Following Too Closely Ticket

Hey Rick,
I would write down everything that happened so you could remember the facts in court and fight it. Be courteous and dress nice to show respect. There is a small chance the cop won't show up and at that point request a motion to dismiss your case because you had to drive several miles to get here, take a day off work, and if you have any witnesses they too would be inconvenienced for a rescheduling. You can also ask your honor if I were unable to show up would I be given the same courtesy?
If he does show first ask the officer or Prosecutor in private if you can negotiate a guilty plea to a lesser charge.
If he refuses you should be allowed to cross examine him so ask the cop, how do you go about measuring distance between two vehicles? Ask if he used a stopwatch whether it was dept. issued? Ask when was it last calibrated? all of these questions should help cast doubt so the judge see your side but definitely show up and state your driving history and experience. State that you always practice the Smith System using the 4 to 7 second rule. I would not bother with an attorney as my experience it did not help and cost me 450.00 on interstate truckers legal services. BE Prepared you may loose and that in my experience some judges only believe the cop like in Kangaroo court. As Big Don says every court handles it differently so try calling the court and asking about the protocol in my case I could have attended this court on a earlier session to view how this Judge runs the show but was unaware that I was allowed in to see that.

I felt I was trapped in my current job but the good news is that after that ticket I landed a better job. The HR looks at whether you have had several tickets and if the HR has any common sense and sees not they tend to overlook it. Unfortunately this new breed of cops don't think about or care about staining your future livelihood. This is the same ticket given to someone in an accident or having road rage and some cops don't ask themselves simple questions like was anyone really in danger or hurt because of this brief occurrence of following close. Every time someone passes you there is that situation of being too close when they return back in front of you.
Hope this helps

 

Fight it, you have only your time to lose and this is classified as a serious moving violation so if you get another serious moving violation within 3 years its a 60 day suspension and officers will keep writing these bogus tickets unless they are put in check. To them it's about brownie points and maybe just maybe you'll get a fair judge and win. Here is a link that explains serious and major moving violations.
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration-licensing/cdl/cdl.htm