I'm an earthmoving contractor, and not qualified to give legal...

I'm an earthmoving contractor, and not qualified to give legal advice at all.

But I just lost 3 of my last 2 points (to put it backwards - we really gain demerit points, and 12 gained in three years gets a suspension), and I am going to court over it presently.

My ticket came from a hand-held lidar reading in the main street of Muswelbrook, NSW, in multilane dense traffic. I was accused of doing 70ks in a 50k zone, which I protested. The police wrote the ticket for "exceed speed by less than 15km" - so something under 65ks.

I have just managed to drive for three years on 1 point, after a couple of bad days on double demerit long weekends in 2003, when I worked for the DPM and did a lot of driving on his behalf, and I will do everything I can to avoid more of the same miserable restriction.

I am not using a solicitor, after talking to friends in the police force, and 2 solicitors, who cost a fortune just in preliminary discussions and knew less than I did about court processes.

Factors maybe for you to consider:

Are you in demerit point trouble? If you're not about to lose your licence, the cheapest and easiest option is to pay up and drive carefully for 3 years.

If you are a crackerjack trader, just pay a solicitor and leave the trouble to him, but if you are poor like me, you can represent yourself, and you can just do it by writing. If you tick the court election box on the ticket, the court will send you a hearing date and a prosecution brief stating the police case against you.

Good luck....