the article explains it poorly. It's not a free speech issue, they just used the wrong citation. In many states, there is actually a statute they can cite you for (it varies from state to state). In california for instance, it is illegal to flash your lights on a multi-lane highway (regardless of reason). In VA, they will commonly ticket for "failure to dim headlights," which is a bit of a stretch, but it generally holds up in court.

I agree, but that's not what he said.

But you're right. If you go to court having plead not guilty, your attorney (or you if you are acting as attorney pro se) on cross examination will ask the cop to prove that you were flashing to circumvent the law. He won't be able to. You'll ask him, "officer, is it possible that I was flashing because I missed the turn signal, etc etc etc" and he'll say yes. But let's look at the practicalities. When it's time for the defense, (you), to present your case...what are you going to do? Call yourself as a witness? No, you wouldn't want to do that because your choices then are going to be either lying under oath or keeping silent. You can keep silent, but in traffic court (rather informal), I'm pretty sure the judge is going to ask you why you flashed your lights. Your choices now are lying under oath, or pleading the fifth amendment. Not good. If you do that, I suspect that most judges are going to find for the prosecution and tell you they recommend you appeal if you disagree.

Smart move, if you decide to take such a case to court, would be to move for dismissal before presenting your case, asserting that the prosecution didn't prove its case. I'll bet the odds are no better than 50-50 that the judge would go for that.

That's why the laws are rarely written to make it illegal to flash as a warning. To my knowledge, MD was the only state that tried to do that (interfering with a criminal investigation) and they gave up on that in the 90s.

/\ x2, minus the radar detector part (don't have one).

Whether a ticket, if ever written, would hold up in court is really irrelevent. The fact that a trooper could pull you over for a chat is enough to make me careful when/if doing it.

When I was stopped, the trooper was professional, but pissed. The check of my registration took about 20 minutes and scared the sh1t out of a 21 year-old college student that was 600 miles from home.

That was in a 1980 VW Scirocco. I'm sure a 370Z might draw even more ire. Some of you "legal eagles" want to push it, go right ahead.

Just curious, of all the guys giving legal opinions, how many of you guys are attorneys?

you dont have to be a attorney to give any kind of advice. Im sure you've given advice on a various amount of topics all your life.

If someone wants to take other peoples "advice" at 100% fact, thats their damn problem, not the fault of anyone giving their opinion or advice.

I'm not an attorney. Don't take legal advice from me. But I'm just running the scenario here. If you plead not guilty to anything, even a traffic ticket, you have to put up some kind of defense. You can't just sit there and be silent and hope that the prosecutor blows it. The judge is likely to get pissed for wasting his time. Not good when it comes time to levy the fine.

This thread is going interesting places....

I strongly disagree.

Giving you opinion is one thing, commenting like you know what you are really talking about when you aren't qualified to do so is different. Whether someone wants to then take that advice is "their own damn problem".

There are some extremely smart guys on the board, but I'm not going to take advice from them on how to handle an issue in a court room unless they are a qualified attorney. If you really aren't qualified to give advice, one might be better off refraining from doing so.

If someone asks for my advice on a subject that I know about, I'll give it. If I don't know anything about the subject, I'll refer them to my wife since she knows everything. :stirthepot:

Where are these guys when we need them?

And it shouldn't really be.

The point of my post was - do you really want to put yourself in a situation where you would have to waste your time to even go to court, much less have your trip interrupted by some hard-a55 cop who just stopped someone for trying to spoil his party?

Before everyone gets all worked-up, ask yourself that question.

I said I warn other drivers of speed traps, and was just mentioning a past experience that I didn't find very pleasant. I'm careful when I warn other drivers because of that experience.

I don't want to be pulled over for anything whether it's ticket I can beat in court or just a warning.

:icon18:

You know, I was wondering how many guys on the board even know who Perry Mason is.

Good comeback to lighten-up the thread.

I may be misunderstanding, but it sounds like you're saying we shouldn't exercise our rights out of the inconvenience of being pulled over and possibly wrongfully ticketed? :confused:

That why went I see a crime being committed I get the F@!#% out of there... Who wants that trouble of being a witness... :stirthepot:

If you want to take it to the extreme, I guess you're right.

To take it even to a further and admittedly ridiculous extreme - Call me "Guilty as Charged" since I've got better things to do than defend the Constitution after trying to help a perfect stranger from getting caught breaking the law.

I can think of a number of things I could do to improve the quality of life in my community.

I'll continue to flash, but I'm careful when I do. That is my point.

I think I'm done with this one. We are so far off topic now - my apologies - that the discussion is really getting silly. Kuddos to the guys that want to fight the fight for all of our benefit.

Cheers