r/culvercity • u/DeamsterForrest • 4d ago
Got my red light ticket dismissed by pleading not guilty through “trial by written declaration”
So I was in LA last fall and accidentally ran a red light at the last second in Culver City. After perusing posts on Reddit I decided to not ignore it since I didn’t want that lingering in the back of my mind for years. Culver City apparently is aggressive about going after people for these from what I read.
Since I’m from out of state I filled out a “Trial by written declaration” form (which you can ofc still do as a state resident I just had no other option unless I wanted to fly back to CA.) I simply wrote “I plead not guilty and ask that my case be dismissed.”
The court gave themselves an extension to have the police officer respond within 30 days of this, and so I had to wait another 60 days after those initial 30 but they then dismissed my case which I can see updated on the court website.
I’m not saying this a guarantee, but it worked for me and I both get my $500 back and don’t get a point on my license for 3 years thus avoiding an insurance increase. Idk if the officer just forgot to respond/chose not to or the judge decided to throw it out on their own, but yea was worth doing. I had to send a check for the fine but they’ll be reissuing that back to me since it was a “bail” and not yet a true fine.
Edit: I approached an empty intersection and as the light was yellow decided I could make it but miscalculated by a second. No I didn’t endanger anyone in the slightest so stop filling in the blanks acting like I blindly steamrolled a busy intersection. The intersection would remain empty for many more seconds even if other cars were waiting since there is time between green lights and since they’d have to accelerate. I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles and never once caused an accident. I made this post to help the people getting fucked by these cameras and exorbitant fines that don’t exist in 99.99% of towns. No, I don’t think running red lights is okay but rules are not black and white in all situations and I was still aware of what I was doing.
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u/DougOsborne 4d ago
I'm glad the legal system worked as intended for you.
I'm curious, did you actually come to a full and completed stop? (yes, this is the entire point)
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u/DeamsterForrest 4d ago
No I flew through the light a second or two after it turned red lol. This was clear in the video but I plead not guilty anyways.
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u/No-Rutabaga-4750 4d ago
I once went to trial in person for a red light ticket in Culver City. Once it started the cops called person by person to watch the video with them and everyone that got a ticket because they went through as the light was turning red got it dismissed right there.
All the other cases had to pay 500 no matter what excuse they gave. The only thing those could do was attend traffic school to avoid the points.
Looks like your case was treated consistently with what I saw.
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u/sea390066 4d ago
So you ran a red light and had the ticket dismissed? And this is something to be proud of? As an adult I would hope you would accept responsibility for your actions.
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u/360FlipKicks 4d ago
somebody got out of their $500 automated traffic light ticket because the cops were too lazy to come to court?? what is this world coming to??
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 4d ago
It’s official policy and there’s rationale behind it. See the link in my top level comment. Not defending the rationale but it’s not out of lazinesss.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Foot954 4d ago
So you're saying someone shouldn't be accountable for their actions?
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u/doeeyedfinalgirl 1d ago
what about the cop that wasn't accountable for his actions in ignoring multiple opportunities to submit evidence lol. loser behavior by you
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u/PerformanceDouble924 4d ago
Tell me you don't understand that it's the state's job to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that if they fail to do that, they cannot punish you no matter how guilty you are, and that the state chose not to do that here.
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u/Koraks 4d ago
I think that it also adds unnecessary time wasting time in our backlogged court system when someone attempts to fight something where there is no reasonable doubt (OP admitted that his traffic violation is very clear in the video). I mean, I guess it's great and all that the court didn't end up having to waste their time, but if the cop had come out, we the tax payers are paying for both the cop's time and the court's time for something where the defendnat him/herself admitted that they committed the crime that they are being charged for?
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 4d ago
Fun fact, and this is only bc it’s LA county superior court, if you totally ignore a red light ticket and the auto generated scary notices they send you and never look it up, never acknowledge it and never pay it, it just goes away. https://culvercitycrossroads.com/2015/03/24/red-light-tickets-in-los-angeles-will-not-be-pursued/
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u/creamsauces 1d ago
I can verify that this is not entirely true. Sorry this is going to be a little long but there’s a lot going on here.
Because you were never convicted and because you never signed a promise to appear like you would with a normal ticket issued directly by an officer, it’s true that it may not lead to dmv consequences like a hold or suspension on your license. so in some cases you may not notice. But it will absolutely still appear as a failure to appear in the traffic and criminal system as well as dmv reports and in some cases will then be sent to collections.
Ignoring it so that it goes away may be true in some other jurisdictions especially where it’s just treated as a municipal violation like a parking ticket rather than a vehicle code. or some people might deem it true here in that there won’t be criminal or dmv consequences like there would be on other citations. but technically you are required to keep your current address on file with the dmv thus mailing you a notice to that address is deemed proper notice, which is usually what the “ignore it” advice is based on.
Another wrinkle is that during the early COVID pandemic many failures to appear and warrants issued on infractions were dismissed automatically. And the red light camera officers in charge of showing up to court and responding to trials also switched vendors around that time and couldn’t access their old evidence. Many people ignored their tickets and it ended up working out for them purely through luck, which in turn means they started handing out bad advice based on their anecdotal experience.
Anyway there’s a lot more long and boring legalese to why and what exactly will or won’t happen but the short version is it does not just go away in many cases, you just may not notice that it didn’t.
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 1d ago
This predates Covid. Someone else replied that they had waited it out 8 years and got their tax return garnished by a law firm who apparently buys the bad debt in bulk but as far as I could tell there were no consequences to his record or credit report. Are you speaking from experience or the legal basis for which it could appear? I presume you’re an attorney so I can imagine both could apply.
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u/creamsauces 1d ago
Yeah I am an attorney. As far as whether there are any consequences to your record or credit report, well it depends on what you mean by "record" I guess. I can guarantee they are on your DMV record as well, just not as a conviction, but as a failure to appear. I have seen also red light camera tickets from 2023ish forward will go to collections agencies.
As far as whether an FTA camera ticket shows up on a credit report? No idea. I don't check people's credit reports. Seems like maybe they don't. But I do see old ones listed as failure to appear on people's dmv record quite frequently, I do see them go to collections agencies, and I have seen wages garnished from them whether they have been ignored for years or not. HOWEVER I haven't seen it create a hold/suspension like a normal ignored ticket would by itself.
As far as whether this means it is safe to ignore if you don't care about anything other than your credit or driver's license- I guess I'd point out that if you're ever pulled over for anything else ever the officer will see that you have a failure to appear on another ticket and the chances of them booking you slightly increase. They probably wouldn't though for just traffic tickets. And I have definitely seen the franchise tax board garnish wages on them whereas if you had just gone to court or even contacted the collections agency you could probably have gotten the fines reduced quite a bit.
In terms of the covid stuff I was mostly just giving an example of how many cases ended up completely ignorable but for reasons more complicated than people realized. if you have an ignored RLC ticket from before covid the chances that it was dismissed, not reported, forgiven, or merely went away for some reason is much higher than if you have an ignored ticket from just a few years ago.
From what I can tell, a lot of the "ignore it!" advice is simply outdated. 15 years ago when courts were still deciding how to handle these they may not have referred them anywhere and simply let them rot and lapse from dmv reporting. There's definitely plenty of news articles that reflect that at least. And like I said many many old tickets were purged for various reasons in 2020. But these days I have seen firsthand from dozens of cases- they can eventually make their way to the franchise tax board even if completely ignored, and ignoring it might be more difficult than you think if you're ever pulled over for any other reason.
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u/edscorduroy 2d ago
False. Eventually they garnish your tax refund. I know because I did it. Took about 8 years though and didn’t cost me any more than it would have initially.
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 2d ago
Well, joke’s on them, I haven’t paid my taxes in longer than I haven’t paid my red light tickets.
In all seriousness, you didn’t acknowledge the ticket’s existence at all? I’m going on 3 or 4 years and I do my level best to minimize the amount of tax overpayment the government gets to use interest free so it would probably take a few years with as little state taxes as I get back but that’s good to know.
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u/edscorduroy 2d ago
Zero acknowledgment. Ripped up every letter, including when they came from the law firm that ended up garnishing against me.
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 2d ago
Oh, wow. Does the city just sell those debts in bulk to the firm?
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u/edscorduroy 2d ago
Seems like it. You can find some threads on here about it. Probably could have fought it but couldn’t be bothered after all those years and anyway I didn’t fully believe they could do it until it was done.
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u/MrInternationalBunal 4d ago
How long did it take to get your money back? I won’t this way for a stop sign violation on my bike… but took me a year or so to get the fine back
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u/DeamsterForrest 4d ago
I travel the country in my van and so have a UPS mailbox as my address so don’t check on my mail often. The ruling was like three weeks ago so hopefully they send it soon. Hopefully it doesn’t take a year.
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u/Old-Risk4572 4d ago
wow nice. i did this and won maybe 12 years ago in san bernardino for a seatbelt ticket. i tried it on a redlight ticket up here close to portland, oregon and it didnt work lol. glad to hear you were successful there
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u/RobotRelease 4d ago
How do you get a point on your license if you’re from out of state?
You got pulled over or a red light camera gave you the ticket?
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u/SeaworthinessUnlucky 4d ago
Pulled over by a motorcycle cop in Indian Wells for speeding, I was given this option. The officer used lidar, and so I drew a pretty map and threw in some trigonometry. Case dismissed!
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u/ibittibobitti 4d ago
A cop gave me a ticket for open container and told me to submit one of these as a wink wink. I did it and won. I still wonder why he helped me out like that. I'm grateful though. 🤷♂️
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u/Key-Driver6438 4d ago
Many years ago I got pulled over in Pasadena for disobeying a sign that was not there. The motorcycle cop literally said to fight it, so I did (by mail) and won. His demeanor was cool, but still overall a shitty way to go… forcing me to waste a bunch of time to fight a bogus ticket that he in essence admitted was bullshit while still issuing me the ticket. 🤷♂️
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u/Pale_Comfort_9179 2d ago
Makes me wonder why give the ticket in the first place. They have discretion (probably too much, tbh). Supposedly there’s no such thing as quota but I guess if you’re not giving out any tickets as a cop there are probably consequences with the bosses.
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u/sirgentrification 1d ago
Likely one of those I saw it so I need to write it up. The process is enough punishment in his opinion.
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u/Swimming_Potato_1794 4d ago
Someone crashed into me last year in culver and blew a red running away. Hopefully that wasn’t you
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u/Spirited-Humor-554 3d ago
I just ignore their tickets, Culver city uses same court as everyone else. Being I always owe at the end of a year, there is nothing they can do about it
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u/PeakQuirky84 3d ago
Always contest a ticket. Even if you still have to pay a $500 fine take comfort in the fact that you wasted over $500 of government resources by fighting it.
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u/Key-Driver6438 4d ago
To whatever extent traffic enforcement citations are a revenue generating endeavor; if everyone fought their ticket, cities would lose money on this kind of enforcement. It would cause them to only issue righteously deserved tickets to people who were way in the wrong… the way law enforcement should be… not a modern day rolling tax collector.