In some states, a seatbelt violation is not a valid first offense. That means that you can't be stopped for a seatbelt violation -- you need to be stopped for something else, at which point the officer notices you're not wearing your seatbelt, and that citation is incidental to the initial cause for the stop. Find out if a seatbelt violation is an acceptable cause to be pulled over in your state and go from there. Otherwise, unless you have video evidence showing the contrary, there's really no point in fighting it. Maybe you can get up there with a sob story about how your best friend died because he wasn't wearing his seatbelt and so you always wear your seatbelt and that the cop is making it up, and they might just ignore it, but they'll never say the cop was lying...you have to prove it. As soon as the court says that cop lied (even when it's pretty obvious), that cop's credibility is forever tainted....so they just won't do it. Catch the cop in a lie and prove it, and they'll just dismiss the case and make it all go away. Can't have anything like that becoming part of official record. Which is precisely why 99.999% of the time, you CAN'T prove anything...it's your word against his.....to which the court reasons "the cop has no reason to lie, but you do!". Out here in the real world, cops lie left and right for no other reason than the simple fact that they can and there won't be any repercussions. This belief and the behavior that stems from it is only reinforced by vacuum that is our legal system...where cops are infallible.
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