Maryland Speeding Ticket Attorney

Baltimore Crimianl Defense Lawyers

Rice, Murtha & Psoras represent defendants in speeding ticket cases and other charges for serious traffic tickets and criminal charges. While speeding tickets may seem like run-of-the-mill legal issues, repeat speeding tickets can actually lead to license suspensions and heavy fines that could seriously interrupt your life. Moreover, many traffic tickets are issued under circumstances where the police officer does not have the grounds to actually prove their case, and you may be able to avoid points on your license and high fines by challenging the ticket.

The Maryland speeding ticket attorneys at Rice, Murtha & Psoras may be able to take your case and fight to get speeding tickets dropped and dismissed. Whether you are a resident of Maryland or someone who was issued a speeding ticket in Maryland while commuting or traveling through the state, our attorneys may be able to take your case and fight the ticket for you. For a free legal consultation on your Maryland speeding ticket case, call our law offices today at (410) 431-0911.

Why You Should Fight a Traffic Ticket in Maryland

Speeding tickets in Maryland can be issued in a number of ways. In most cases, a police officer will ticket you personally by pulling you over and writing a ticket. However, Maryland also uses traffic cameras, which means you could get a ticket in the mail for speeding. In either case the ticket will usually have a court date on it which tells you when you can appear in court to challenge the ticket.

Many people fear that traffic tickets are not “serious enough” to hire a lawyer over. For most people, a traffic ticket might be the most severe charges you ever face – so there is no reason to roll over and accept the charges when you could fight them. It is your right to challenge the government’s accusations of wrongdoing, and you should never feel bad about standing up for those rights.

Many traffic tickets are actually issued under dubious circumstances. Police may have made mistakes or failed to use properly calibrated timing equipment. Most people will pay tickets without challenging them, which means that the government gets away with issuing unproven tickets and getting money out of people who pay the ticket without complaint. If you challenge the ticket in court, the police officer will be forced to prove that you were speeding and back their claims up with facts.

The burden of proof is not the same as it is in most criminal cases, and they do not typically need to prove their case “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Still, they must prove that they had hard evidence of your speeding and not lazy estimations of your speed or unreliable evidence from uncalibrated timing devices. Challenging cases that used speeding cameras is even more important because these cameras could be responsible for thousands of dollars’ worth of speeding tickets; if those cameras are malfunctioning or uncalibrated, this could pose a huge problem for motorists.

How to Challenge Speeding Tickets in Maryland

First and foremost, if you are considering challenging a speeding ticket in Maryland, you should check precisely what the ticket was for and when your court date is. This information can be found on the ticket itself, with a listing for what section of the code you were charged under (by name or code number) and what date you will need to be at the courthouse. Many traffic tickets do not list a particular time you need to show up, which means you will need to be at the courthouse at the beginning of the court day, and the judge will move through the cases on their docket as the morning (or day) goes on.

Once you know this information, contact an attorney. Our lawyers can help you understand the potential penalties you could be facing for the ticket and listen to your side of the story. In a free consultation like this, we can help you understand your options and how to progress with your case.

From there, we will work to gather any evidence to help fight the case. In cases where the speed limit was not clearly posted or the speed limit sign was obscured or damaged, we may be able to fight the ticket. We will also ask for information on when the police officer’s timing device was calibrated. Police routinely have stopwatches, radar or lidar guns, and other timing devices calibrated so that they can prove that the speed they measured was accurate. If police cannot provide this paperwork or prove that their timing device was accurate on the day of the ticket, the ticket may be dismissed in court. We can also challenge the police officer’s recollection of the events, and if their story does not match up with yours or they confuse your ticket with another traffic stop, we could win your case.

Penalties for Speeding in MD

Speeding laws in Maryland, of course, use speed limit signs to dictate the speed limit on a particular road, but there are also general rules creating maximum speed limits in various areas (such as in Baltimore County) or on particular types of roads (such as divided highways). Fines and points are usually issued for speeding tickets, with low-level speeding offenses typically costing around $80 and high-speed violations costing $530. Your ticket will often tell you exactly how much your fine is and how many points you could face.

Call Our Maryland Speeding Ticket Defense Lawyer for a Free Consultation

If you or a loved one received a speeding ticket in Maryland, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today. Our Maryland speeding ticket defense attorneys may be able to take your case and fight the ticket, working to help you avoid fines and points on your license. For a free legal consultation on your case, call our law offices today at (410) 431-0911

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