When you show up at the Municipal Court, the Union City Judge will allow one of four pleas: Guilty, Not Guilty, No Lo (No Contest), or Pretrial. There is no prosecutor at the hearing, so if you choose pretrial, you talk straight to the judge (up close and informally). While I did argue the laser reading was inadmissable due to Code 40-14-7, he said the laser device had to be visible, not the patrol car. Although that is not the way the law reads, that's what the judge is going to say (and the prosecutor could argue at trial that an experienced officer could tell you were speeding anyway). However, I argued three other points: 1-the ticketing officer did not witness any wrongdoing on my part, 2-the lasering officer did not maintain line-of-sight, 3-the lasering officer provided a general description of a vehicle to the ticketing officer (he can't get your license plate if he is looking at oncoming traffic) that, combined with loss of line-of-sight, could lead to misidentification. The judge was a pretty reasonable fellow. I think you would have some luck getting the ticket reduced just by showing up and having some reasonable excuse, assuming that reasonable excuse has something to do with having a job and being a responsible tax-paying citizen and assuming you don't have an already awful driving record.

You need to understand that the laser that is being used is a portable speed detection device and when using the laser completly outside and away from the vehicle, the officer then becomes the vehicle that the device is being used from; therefore the Union City Police Department is acting in accordance with the law that was cited. If you don't want a ticket then slow down. If you slowed down and were driving in accordance with the law, then it should not matter to you if an officer were hiding in a hot air ballon to check your speed. If you were driving in accordance with the law then you have nothing to fear and would not receive a citation.

I am so sick of the weak rebuttal that "If you slow down or don't drive fast then you won't get ticketed." I am a responsible driver and haven't received a traffic ticket in well over five years I believe until around this post in "COLLEGE PARK" by UNION CITY". I was driving in the lef t(one direction) lane on S.Fulton heading toward College Park when this truck rolled up on me at a high rate of speed. Another car in the right lane was just ahead of me. Rather than slow down and aggravate the driver behind me, I decided to speed up to get in front of the car on my right so that I could pull over. Just as I did, a Union City cruiser came into our view and they proceeded to pull me over as the maniac truck continue to roll on. That truly was an "INJUSTICE". Although, I was indeed speeding when he clocked me, I was in the process of making all around us safe but for a moment. I wanted to fight this in court but my spouse said to just let Prepaid Legal plead it out and pay the fine. I really wanted to look the cop in the face one more time and ask why he was fishing in some other city's fishing hole.