Reduce The Odds Of Being Ticketed When Pulled Over - Lehto's Law Ep. 3.07

hello and welcome once again to Latos law I'm Steve Lee - attorney at law in state of Michigan we're practicing on after 25 years in fields of consumer protection and lemon law half right about the stuff place like Road and track calm as well and I've written quite a few articles in the internet about what to do with respect to traffic tickets how to fight them and how to behave at the roadside and one of the most popular columns I ever wrote was about this and I've done a podcast audio a couple years ago but never done a video on it so it's here to talk about how to reduce the odds of being ticketed when pulled over and this stuff is timely I tell you because it just happened to me I got pulled over this past Tuesday night by a police officer who claimed I was doing 71 in a 55 and I took my own advice that is I did what I tell other people to do and it worked out for me now that doesn't prove it'll work for you but why not try to better the odds to make it less likely that you'll get a ticket at the roadside from a police officer so here's what I'm going to tell you to do and I've gotten this information from dealing with and I've handled hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of traffic tickets in my career it's not my specialty but somehow I just wind up doing it and I've spoken to police officers prosecutors judges other defense attorneys I'm here to tell you what I'm telling you is absolutely absolutely true that you can do things to reduce the odds of being ticketed when you're pulled over by a police officer even if you did what he thinks you did or she so give you an example I was driving home the other night I just spoke at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor about Preston Tucker and I had been driving for a couple hours it was late I wanted to get home and watch the election results and as I'm driving down a road speed limit 55 I see a car passed me on the corner my I recognize the police officer and it's one of those moderately unmarked state cop cars and so the first thing I do is I lift that as I pull my foot off the accelerator I don't hit the brakes you don't to hit the brakes and it becomes obviously knew you were speeding I lift and I slowed down just you know bring it back down towards the speed limit and I see of course he pulls a u-turn behind me pulls up behind me and flips on his lights now here's what you need to realize when a police officer goes to pull you / they are not committed to writing you a ticket yet okay they don't have to write you a ticket okay I've actually a police officer walk up to my car before and tell me slow down and walk away without doing anything else now you might say Steve you get pulled over a lot yes I do but I've been driving for a long time and an old guy okay I do a lot of driving if you drive a lot you're bound to get pulled over just bad luck you know wrong place wrong time so police officer turns his lights on you have to immediately start thinking about these things to do to reduce the odds of being ticketed the first thing you do is pull over as swiftly as you can in a safe spot not safe for you but also safe for the police officer okay you're always thinking of the police officer think of it from their viewpoint if you make it go easy for them they'll hopefully go easy on you so I'm driving down the road I see the lights go on the first thing I do is I turn signal pull over the right now there's a shoulder on the side of the road where I am and I'm in an SUV a 2002 Ford Explorer as you know by the way last week I challenged anyone driving Oh to die woul analysts to send your registration and send our free book so far zero takers which proves my point the Ford Explorer is not the worst vehicle ever built but I digress so I pull over to the side of the road and because of an SUV I can pull way over to the side of the road so I pull over to the point where I've got two wheels off the shoulder onto the you know into the ditch basically but the police officer now when he pulls his car behind me can walk up and step into that alley I've made for him basically knowing that he's pretty safe because he's two three feet off the road so I pull over as far as I can put the car in park and immediately turn on the overhead dome light turn the lights on so the police officer approaches your car he can see what's in your car think about it from the police officer viewpoint late at night they pull somebody over they're approaching a dark car they're going to be on guard there he's scared what's in that car don't get me wrong I mean they know the odds are that nothing in there is dangerous but they don't know they don't know the odds are but they don't know so make it easy for them turn the overhead don't whine as quickly as you can then roll your window down all the way and then put your hands on your steering wheel at 10:00 and 2:00 so does the officer approaches the car he or she can see them from a good distance okay this is very very important because when they walk up and they see you do that it's two things number one it will put them at ease knowing that they can see your hands but number two hopefully they'll realize you're doing this on purpose you're doing this to make their job easier we've all had jobs before were somebody else that was hiring us or working with us did things to make our jobs easier you appreciate that you're gonna start this traffic stop off if possible on the right foot now one thing people often tell me they see Steve shouldn't you shut your car off put the keys on the dashboard you can do that but I didn't because it was nighttime it was raining and my concern was and if the traffic stop went for lengths of time my cars nearly having all its headlights on and I want to leave the headlights on so if the officer asked me Steve you know shut your car off I would have then said okay surely my headlights on or off and let him know that's why I did this so I left the car running but it's in park my hands on the steering wheel windows rolled down and now as he approaches the car he can see inside the car I'm all alone I'm not armed apparently my hands in plain view and I'm waiting for him okay now remember it's raining out but again I've done this window all the way down I did people tell me that they cracked the window and they stuck their licence through the crack in the window to the police officer and I get news for you the police officer at that point is thinking this is like what you think it's like a drive-thru at the bank like deal with me like I'm a person here I'm standing in the rain you don't want to get your little hand wet okay so I roll the window down hands attended to and while I'm doing it by the way my beloved Breitling is getting rained on but I put up with it because I want to put the police officer ease so the nice young state trooper says do you know how fast you were going now that seems to be a greeting idea from time to time my second bit of advice to you is never confess to anything now there's a bit of a debate on this one because if you lie to the police officer I've heard some police officers go I don't like you lied to but then again if you say yes I was speeding you lose if you go to court so what you try to do is come up with something in the middle ground so he said do you know how fast you were going and I said I'm sorry officer I don't I don't I'm sorry I apologized an apology is not a confession I apologize I'm sorry I don't know how fast I was going and he said well is there some reason why you're driving so fast now you got to come up with something right and I said you know officer I'm sorry it's been a long day I drove all the way to enter I'm driving all the way back and I'm almost home I'm tired I guess I wasn't paying attention and I'm sorry okay now I realize that's not an excuse that won't get me out of a ticket in and of itself but it seems reasonable to me and he then said well where are you driving to where's home and I tell him I go right up the road I'm two miles from home right now two miles and he says oh okay and then he says driver's license registration proof of insurance now you have to see that coming that's almost always going to be asked right nothing wrong with him asking that I've had police officers do that they asked me to run it and they let me go they're running it to make sure there's no outstanding warrants you don't have any unpaid tickets things of that nature and so they're going to run that right so when he asks you for that information before you move before you do anything let him or her know what you're going to do announce your movements and if possible or if necessary ask for permission so with my hands still on the steering wheel I said all my informations in my wallet I am now going to reach for my left hand is that okay and I said it in such a way that I wasn't being snippy about it I was simply informing him that I was intending to reach underneath myself and pull something out because even though he knows that most men carry a wallet in their pocket and most the information being asked for is in that wallet when he sees a man reach underneath himself that hand disappears for a moment and until he sees what you pulled out he's going to be on high alert because there's always a possibility you're reaching underneath yourself to pull out a gun and we've all heard stories about police officers being shot at the roadside during a routine traffic stop because again he doesn't know if I'm speeding because I want to get home and watch the election results or I'm speeding because I just robbed Banke okay so I said I'm going to reach underneath myself and get my wallet that's my stuff is that okay and I kid you not he laughed the tone of his voice changed said sure go ahead but I am convinced I am convinced and there's no way I can quantify this or measure this by I'm convinced that at that moment in time I won because when he laughed he recognized that hey here's a guy who's doing what he can to cooperate with me to make my job go easier he doesn't know that I'm an attorney he doesn't know I do podcast doesn't know what I do but he just knows that when I when he walked up my dome light was on my window is rolled down my hands are on the steering wheel and then I asked for permission to pull out my wallet now I bet people say Steve I'm a grown man or woman I don't need to ask permission to pull out my own wallet and I say you know something you don't and the police officer also can write you a ticket so we're just trying to work here it's a form of being polite courtesy okay you're making his or her job easier and more likely they're going to go easy on you so I reach in my pocket I pull up my wallet I'm flipping through it I find my driver's license my registration my proof of insurance and I hand it to my said there you go and he goes hang on I'll be right back now this is extremely important also I've had people tell me that they sat there they had time to kill so they start digging to the purse and start digging to their wallet they start digging to the glove box think about it from the police officers viewpoint he goes and types the information in his computer and he looks up at the see and you've got your head down your your head is moving around now he's wondering are you up there hiding stuff what are you doing what are you doing and I've had people tell me that they got pollard by police officer and when the police officer returned he said can I can I look in your car what were you doing so just like I did put your hands back on the wheel and sit there like a dummy and I mean that literally like a dummy just sit there don't move sit there hands on the wheel window down rain hitting your left hand if necessary but just sit there I didn't roll the window up and you might say see that's stupid no because I didn't want there to be a chance and he's gonna walk back up my window be up I don't want to do that so the windows down my hands on her wheel my dome light still on he's back there running my information I'm sitting there waiting patiently for him to come back and he came back and he said mr. Leto slow down you're set to go and he hands me a papers and I indicated a left-hand turn to get back on the road and I accelerated slowly away and went home I got out of a ticket sixteen over okay now there may have been other things going on it may have been the end of his shift uh you know who knows or he may even lie maybe he didn't have me on radar I don't know but the point is I am convinced I got out of the ticket because I did everything properly I've also and I'll tell you the truth the last time I got pulled over before this a couple years ago Upper Peninsula of Michigan a queuing up County sheriff's deputy pulled me over we passed on the road you know the tunnel of trees if you know what I'm talking about it's up there and he's did the thing spun around broad daylight okay so I pull over the side of the road I don't don't like no no but I brought the window down hands in the wheels wheel he walks up and he says do you know why I pulled you over I said I'm sorry I don't he said well you're speeding and I said oh I'm sorry and he said is there any reason you're speeding they love that question and I said you know I'm driving a rental car and I'm not familiar with it my other vehicle is a truck and a rental car I go maybe I'm driving little bit fast cuz I don't you know wrecking as the road noise which by the way is actually a decent excuse if you think about I Drive an explorer which has road noise issues one of the few things I don't like about it and and you drive a car that's quiet you find yourself doing 8090 miles no real easily or so I hear so the police officer at that point says license and registration and dawns on me the registration is not my wallet it's in the glove box so I said two things officer I got to reach in my back pocket pull my wallet my driver's license but the registration is in the glove box is it okay if I reach over and get that same thing he looked at me smell he said sure go ahead recognizing the fact that by announcing what I was going to do I was actually looking out for him and trying to make his job easier same thing there he went back ran my driver's license came back he said hey dude slow down gave it back to me you're free to go now the one thing I do want to tell you besides everything I've told you about is that everything you want to do at the side of the road because polite as possible but and be as unremarkable as possible that is don't do anything that would make the officer remember you later because suppose you get the ticket or he gives you a reduced ticket okay the police officer could have said Steve you're doing 71 I'm gonna write you over 10 over I still might want to fight that ticket I'm an attorney after all so the key is when you go to court the prosecutors got to stack a tickets on a stack of files and he's gonna plea bargain a bunch of them away but not all of them and he's gonna ask the police officer hey do you have a problem with any of these people I'm here to tell you that I've had clients tell me I've also had prosecutors and cops tell me that my clients sometimes do dumb things by the side of the road such as tell the officer I'm going to see you in court this will never hold up now go to the Supreme Court with us don't do that because the police officer will remember you and say oh that's the guy who told me he'd see me in court guess what I'm here now bring it okay so the point is don't do anything to let them have an easier time to remember you you want them to forget you you want to blend into a sea of faces in court so when the prosecutor goes do you have a problem with this guy he looks at the ticket side remember this guy flips it over there's nothing written on the back which is where they write the comments looks the front again looks at you and says and cut a deal I don't care because many of the tickets that do get written get deals but what we're talking about first when you pull over the side of the road think of it as triage its first aid you're trying to lessen the pain or the impact at the moment it happens and there's a huge opportunity there the police officer walking up to your car can do everything from write you up for everything you did throw the book at you or can do nothing or can do anything in between and if you make the officers job easier you're more likely to either get off or get a reduced ticket and I'm telling you I've spoken to dozens and dozens of police officers prosecutors judges I hate to repeat myself on this but it's extremely important remember that that is the case and they do recognize that you've done these things it will make the job go much much easier I've spoken to people across the country on this now including police officers of contacted me and thanked me for writing about this because they say if everybody did these things it would be a safer place think about this if every police officer for the next a week was pulling people over and everybody turned on their dome lights and had their hands in the wheel and you know it was polite and acted this way and didn't argue with them at the side of the road or didn't have the lights off their jobs would be easier okay I'm not saying to stop writing tickets but if nothing else think of it this way if you do these things you're the one who's not going to get the ticket the person who says I don't have to do this stuff I can be as rude as I want I can tell them to see you in court you know bite me that kind of stuff well that's you're gonna go ticket that's gonna happen you know arguing with the police officer side road will never help you it will only hurt you and I'm here to tell you I've spoken to people my brother hope he doesn't mind me telling got pulled over not too long ago broad daylight so he pulls over the side of the road hands in the wheel window down hands in the wheel police officer actually said sir why are your hands in the wheel and my brother said it is kind of weird be asked that yes so I told her it is I did that so you'd know that I'm being respectful and she laughed just go thank you thank you now she still wrote him a ticket but she reduced the charge so I told myself up you know you got you got something out of it right the charge is reduced I can't I can't hear all of society's ills I can only fix a few of them and even that is only one at a time so here's the key you get pulled over by a police officer immediately start thinking from their viewpoint think about it from their viewpoint pull over as far as you can to the side of the road dome light on window down hands in the wheel up ten and two if it's daylight out you might want to shut the car put the keys on the under on the dashboard hands on the wheel ten and two and when the officer approaches the car speaks for you don't confess don't say I did it don't lie but do what you can to tap dance down the middle I'm really sorry I don't know if that's that's going I thought I was doing okay but I'm sorry you know and then when they say can we see the license registration proof of insurance then announce your movements in advance I'm your office right need to reach my pocket I need to reach in my glove box I need to look in my purse I need to do whatever I got it I got it I got to do this but tell them that okay the last thing I do is make a sudden movement and reach someplace they can't see your hands okay don't do that okay and then after they've left and they're going back to their car you sit there quietly don't poke around don't rearrange your purse don't empty out your glovebox just sit there quietly and wait for them and then above all else don't be remarkable you want to be the person that they forget about if they write five tickets at night you're the one they won't be able to remember because that will help you later so those are the keys that will help you reduce the odds of being ticketed and pulled over questions or comments due to my wave lates is a lot of comme le h tus la w calm I'm on Twitter at Steve let towed ste vele HT oh and of course it shows on iTunes stitcher SoundCloud pod bean Google Play and YouTube among others thanks for watching listening bye bye

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 552,201

Rating: 4.8181114 out of 5

Keywords: Traffic Tickets, Police, Attorney, Lawyer, Michigan, Lemon Law, www.lehtoslaw.com

Id: fIyXUHz6ggY

Length: 18min 33sec (1113 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 16 2016

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