Contrary to popular belief, traffic ticket and speeding ticket lawyers aren't always about using procedural loopholes and sneaky tricks like subpoenaing the officer and hoping he doesn't show up.
Some times it is actually about practicing law, effectively questioning witnesses, pointing out the flaws in the city's case, and winning because a traffic infraction actually didn't occur.
And sometimes it's even more technical than that.
Let me give you an example to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
This example comes out of real life, in the City of Seattle (my city, where I am a traffic lawyer, by the way).
It is actually a pretty sad story, but one that demonstrates what having a good traffic attorney on your side can do for you.
Here are the facts.
There was a guy driving a van in Seattle in September of 2006.
It was the morning, and he was likely on his way to work, on his way to a job site, running an errand, or some other innocuous thing.
He was driving the speed limit.
He'd never had a traffic infraction before.
He was sober.
He had not been using drugs.
And his life was about to change forever.
He was traveling southbound on a two way street (there was traffic coming northbound) and at some point during his drive he needed to make a left turn.
Like all of us do, he waited in the intersection for oncoming traffic to clear, and he proceeded to make his turn.
However, on this specific day, in this specific intersection, a biker was proceeding southbound.
And the driver of the van didn't see her.
I don't think the collision was severe, but it did cause the bicyclist to fall off her bike.
And, tragically, while she was wearing a helmet, she suffered head injuries ultimately resulting in her death.
After the incident the driver was forthcoming with his fault for failure to yield, he and his insurance company settled with the bicyclist's family, and he attempted to move on with his life.
While the van driver was trying to move one from this horrendous event, as typically happens in cases like this, King County law enforcement officials reviewed the case to determine if there was any need to file criminal charges.
In the end, only one possibility existed for a criminal charge under the facts - vehicular manslaughter.
The requirements for vehicular manslaughter, however, didn't quite fit this situation.
One of three things is needed: (1) operating a vehicle while intoxicated; (2) operating a vehicle recklessly; or (3) operating a vehicle with reckless disregard for the safety of others.
In this case, none of those occurred.
Because of that King County declined to press charges.
The City of Seattle, however, wasn't ready to give up so easily.
They had recently passed an ordinance criminalizing traffic infractions when great bodily harm or death resulted from the violations.
In this case, the City decided the van driver had committed the crime of assault on the bicyclist, and they went after him.
The problem with this, from the perspective of the van driver's Seattle traffic lawyer, was that the Washington State Legislature explicitly made most traffic violations non-criminal infractions, punishable by fine only.
And, wouldn't you know, failure to yield was one of those crimes.
So, the Seattle traffic lawyer moved the court to dismiss the charges based on the invalidity of the statute.
And the court denied the motion.
After a bench trial found the van driver guilty of assault under the statute, they appealed the decision to the King County Superior court.
At that court, the statute was seen for what it was, a circumvention of the law as created by the Washington State legislature, and ruled the statute invalid.
After appealing that decision to the Court of Appeals and losing (you can read that decision here, the City is believed to have given up.
So, the moral of the story? Getting a traffic lawyer who knows what they are doing can help you immensely, not always for the trips and procedural traps they know about, but because they too are excellent attorneys dedicated to a practice area where they are sorely needed.