[dylbert]

Several suggestions that friends have successfully used to argue speeding tickets:

1) request continuance -- most tickets written by specific trooper have predetermined court date. Trooper will be there. With continuance, it is unlikely that trooper will get new date.

2) contest equipment & trooper training -- has equipment been properly maintained, has it been CALIBRATED by qualified facility, and has trooper had training and continuing education to properly use equipment.

3) calibration can work in your favor, too. If it shows slower speed, you may have been travelling within speed limit. If it shows less than 2 percent variance, you can argue that radar equipment is faulty. With faulty equipment, another tactic that I would suggest is -- do any of your local TV stations have an "on your side" reporter. This could invalidate every ticket written using that equipment. Law enforcement would not want to face that evidence in court or on the air.

Main advice is don't let law enforcement intimitate you. They protect and serve us the public. In the end, you may SMILE.

I respect job that law enforcement does and appreciate their service; however, overzealous and uneven traffic enforcement is both unfair and unjust. In Louisiana, we have local sheriff departments patrolling rural interstate highways to fill their coffers while these same parishes have rampant drug problems -- usually meth and/or crack. Get these drugs out of community and solve some of the social ills they attract and perpetuate.