Dear Kent,
NY State vehicle and traffic law 1102 states:
Section 1102. Obedience to police officers and flag persons. No person shall fail or refuse to comply with any lawful
order or direction of any police officer or flagperson or other person duly empowered to regulate traffic.
You will need to determine whether to pay the fine or to pay for court costs (and the fine anyway, if you lose) if you elect to fight. If you can, speak with a NY attorney familiar with traffic court to help you with this, that is the only way to obtain the most accurate information.
You should know that a a mistake on the part of a citizen is not an excuse for failing to obey a law. However, the police must follow certain rules when directing traffic and when writing or citing a person about a ticket. If you can argue that an error was made by the officer or that he completed information on the ticket incorrectly, then you may be able to successfully defend your ticket. For additional information you can go into a law library and ask the librarian to help you find records of successfully defended traffic tickets.
Additional ideas are available on the following websites. I have not reviewed nor investigated the information found on these sites, but they do provide additional resources for you to learn information:
Story in NY Times about traffic courts -
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/nyregion/22traffic.html?ex=1266814800&en=4dc9435dd1406745&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
Traffic Ticket defense info -
http://www.freeexistence.org/tickets.html__________________
PLEASE NOTE: Responses here are for information/education only, NOT legal advice and do not form attorney-client relationship! Only licensed attorneys you hire in your state can provide legal advice.
