Although the prosecution has the burden of proof before you can be convicted of a traffic ticket, having good evidence can help your defense. One of the strongest forms of evidence is dashcam footage. However, you need to know how to use and admit it in court.

That’s where The New York Traffic Ticket Lawyers is ready to assist you. Our New York law firm understands how good evidence can be used to support our clients. Learn more about the role that dashcam video may play in your case.

Weighing the Value of Dashcam Footage

Simply having a video recorded on a dashcam is not necessarily going to mean that you won’t be convicted for a traffic ticket. There are various factors that will affect the ultimate resolution of your ticket, including what the video actually recorded and its quality.

The footage may be your own or another person, like an eyewitness in another vehicle, may have recorded it. Any dashcam video is generally admissible in a New York traffic ticket case if it meets these criteria:

Relevance: The video must actually be relevant to the facts and legal issues involved in the defendant’s traffic ticket.
Authentication: The video has to be authenticated, meaning someone can testify about how it was created and that it accurately depicts the events in question.
Not otherwise inadmissible: Finally, the video cannot violate any other New York rules of evidence.

Having an attorney is important. Video evidence must be admitted in court for it to be useful for your case. Your dashcam footage could be the most compelling smoking gun ever, but it’s useless if you cannot get it admitted as evidence.

A knowledgeable lawyer will understand the rules of evidence as they pertain to video footage and then work to get your video admitted. A skilled attorney can also defeat challenges to the video evidence that the prosecution may raise.

Video Can Contradict the Officer’s or Prosecution’s Case

Traffic officers and the prosecution will present a narrative about the events concerning the ticket. They will detail the traffic stop, what they observed or sensed, and the conclusions they made. This and other information is necessary to justify the stop and the ticket.

However, dashcam footage can contradict these official stories. For example, it can show that at the time you drove through a traffic light it was not red. Video can also undermine the reliability of the officer’s testimony by disproving key details, like weather and traffic conditions.

The goal of having this evidence admitted is to create reasonable doubt. This, in turn, can help you defeat the ticket by preventing the prosecution from meeting its burden of proof.

Dashcam Footage Can Aid With Plea Negotiations

Not every dashcam video is sufficient to totally defeat the ticket. And in some cases it doesn’t depict what the defendant either believed or hoped it would. Still, this may not make the video useless. It can actually assist you in plea negotiations with the prosecution.

A good video can support your lawyer’s argument for reducing the charge against you. As a result you may be able to plead guilty to a less serious charge and avoid more severe consequences like higher fines, more New York license points, and even jail time.

In other cases, dashcam footage can help a defendant who is facing multiple tickets. It may be able to help you defeat one ticket even if it cannot help you defeat all of them. Regardless, it helps to have this evidence when your attorney negotiates with the prosecution.

Video Can Help With Many Different Tickets

One of the most valuable aspects of dashcam footage is that it can help with virtually any sort of ticket that a driver could conceivably face. If you have received the following tickets and have video footage related to it, talk to our office:

While dashcam footage can help, it’s not necessarily a magic bullet. Your video may not dispense with all factual issues in your case. Moreover, the events that it depicts could be open to different interpretations. For this reason it’s imperative to retain a skilled traffic ticket attorney.

Preserve Your Video, Then Contact Us

Be sure you take the steps necessary to preserve your video and avoid overwriting or deleting it. Then, get in touch with us. The New York Traffic Ticket Lawyers is ready to review your video along with other evidence and help seek the best outcome in your traffic case.

Can Dashcam Footage Help Fight a Traffic Ticket in New York?