While most cities in California have stopped issuing red light camera tickets, Beverly Hills is just starting to use them. And the California legislature is considering outlawing them altogether.
These tickets seem hard to fight – because they have your picture driving your car running a red light! In addition, the fine is really expensive at about $500.
Now that California changed the rules and you no longer have to pre-pay your fine in order to fight a traffic ticket in California you need to know if it is worth fighting one of these tickets.
It is possible to fight a camera ticket. First, note that the light was yellow when you crossed the near side limit line. The automated enforcement notice you received provided two data boxes with information about the alleged offense. One of these boxes indicates a record of how long the light was red before your vehicle passed over certain embedded sensors in the road. The relevant section of the Vehicle Code mentions the limit line only and makes no mention of embedded sensors.
If you know you crossed the limit line on yellow then you have a defense based on the location of the sensors. The embedded sensors are not located under the limit line. If they were actually embedded at that location, an automatic photo would not have been taken because you crossed the limit line on yellow, not red. The first data box only indicates how long the light was red when you crossed over the sensors, not that the light was red when you crossed the limit line.
Second, automated enforcement utilizing road sensors constitute a speed trap in violation of the Vehicle Code. In California, no peace officer may use a speed trap for any alleged violation of the California Vehicle Code. A speed trap includes any measured length of a road with marked boundaries so that the speed of a vehicle may be calculated by determining the time it takes the vehicle to travel that known distance. Automated enforcement systems are speed traps because their sensors measure the speed of your car as you cross a measured distance in the road. The speed of your vehicle was allegedly determined by a time-distance calculation between embedded sensors on a particular section of highway. Since the distance between these sensors had to be known to determine your speed, a speed trap was used as a basis for your citation.
Now, because you don’t have to pay first, there is no reason not to try to fight your ticket. But it’s hard to show up at traffic court and expect to win.
There is an alternative that is becoming known to more and more people. You can use the option of a “Trial by Declaration.” A Trial by Declaration is known as the best way to fight a traffic ticket in California. Rather than having to take your valuable time to go to court, you can simply mail in two forms and have a better chance to win than any other strategy.
Not only is EasiestTicketSolution.com simple and fast, it only cost $22. The other sites cost between $25 and $200 and give you nothing more for all that extra money. And they don’t collect or save your personal information. It is, by far, the easiest ticket solution!