traffic ticket, need advice, improper use of headlights

[d10]

I don't have any experience with tickets in NJ. I do have lots of experience with tickets in other states, enough to know that what works in one state has nothing to do with what works in another state. So any advice from anyone other than someone who claims to know NJ traffic laws very well should only hope to point you in the right direction.

One thing that I have noticed that changes very little from state to state is that when people fight their own traffic tickets, they aren't thrown out unless there is clear evidence that the ticket should never have been written in the first place. That's not the case here. Also these judges listen to maybe 100 cases each day, they won't have a lot of patience. Unless it's a lawyer speaking or you're confident that you know courtroom procedures at least as well as the judge, any attempt to put up a defense beyond "I'm sorry, I have no priors, please reduce the fines/points/whatever" will not be effective. Since you're asking OOT for advice, I'm going to assume you don't fall into either one of those categories. I'm 95% sure that if you don't get a lawyer, this ticket will stand. Whether it's worth the cost of that is up to you.