The advertisement at first glance seemed legitimate. I needed to save time as I have a busy work schedule. Their advertisement is pretty convincing. Upon first glance and the way they make it sound is that they are going to court for you and take care of all the necessary paper work however BEWARE the small print. They are in fact a mail service only business. THEY ARE NOT ATTORNEYS Translation all they do is fill in a Trial by declaration form based loosely on what you say happened when you got pulled over and mail it in.in this instance they could not even get that write.
I received a ticket for 22350 breaking the California Basic Speed Law. The officer got me on Laser when he pulled me over, ticket busters wrote in that the officer got me on radar this is just one of the things they got wrong when filling in this form.
They cite inapplicable case law as well as other, what I call broiler plate information in the form, all of which does NOT help your case and is available on the internet FREE. Once completed by them they mail it in. I spoke to the manager. He said this was a beatable ticket and that I would have nothing to worry about.
What a joke that was.
I asked, "what happens on the onset that I don't win". He said, "you can get traffic school". I said, "I realize that, but what about the refund". He said, "that as long as I follow the directions on their web site I would get a refund".
The directions regarding refunds are as follows
[If your traffic ticket is not dismissed, or reduced and you are not successful in winning a not guilty verdict that they will honor a money back guarantee as long as ticket busters is notified within 10 days of the courts denying a Trial by Declaration and finding you guilty by sending Ticket Busters a copy of notification by the court and an original signed copy of form TR-220, Request For New Trial].
I unfortunately did not win via the trial by declaration so as the directions stated I sent off the courts decision as well as the Trial De Novo Form 220 as specified. What a train Wreck that was.
If you don't know what a trial De Novo is, it's the courts way of giving you a second chance so to speak to beat your ticket. (The Trial De Novo Form 220 is also a free document you can get via the L.A. Superior Court web site). What Ticket Busters did not tell me is that if I didn't win via the Trial by Declaration, the Trial De Novo Form 220 that I signed and mailed back to ticket busters would be sent to court, at which time the court sent me a date to appear. That's write, I IN PERSON!!! Now had to appear before a judge in superior court.
This defeated the whole purpose of what I was trying to accomplish and the reason that I contacted Ticket Busters in the first place TO AVOID THE HASSLE OF GOING TO COURT!!! They never told me that this was going to happen and it does not say what the procedure is regarding the Trial De Novo form in their web site only that it be sent to Ticket Busters signed.
The problem with the Trial De Novo is that you cannot pick the day you want to appear in court. It is up to the court to decide. I would have rather gone to court at this point in person and let the court know when a convenient time would be for me to appear before the judge.
Once I received notification from the court regarding my trial date and ten days prior to going to court I, as recommended by Ticket Busters called them, to be coached on what to expect and what to say. This was useless as the information Ticket Busters told me I could get for free on the web. This was all interesting as they are not attorneys how can they leagaly coach someone?
After going to court and oh yeah... Losing again. I called the manager he said that he would take care of it. I assumed I was getting my refund... NOT!!! Two days later I received correspondence from Ticket Busters that I was ineligible for the refund as I did not mail in the documentation on time which was and is completely FALSE!!!
On their own web site it states that once the court makes its decision Ticket Busters must receive notice within ten days. The PROBLEM is wording. Once the court makes the decision... Meaning the date is from the day the court makes the decision as written on the court document. NOT the day you receive the court document in the mail. It was and is not clear on Ticket Busters Web Site regarding this.
I did not receive the court document regarding the Trial by Declaration decision in a timely manner so how could I know that I lost until I received it in the mail. Ticket Busters did not care and hence NO REFUND!!!
It does NOT say what the appropriate time frame is regarding the court denying your Trial by Declaration is on the Ticket Busters web site NOR do they divulge that information when you speak to them. Is it the time that the court dated the document itself, or the day the enveloped was stamped by the post office or the day received by the client. They use this ambiguous wording to their advantage
In addition to that you do not get a full refund it is only $80.00 they keep the rest for what they call a service fee what a joke all they do is cut and paste broiler plate information and drop it into the mailbox.
Bottom line save your money do it your self there are a lot of free sites out there to help.
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