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I recently fought, and won a red light ticket. The officer did not show up so that definatley helped my case, however I was prepared before I went into court. First of all, if you show the judge that you tried to build a case and you have some decent reasons why you feel you were unjustly ticketed you most likely will not incurr any additional fines. I probaly spent way to much time on this, but I felt like it was worth it. The first thing I did was to obtain a recent copy of my driving record. The judge has this and it will affect the decision. Luckly mine was decent with 4 tickets in 13 years. Next look up the statute in your state and make sure that you are in the right before proceeding, otherwise you may want to plead no contest at this point. In FL it states that the vehicle must be beyond the crosswalk before turing red, nothing is stated about intent, however I'm sure an officer can argue that. I also obtained a copy of the in-car camera from the officers car. I was a big waste of time because it only shows from the time he began pursuit and it looks just like a really boring episode of Cops. The best evidence that I obtained other than the "I didn't do it" was actually from the county engineer. I called their office and inquired about the certification of the traffic control device in question. I remembered that they had been blown down with a recent hurricane and the engineer had told me that they had not been re-certified since. He faxed me over a written statement with that information and his signature. Take lots of photos of the light and his location in relation to your car, it may have been difficult to see both at the exact same time. Finally I had a list of questions for the officer to try and make my case, where was your car located in relation, training, traffic, etc. Good luck
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