Caught Speeding? There's an app for that

You've likely heard the phrase "There's an app for that"  and if you've gotten a traffic ticket you may have noticed all the internet-based services offering to help fight them.

Every year about 6 million Californians will get some kind of moving violation.  That has created a huge market for companies offering to help people fight the ticket from their computer or smartphone.

Vanessa Nicholson knew once she got a ticket from a red-light camera in downtown Sacramento she was going to fight it.

"I think it was really the principal of the matter.  I really didn't think I ran the red light.  I think something was off with the timing of the light," Nicholson said.

While juggling her home life and working toward her doctorate, she was looking for a way to have her day in court without having to go to court.

"I didn't want to go through traffic court and I also didn't want to have a point on my license and I didn't want to be out $500 as well," Nicholson said.

Nicholson turned to the internet.

Getdismissed.com, ticketsnipers.com and 2fixyourtrafficticket.com are among half a dozen websites offering to help people fight traffic tickets without going to court.

The websites ask the driver to take a picture or send in information from their ticket.  Then the driver answers a series of specific questions about the circumstances.  When the driver is done, the services provide all the legal documents they need to mail in to the court for what's called a trial by written declaration.

"It's your right to contest a ticket with a trial by declaration," said Steve Miller, founder of Getdismissed.com  "And it relieves all the stress all the anxiety of actually going in front of the judge, let alone the time and more importantly not knowing what to say.  Because most people to get in front of the judge really incriminate themselves."

Miller said his site is geared to take into account all sorts of possible defenses for all sorts of traffic tickets.

"That defense is customized based upon the answers to the questions," Miller said.

There is no guarantee you will win your case but Miller believes you have a better chance using his website than fighting it on your own.

"The documents get sent to the court.  The court sends a copy to the officer.  The officer then has to reply to that declaration or not reply.  In this case, officers are not paid extra to reply to trial by declarations. They don't like doing paperwork so many times they don't respond," Miller said.

Miller said because it's up to the driver to mail in the documents and the driver, not the website, is told whether the ticket was dismissed or not, he couldn't tell us what the success rate is for his service.

Sacramento County traffic court staff, however, did try to look at the success of all online trial by written declaration cases.

Court staff reviewed 575 cases in the past six months.  They identified 195 cases which came from a variety of online services and of those only 30 drivers, or 15 percent, were found not guilty. The court documents don't reveal which online services were used.

"All citations have a dismissal rate when they're contested and the trial by declaration is, if it's well done, is a little bit lower, but about the same as a trial," Judge Lloyd Connelly said.

Connelly presides over hundreds of traffic cases every month in Sacramento county court.  He believes drivers have a slightly better chance contesting their ticket in person.

"The best case is when you make a good argument.  And that's a factual argument supported by any evidence you can muster," Connelly said.

Connelly points out, overall most drivers lose their cases, and when they do they're stuck paying their for ticket and they could get stuck paying the fee for the online service too.

Still Nicholson took her chances.     

"After I sent the documents to the court I was pretty nervous and I was anxious to hear back and I was really more curious to know if this was going to actually work or not so much about was my ticket dismissed but does this work as a legitimate way to handle this," Nicholson said.

A few weeks after mailing in her Internet-produced court documents she got the news she had been waiting for.

"It was so exciting. I got this a really a big beautiful package saying my ticket was dismissed," Nicholson said.

Connelly said the best cases are made when drivers present real evidence, like photographs, witness statements and charts.

He also said one benefit to appearing in person is the judge can ask questions and get answers he can't get through forms mailed into court.

Source: Caught Speeding? There's an app for that