In California, the only way to beat the financial implications of a ticket is to be found not guilty. Even if you take traffic school to keep the ticket off of your record, you still have to pay the fines. There are legal strategies that you can use to argue your case in court if you believe that the speed you were going when you were stopped was "reasonable and prudent," but if you go to trial you should consider hiring an experienced traffic attorney. This can be expensive, but you are much more likely to have a successful outcome, not have to pay the fines, and keep the ticket off of your record.

If you don't want to pay for hiring an attorney and this is your only violation in the past 18 months, requesting to take a defensive driving class is the best way to keep the ticket from showing up on your record. Remember, if the ticket shows up on your California driving record, your insurance rates will spike at the next renewal. It's worth 8 hours of your time to keep that from happening-especially if your court will let you take Driving University's online class.