How to beat the rap

I like reporting like this, which tells us something we probably wouldn't know if we'd never been involved. If you get a traffic ticket, you've got nothing to lose by going to court:

For thousands of motorists in Marion County, beating a traffic ticket is as simple as showing up in court.

Speeders, red-light runners and others who break the rules of the road have a better than 1 in 3 chance of seeing their citations dismissed because the officers who wrote their tickets will fail to appear in court, an Indianapolis Star analysis shows.

That would vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, of course, and no one has done such an analysis for Allen County, as far as I know. Something else in the story that might be an eye-opener for those who worship at the "burden of proof is on the state" altar:

But if the officer had appeared, Kinnett's excuse probably would not impress the judge. Rothenberg routinely warns those fighting their tickets that the burden of proof in traffic court is much lighter than one sees in a criminal case.

The state must prove only that it's likely the driver committed the offense. Lawyers say that's a very difficult burden for a regular motorist to overcome.