Maryland Traffic Ticket Defenses That Don’t Work
If you’ve been stopped for a traffic violation in Maryland and do not believe you deserve the ticket you might be wondering what kind of defense you should use to dispute the ticket. The following are some examples of defenses that seldom work and should be undertaken carefully, if at all.
Going with the flow
Going with the flow of traffic is a defense that many drivers may think will work, but rarely if ever does. Judges don’t like this defense. Often, they will point to the fact that if you were “going with the flow” then you were travelling at least 15 miles over the limit. In other words, just because everyone was speeding does not give you an excuse to speed.
The blame game
Another common tactic is to blame the officer for misidentifying the real speeder. Drivers who show up in court and say the police officer was mistaken and that the real culprit was the similar looking car driving beside them are often in for disappointment. That’s because the argument boils down to a request that the judge believe you over the cop whose job it is to catch speeding drivers. Though you may think you’ve been misidentified, it is seldom a winning strategy in court.
Legal urban legends
You hear them all the time, people who say they’ve heard from a friend that cops are (or are not) allowed to do X, Y or Z. A quick internet search turns up hundreds of pages of people who believe that police officers cannot pull drivers over at night if they are parked on the side of the road with their lights off. Another commonly repeated story is that cops must only be stopped in the public way when radaring vehicles and that if they are sitting in a driveway or other private property then the ticket is invalid.
The problem with all these bits of information is that while there may be some truth to them, they will likely not be helpful in getting you out of a Maryland traffic ticket. Going to court with a half-baked legal theory will likely only irritate the judge and not excuse you from whatever infraction you were accused of committing.
Need help with a Maryland traffic ticket or drunk driving case? Call me at 301-563-9575 or 1-877-566-2408 for a free consultation. I’m an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer and I’d be happy to help. I practice law throughout the entire State of Maryland.
