I went court twice to fight my red right ticket. It is intimidating.if I knew I have the choice to contest by mail, I will avoid going there at all. Of course, the court never mention that you have this choice. And when you were there, you will be amazed how many tickets they issued. From what I observed, if you plead guilty at the first appearance, you pretty much agreed to pay the full amount. The judge won’t give you any chance to argue or bargain. But if you plead not guilty, they will ask you to go to another room to schedule your second appearance. And the second appearance gives you bargaining power, because the officer will be there to testimony. Typically red light Turing right is considered light offense. The officer will talk to you if you are willing to agree to pay half. If you do, you make a deal with the officer and your case won’t be heard by judge. This is my expereice two years ago. Hope they have not changed their strategies because of the budget deficit. There are tons of people similar to your case, seeing the light yellow and tried to turn when it turned to red. Believe or not, I did a research on line and some claims that the city purposely shorten the time between the light changes so they can catch more people. Anyway, there is money to save if you are willing to spend some time. Good luck!
