For starters, you have very little to lose in fighting the ticket, even if you do so on your own without the assistance of a lawyer.    You may simply appear at the time of your scheduled hearing and try and negotiate with the prosecutor.  As they say, you never know.

However, lawyers appear in Municipal Court on a daily basis and know everyone from the Court Secretary up to the Judge.  A lawyer will initially attempt to get any kind of written discovery from the court.  (Discovery is simply any documents that the prosecutor has that he/she plans on using at your eventual trial.)  After being provided with discovery, we will appear on your behalf in court and attempt to negotiate a settlement with the Prosecutor.  Although you may need to appear at certain types of hearings, being represented by an attorney will sometimes allow you to be excused from the hearing.  This is especially beneficial if it is difficult for you to miss work to go to Court or if you are on vacation, live out of State or any number of reasons.

Generally speaking, we are able to negotiate a settlement with the prosecutor that would be certainly more favorable than paying the initial fine, and more often than not, a better deal than you would have gotten without a lawyer.