I can't speak for your local legal stuff, but if it helps, this is what I would say if you were in TX:
1) In most jurisdictions, so long as you didn't speed more than 20mph over the limit, you get the option to take defensive driving to clear your ticket. The ticket doesn't go on your record. You can do this once a year (one year separation in incidents, not calendar years).
2) If you've already burned your defensive driving option recently, get a lawyer. Around here the best bet is to drive to the courthouse where your ticket is to be heard, and then shop at the lawyers' offices that are within a block or two of the courthouse and specialize in traffic cases. Even for a simpler speeding ticket, it's usually worth it. They'll usually charge about the same as the ticket cost, maybe slightly more, and your chances of getting out of the charge go way up.
Usually you don't end up actually going to trial, it all gets sorted out in the arraignment hearing. The court puts tons of people on an arraignment docket, and tries to get most of them to plead guilty or take defensive driving on the spot to avoid clogging up the system with actual trials. They want a certain percentage of people paying the fines because they need money. Only a very small percentage hire lawyers, and those lawyers who office right by the court tend to eat lunch with the judge and prosecutor regularly and have a good working relationship, and it's their clients who are among the percentage who get a pass. That's just how the system works.
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