Can you fight radar

Photo radar cameras are in operation in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec; but none of them more than in Alberta. Ontario reintroduced photo radar systems in after a long pause in their use. Paying the ticket is more cost-effective. Here are some helpful tips on how to fight it:. Are you faced with a speed trap ticket? With nearly two decades of experience in legal defence and providing his clients with excellent service, Jason has assisted thousands of clients with criminal defence, impaired driving charges, and traffic tickets.

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Most legal advocates will advise that there is no merit to fighting a photo radar ticket, because:. As the fine is the only penalty, there is no merit in paying a fee to a paralegal or lawyer to dispute a fine. Photo Radar — Automated Speed Enforcement Photo radar speed cameras use a camera to capture images of vehicles travelling in excess of the posted speed limit. Photo Radar Speeding Tickets. As of the Ontario government has implemented photo radar cameras.

The cameras work remotely with no police officer or operator. Speed cameras may also be called Automated Speed Enforcement systems. The speed camera records: speed of the vehicle licence plate, make, and model date and time of the offence direction of travel Once the information is recorded the phone is viewed by a Provincial Offences Officer. Under both methods, if a car is found to be speeding, a waiting ground patrol car is radioed to issue the ticket.

If that ground patrol officer independently verifies your speed with a reliable methos such as radar, it generally diminishes the chances of beating the ticket. When the ground unit measures your speed, the government no longer has to rely on the less accurate aircraft speed measurement to prove the violation in court. When the aircraft officer identifies a car going too fast either by pacing it or measuring its speed between two marks , the officer normally records the time, speed, vehicle color, and type, along with brief notes on the car, in what's usually called an "observation log.

Here are some things to look for in the log:. You may also see that the timing occurred over less than a minute, or even that your car was described as being a different make or color than it really is. Obviously, tidbits like these are extremely useful to prepare questions that cast doubt on the reliability of the pacer's observations.

The calculator divides the distance the target vehicle travels as recorded by the stopwatch by the time it took to travel that distance. VASCAR is not like a radar or laser gun, which gives a readout of a vehicle's speed by simply pointing and pulling the trigger. A VASCAR unit requires far more human input than radar or laser guns—which greatly increases the possibility of mistakes. When the officer sees the target vehicle pass one of two points, the officer pushes a button to start the electronic stopwatch, then pushes it again to stop it when the vehicle passes the second point.

VASCAR is obviously a much more flexible tool than pacing, since the officer doesn't have to be going the same speed as you are or follow you over any particular distance.

As long as the officer manipulates the "time" and "distance" switches correctly and consistently, the officer can accurately track your speed. For example, it is no easy thing to accurately push the "time" and "distance" buttons while observing the target pass between two points, at least one of which is almost sure to be far away from the officer.

And, of course, doing this accurately is even harder when the patrol car is moving. Because VASCAR accuracy can depends so heavily on the officer's reaction time, it's crucial to know the the distance over which the officer clocked you. You may be able to obtain this information from the officer prior to the court date by requesting it through a process called " discovery. Because lots of speeding tickets involve the use of radar measurement systems not to be confused with LIDAR systems, discussed below , it's worth briefly taking a look at how radar works.

The word "radar" is an acronym for "Radio Detection and Ranging. With police radar, that moving object is your car. Radar units generate the waves with a transmitter. When they bounce back off your car, they are picked up and amplified by a receiver so they can be analyzed. The analysis is then reflected in a speed-readout device.

Radar systems use radio waves similar to those involved in AM and FM radio transmissions, but with a higher frequency—up to 24 billion waves per second as compared to one million per second for AM radio. Although radar signals can be bounced off stationary or moving objects, they cannot be bent over hills or around curves. To clock your speed with radar, this means you must be in an officer's line of sight.

However, don't expect to see the radar unit. Officers can hide it behind roadside shrubbery or stick it out unobtrusively from behind a parked car.

Here are some of the more common malfunctions and sources of inaccurate readings with radar device:. Many of these defenses are applicable only in certain situations. But, anytime an officer uses a radar to clock a driver's speed, there's the potential for a defense based on inproper calibration. Laser detectors are the most recent addition to the traffic officer's arsenal of speed-measuring devices.

Built to look and act like a hand-held radar gun, a laser detector uses a low-powered beam of laser light that bounces off the targeted vehicle and returns to a receiver in the unit. The unit then electronically calculates the speed of the targeted vehicle. Laser detectors are supposedly more accurate than radar units.

One advantage for police officers of the laser gun is that the light beam is narrower than a radar beam, meaning that it can be more precisely aimed. This is true even though laser detectors use three separate beams, because the combined width of the three beams is still much narrower than a single radar beam at the same distance.

This technology reduces, but does not eliminate, the chance that the speed of a nearby car will be measured instead of the speed of the car at which the operator aims the gun. Laser detectors measure distance between the gun and the target car using the speed of light and the time it takes the light, reflected off the target vehicle, to return to the laser gun.

The detector makes about 40 of these distance measurements over a third of a second, then divides the light's round-trip distance by the time, to get the speed. This means to be accurate the officer must hold the combined beams on the same part of the car during the test. You may contact LA County registrar recorder at P. A Legal Document Assistant cannot provide legal advice and can only provide self-help services like preparing, completing, or filing legal documents or forms at your specific direction and supplying you with attorney-approved written material for your self-help needs.

If you choose to use this site or services provided by FYTT you agree that the free information provided on this website and information given by FYTT representatives, employees, attorneys or agents is not legal advice and no Attorney-Client relationship is created. FYTT is allowed to complete legal documents in a professional and ministerial manner at the specific direction of the client.

The representatives, agents and principles of FYTT are not acting as your attorney. Sign up Here. Sign Up Here. Speeding Ticket by Radar Majority of California speeding tickets are issued by the use of radar. Common arguments for how to fight speeding tickets by radar Majority of people already know or have heard or read that in order to issue a speeding ticket by radar the police officer must have the radar unit properly calibrated.

How to beat speeding tickets by radar? That is why most people use our service to fight speeding tickets by radar.