As reported by seattlepi.com, a Washington man, Carl Hu, had his speeding ticket thrown out for a very novel argument. The ticketing cop was parked on the median with his lights off. Hu argued that this violated Washington state law requiring that lights be on when on a public highway, and that the ticket was the information used to write the ticket was therefore gathered illegally. The judge bought the argument, and dismissed the ticket!

While a very interesting and novel argument, it is unclear if this sets any meaningful precedent. For one thing, this case will be of little use to anyone outside of Washington state. Traffic laws are state-based, and vary widely state to state. Even within Washington, it is unclear if it sets precedent. The Judge dismissed the case because “the state [had] not met its burden to prove by a preponderance of evidence that [Hu] committed this infraction.” This is legalese for “dismissed because I feel like it.” The judge doesn’t specifically rule that the failure of the officer to use his lights was the reason for the dismissal, so it will be harder to use this case as precedent for that argument.

There is also the question of whether a traffic court judge will care about ANY argument you raise in your defense, but that is a subject for another article…