TexasCHLforum.com

OK, I am not a lawyer, so I might be wrong on some of these. Charles, or someone else, can correct me and I will freely accept that I could be wrong. I would think you have only three ways to fight the ticket:

1. Check very carefully for where the signs are posted that lower the speed limit. The previous limit will normally be considered to be in effect until there is a posted sign changing it. This way, you could argue you were doing 55 in a 55 when the officer clocked you and you were slowing down for the new speed zone. This has probably the best chance of working, and it is not very good.

2. Check very carefully for the location marked on the ticket and the city borders. If the ticket was written for municipal court, they have no jurisdiction to hear the case for an offense that occurred outside the city. Same goes for JP and their precinct boundary. This is a small chance, but might work.

3. Admit to the court you were doing 55 and challenge the 40 as being an artificially low limit. This is based on the fact that our law technically defines speeding as a speed which is not reasonable or prudent. Going over the posted limit is a prima facia case, which means you can argue that your were still reasonable and prudent even though you were faster than the posted limit. This is probably the worst chance of winning and might take an appeal or three to get it above the county court level before it works.

Overall, I would say your best bet is to pay the ticket while taking friendly to the judge and see if he will forget to report it to the state. I think the no defensive driving for CDLs is the dumbest idea of all of the traffic laws passed recently. If the idea of defensive driving is to really improve the driving habits of the person ticketed, where does society benefit more than improving the driving of the guy who makes a living on the road?