Yeah, if you go in person, you stand a MUCH better chance to appeal to the judge. I got a red-light camera ticket earlier this year and they charged me a late fee...it was past my court date so I couldn't appear in person (I never got the letter in the mail that told me of the ticket/court date) but I wrote a heart-felt letter to the judge and he knocked it down from $285 (F*CKING RIDICULOUS) base ticket + $125 late fee to..........$215 TOTAL, in other words the nice judge took away the late fee and also knocked down the ticket price, as I'm told they are likely to do for people who actually show up & sound intelligent esp. w/ a fairly clean driving record. Go for it! :)