less than the probable cause required by a criminal citation, but it still must be clear and arguable by the prosecutor. The officer who issues the citation is relying solely on the machine to give him his reasonable suspicion. This will make it harder for him to articulate his suspicion. |
