Are you one of the thousands of people that get a traffic ticket? When you get a ticket for a traffic violation, such as speeding or some other road infraction, you have a few options.  You can simply pay the ticket and forget about it. Unfortunately, the next time you open a bill from your insurance agency, you may get a surprising reminder. Traffic tickets will lead to increased car insurance rates. The more tickets, the higher your insurance. The true cost of New Jersey traffic tickets isn’t the fine – it’s the accumulation of increased insurance rates.

There’s one option few people consider: Fighting traffic tickets in Toms River NJ. This doesn’t mean becoming argumentative with the police officer. Instead, save your efforts to fight the tickets in traffic court. Here are some steps to make fighting the ticket successful.

Get in touch with a NJ traffic lawyer. Some attorneys focus on helping clients with a variety of traffic court processes. These attorneys have great information on how to research your violation and how to prepare to appear before traffic your.

Do the research: what laws are you accused of violating? To effectively defend yourself, you have to understand the traffic violation. Start by getting the Traffic Violation Guide from your local DMV office. Your traffic attorney will also help you understand your traffic ticket and put together a plan for your defense.

Find out how to contest the ticket. Your traffic attorney will help you understand how to proceed. In some places, merely appearing before the traffic court is sufficient to argue the ticket. In other cities or counties, you must file a non-guilty complaint with the Court of Clerks.

Gather the evidence. In many traffic court situations, you need to be ready to argue your case. An attorney can help you find out what evidence the prosecutor or courts have in this case. Based on that information, you can work together to craft a defense, which may include questioning this evidence or the methodology for gathering it (i.e. was the machinery working correctly that clocked your speed). Find out the date of the ticket, the conditions related to weather, roads, traffic patterns, etc. These are all crucial to your defense.

Appear in traffic court. Sounds pretty basic, of course you would go to traffic court to fight the ticket, right? You’d be surprised at how many people don’t appear, including the arresting officer.  If the officer does not appear, your ticket may be dismissed outright. Even if he or she does appear before the court, your traffic lawyer can negotiate to get the charges dismissed or reduced.

The biggest mistake is to assume that it’s not possible to successfully defend yourself against New Jersey traffic tickets. With a little help from a traffic attorney, you can beat this ticket and save yourself thousands of dollars over time.