I highly suggest everyone get the book, "Fight Your Ticket & Win California Edition" published by Nolo Press.
I have beaten a lot of tickets using tips in this book, including once having a traffic commissioner tell a cop to be better prepared the next time he comes to his court room.
It shows you a lot of rights, facts and laws that most cops either are aware of themselves or just plain don't expect you to know your rights. Somethings I've used to get tickets dismissed are:
Willful non-response to an "informal discover request" where you can subpoena officers notes, traffic engineering surveys. If not responded in a timely matter described by the Penal or Vehicle codes can render it as inadmissible evidence.
Refusal to waive time. Courts are so backed up that they often try to push a trial out months from arraignment, however you have a civil right to a speedy trial and once you give up that right they can string you out as long as they want. (note: I've had this work in my favor both ways, once I refused to "waive time" and when the scheduled court date fell on the officers vacation they couldn't reschedule me in time leading to dismissal, where others that showed up for hearings on that day with that same officer simply got their case rescheduled. I have also waived time long enough for them to misplace video for a red light camera violation, also leading to dismissal.
Again there are numerous ways shown in this book to beat a ticket and although it hasn't beaten every one of my tickets it has worked on about 80% of them.
It's all about know your rights and exercise them. Very similar to what these "police the police" videos on youtube that show LEO's being put in their place when trying to violate someone when they are doing something protected under their first amendment rights.
