I beat my speeding ticket!

I thought I'd share this one since it's pretty sweet. I recently got a ticket for 60 in a 45 after leaving the Golden Gate Bridge tollbooth heading toward the city. This is a short section where everyone goes 60, so I think it was a BS ticket. The problem is, if you want to fight a ticket in California the "normal" way, you have to:
1. Show up at court and get an arraignment date.
2. Show up at the arriagnment and sit there for hours, no cellphone or other device use allowed, so you can plead not guilty and get a court date.
3. Show up at court and fight your case.

This takes a ton of time and there are no guarantees of success.

There is an alternative called "Trial by Written Declaration". What happens is that you request this form of trial, then write in your side of the case, and the cop writes in his (or hers). A judge reads them both and makes a decision. If you don't like the decision, you can even ask for a trial in person!

There is a guy who has a site at www.ticketassassin.com who has the system figured out. You pay him a $25 "shareware" fee, and he gives you access to his database of templates for how to argue each type of ticket. In my case, it was pacing, and he emailed me the template when I sent him a brief description of what happened. I just modified the template with my details, mailed it off and a month or so later I got a short letter back saying that I'd won and that I'd get my money back. (You have to give them the money for the ticket upfront when you request a trial by written declaration). The ticket assassin guy has tons of success stories on his site, and now I'm a believer. Sweet!