I did some research and the most reasonable advice I found was to show up in court with no lawyer and attempt to speak with the officer and/or the commonwealth attorney prior to court. It was felt that you could very often make a deal with them where you would agree to plead guilty to a lesser charge (careless driving or speeding).
If you were unable to speak with either of them or they were unwilling to make a deal, you file for a continuance and then hire a lawyer.
The general feeling was that hiring a lawyer was an unnecessary expense that resulted in no additional good in most cases. There was no risk in trying to make the deal yourself because you could always request a continuance and still hire the lawyer. The only thing wasted was your time.
The one exception where you always hired the lawyer was if you were trying to get the ticket dismissed, which I'm not trying to do.
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