Some Attorneys Find a Niche in Traffic Court

The defense attorney put the police officer on the witness stand and questioned his memory, his skills and even his motive.

Once the officer left the stand, the attorney demanded that the case be thrown out. He charged that the case was mishandled. He said the evidence was flimsy. He cited legal precedent.

But despite the fervent work of attorney Lee Rittenburg, the judge ruled against the defendant, ordered a tough penalty and quickly moved on to the next trial.

Luckily the case was only a speeding ticket fought in traffic court.

In Southern California, most drivers who fight a traffic ticket do so with little more legal knowledge than can be gained from watching “Judge Judy” on TV. But a few motorists take on the fight with the aid of a lawyer such as Rittenburg, who specializes in traffic court cases.

Attorneys who work exclusively in traffic court are rare, say legal experts, because there is little money to be made fighting a $150 speeding ticket or a $270 fine for running a red light.

“It’s a relatively backwater area of the law because the financial side is not there,” said Jim Baxter, president of the National Motorists Assn., a drivers rights group based in Wisconsin.

But given that California has enough practicing attorneys to fill the seats at Dodger Stadium 2 1/2 times over, it is no surprise that at least a few are claiming traffic court as their exclusive battleground.

Long Beach attorney Stan Alari began to specialize in traffic cases five years ago after spending more than 25 years as a public defender and criminal defense attorney.

He said his interest in traffic law was sparked when a fellow lawyer asked him to help out with a client who had been cited for speeding by a police officer with a radar gun.

“When I read the law, my hair stood on end,” Alari said.

State law imposes many requirements before police can legally use a radar gun to enforce speed laws, he said. Among other rules, the law mandates a survey to measure traffic speeds before a radar is used on a road. Also, the radar gun must be regularly tested, and the officer wielding the gun must complete specialized training.

If at least one of the requirements is not met, Alari said, he has a strong case to dismiss a speeding ticket.

“These laws are just tremendous,” he said.

Alari, 69, now goes by the moniker Stan “The Radar Man” Alari and has promoted himself as a battle-hardened champion for the underdog motorist.

He has a Web site and a 20-year-old Mercedes-Benz that is emblazoned with his phone number and nickname.

For Rittenburg, 48, the law is his fourth career. He previously was a stockbroker, an advertising salesman and a musician before he cracked a law book.

During law school, a traffic officer with a radar gun nabbed Rittenburg for speeding. He fought the ticket and decided he had found his niche.

But to make a living on traffic cases, attorneys such as Alari and Rittenburg must keep their fees and overhead low, at least by law firm standards.

Alari works alone and typically charges about $500 per case. Rittenburg works out of his home and charges about $600, depending on the case and how far he must travel.

These attorneys also must do a volume business.

“Sometimes I think of myself as the McDonald’s of law,” Rittenburg said.

Although the fees are several times higher than the fines in most traffic infractions, the attorneys say the cost is often justified, especially when the state Department of Motor Vehicles is threatening to revoke a license.

Alari and Rittenburg have developed defense strategies for nearly every traffic violation.

For example, if a motorist is photographed by an automatic red-light camera, the attorneys might argue that the photo is too blurry to convict the driver of running a red light. They also can argue that the private company that runs the cameras lacks government oversight.

But as with all lawyers, their results are never guaranteed.

Consider the case of Darryl Heisser, a federal law enforcement officer who hired Rittenburg to fight a speeding ticket in Fontana.

Heisser was nabbed by Fontana Police Officer John MacMillan, who claimed his radar gun tracked Heisser driving 70 mph on a city street that is posted for a maximum of 50 mph.

Heisser insists that he did not speed and refused to plead guilty. He paid Rittenburg $600 to fight the $149 ticket

The case seemed in jeopardy from the outset. When Rittenburg arrived at the Fontana courthouse with a newspaper reporter and photographer in tow, his case was transferred out of the regular traffic courtroom and into the courtroom of Barry L. Plotkin, the courthouse’s supervising judge.

Rittenburg put MacMillan on the witness stand and challenged his memory of the ticket, noting that the officer had written nearly 2,600 tickets since he cited Heisser in October.

Rittenburg also questioned whether the radar gun was adequately tested. He argued that the speed traffic survey on the road was invalid.

Plotkin seemed to consider all the objections carefully -- at first. But as the trial dragged on, he appeared to lose his patience.

“I’ve been more than generous with my time, but this is a traffic infraction and we have many other cases that range from murder to misdemeanor crimes,” Plotkin told Rittenburg.

At one point, Rittenburg asked the judge for five minutes to conclude his case. A clearly irritated Plotkin offered only two minutes.

When Rittenburg was done, Plotkin gave his verdict: guilty. He ordered Heisser to pay the $146 fine, plus penalties.

The judge also refused to let Heisser attend traffic school to eliminate the black mark from his driving record, arguing that Heisser failed to show remorse.

In an interview later, Heisser said he had no regrets over fighting the ticket. But before he walked out of the courthouse, Rittenburg told Heisser that he has a good shot at winning the case on appeal.

Heisser nodded and said he would think about it.

If you have a gripe, question or story idea about driving in

*

Southern California, write to Behind the Wheel c/o Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or send an e-mail to behindthewheel@latimes.com.