I have never been one of those people who runs with the wrong crowd, but about six months ago, I knew that I was in trouble. I was with someone when she did something against the law, and it made me a suspected accomplice. I knew that I needed help to prove my innocence regarding the involvement, so I started going through and talking with different criminal attorneys. I was able to find a great lawyer that really understood my position, and he did everything possible to prove my innocence. This blog is all about proving your innocence in court, so that you can move on with your life.
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In Arizona, criminal speeding is a class-3 misdemeanor, so if you're found guilty, you could be facing jail time, fines, and possible probation. The good news is that there are ways to fight the charges so you don't have to worry about a criminal record, and the best way to do that is to hire an attorney. Here are four different defenses your lawyer can use to defend you in a court of law.
Pacing Defense
Pacing involves the officer visually guessing that you're speeding and then following you at the same "pace" while noting the numbers on their speedometer. When we examine the more accurate ways to measure speed, this definitely lands at the bottom of the list. Among the things that can go wrong include:
Because Arizona courts allow pacing as admissible evidence, your attorney will likely want to question the officer who administered the ticket to prove a fallacy with the evidence.
Lidar Defense
If you've ever seen an officer standing on the side of the road with a speed gun, you've seen a Lidar in action. This is one of the more accurate pieces of equipment used to determine speed, but it does not come without flaws.
The way it works is by aiming the Lidar at the desired object, which is usually your license plate because that seems to give the most accurate results. The Lidar then emits a beam that tells the officer how fast you were traveling.
There are several defenses your attorney can use if you were ticketed based on a Lidar reading, and one of them is that unusual weather could have skewed the results. If it was really hot or raining, heat waves emanating from the road and water droplets in the air could have caused a refraction in the beam.
Another defense that can be argued is something known as sweeping. This basically means that the officer was moving when they obtained a reading, and therefore the results were not accurate. Many Lidars are supposed to have sensors that go off when sweeping occurs, but they don't always work.
Radar Defense
Most drivers are familiar with the radars police officers use to detect speeding. Everything has a radio frequency that scatters energy in all directions. The radar then measures the frequency of that object with the help of an antenna.
So what's the biggest problem with radars? There's no guarantee that the reading you get is from the car whose speed you're trying to measure. In other words, the radar could be picking up signals from nearby cars, vehicles that are traveling in the other direction, or even road signs that are moving about on windy days. And in our current state of technology, it's even possible that cell phones and tablets in use could falsify the results.
These are just some of the things your attorney might argue if a radar was used to determine your speed.
Defensive Driving School Option
If this is your first offense, you certainly want to do all you can to keep the criminal speeding charge from turning into a conviction that can stay on your record. One of the ways this can be achieved is by attending defensive driving school. However, unlike with other civil traffic violations, you can't just sign up and take the class. Permission to take the class has to be granted by a judge, and this can be a difficult task to take on alone. It's best done with the help of an attorney who can argue on your behalf and prove to the judge that the class will be beneficial in your situation.
Once you complete defensive driving school, your case is dismissed, and you don't have to worry about fines, jail time, or points on your license. Talk to a firm such as Walsh Fewkes Sterba to get started on your case.
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