Getting a Seattle speeding ticket sucks. It feels unfair because you know how many other people were out there speeding that day that didn't get tickets, and you know that at the speed you were driving you were not creating a danger to yourself or others, so it feels a little unnecessary to receive a speeding ticket.
So you decided to fight your Seattle speeding ticket to see if you could get off without paying anything. Only, now that your court date is looming, you aren't sure what to do to fight it. You think you know what the cop is going to say, and you know what the report says, so you aren't sure whether or not to subpoena the officer.
First things first, if you don't know what you're doing, you should go out and hire yourself a good Seattle speeding ticket attorney. Not only do they know exactly what they are doing, including whether or not to subpoena the Seattle traffic cop that wrote you the ticket, they know about a lot of other tips and tricks that may be able to get your ticket dismissed without ever even needed to get to deciding whether or not to subpoena the cop.
If you decide not to go with a Seattle speeding ticket lawyer, you should still know a couple of things about subpoenaing the police officer who gave you your speeding ticket. First, the old rule about getting the cop to court in hopes he doesn't show up and you get your ticket dismissed, while still accurate, happens less often than one might think. For example, in Seattle, if you subpoena the cop to your hearing, it is set on a special day for police officers to appear. So, chances are your Seattle speeding ticket is going to be a full on contested hearing, with the cop present.
Second, don't call the cop to testify expecting to get him to change his story and admit that you weren't the car he was thinking of or that you weren't actually speeding, you are sadly mistaken. For one thing, the cop probably doesn't even remember your specific traffic ticket. All he remembers is that he signed the police report he wrote about your ticket and wrote that report, so what is in it must be true. That means he is going to stick to that report no matter what. Which means you have to use that report to show that what he wrote couldn't have happened or shouldn't have happened.
In the end, whether you decide to subpoena the officer or not is a critical question to ask. It could mean the difference between getting your Seattle speeding ticket dismissed and having to pay a fine for a committed finding of Seattle speeding.
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