Speeding ticket

[LS20]

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

sure, you do that; SOMEbody has to give the city revenue, and its not gon be me

 

[Krazy4Real]

Originally posted by: LS20

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

sure, you do that; SOMEbody has to give the city revenue, and its not gon be me

QFT!

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: Krazy4Real

Originally posted by: LS20

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

sure, you do that; SOMEbody has to give the city revenue, and its not gon be me

QFT!

Seriously. I love how people get up on their high horse and pretend like its some high moral duty to society to man up and pay their fine. If people actually think that speeding tickets are about anything more than revenue, especially at the local level, then they have a few things to learn.

I dont care about paying the fines, etc..., but im gonna do my damndest to make sure I dont get shafted by the insurance companies for getting nailed at a speed trap.

But yeah, you go ahead and just pay your fine and take it up the ass from the county and your insurance, while I spend 5 minutes of my time and get it taken care of.

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: bignateyk

Originally posted by: randomint

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

wow. a concise, precise and useful reply.

is the world coming to an end?

umm no. Always, ALWAYS go to court, even if you are going to plead guilty.

1) If the cop doesnt show up, you get off scott free. (i.e. gets called to an emergency)
2) Usually the cop will reduce your ticket IF you werent a dick during the stop AND if you talk to him/her about it BEFORE the judge enters the court room.
3) traffic school

If none of that works, then youve just lost a few minutes of your time, because it literally takes about 30 seconds for the hearing once it begins, which is why you need to strike a deal with the officer BEFORE the hearing starts.

edit: And this advice was given to me by a state trooper whom ive known for many years. He wont comment on whether the trick of overpaying your ticket by a few dollars and then never cashing the refund check actually keeps your points off the record.

What if the cop was a dick?

Youd have to be an idiot to try and argue with a cop at the scene to reduce your ticket. The only thing being a jackass is going to do is make it worse. At the very least just dont say anything, and then show up to court and deal with it then.

Of all the cops ive known, not one of them has ever let someone off the hook because they argued or convinced them to do it. People who were prepared (had license and registration ready), courteous, and sincere were the ones who they gave warnings and breaks to.

Also, every cop ive ever asked has specifically said to ALWAYS plead not guilty to a ticket.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: alphatarget1
I got a speeding ticket Drove too fast, was being dumb. I'm a first time offender...

Has anyone gone to court not to fight it but to plead guilty? Would it hurt to go to court to plead guilty anyway and see if they lower the fine?

Worked for me on my only speeding ticket. It was a mandatory appearance, so I had to go to court no matter what. The people who were being idiots got hit with big fines. I just said that I wasn't paying attention (true), the cop was at the bottom of a big hill (true), that my record showed I was a good driver (true) and that I don't normally speed (false) and that it wouldn't happen again. I got a tiny fine compared to most of the others.

 

[chuckywang]

I'm sorta in the same situation right now in Illinois. They take away your license in Illinois while you have the ticket and give you a sheet of paper as your license.

My ticket is not a speeding ticket, but a traffic violation (left turn on red). It must have JUST turned from yellow to red as I was pulling into the intersection. Cop nailed me. I mailed in my ticket and said I was gonna go to court, and I intend to plead not guilty. If the cop shows up, what else can I do? I'm definitely not going to win any he says/she says argument with a cop.

 

[toolboxolio]

Hire a traffic lawyer.... best thing you can do and it is way cheap and guaranteed to not get points on your license.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: bignateyk

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: bignateyk

Originally posted by: randomint

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

wow. a concise, precise and useful reply.

is the world coming to an end?

umm no. Always, ALWAYS go to court, even if you are going to plead guilty.

1) If the cop doesnt show up, you get off scott free. (i.e. gets called to an emergency)
2) Usually the cop will reduce your ticket IF you werent a dick during the stop AND if you talk to him/her about it BEFORE the judge enters the court room.
3) traffic school

If none of that works, then youve just lost a few minutes of your time, because it literally takes about 30 seconds for the hearing once it begins, which is why you need to strike a deal with the officer BEFORE the hearing starts.

edit: And this advice was given to me by a state trooper whom ive known for many years. He wont comment on whether the trick of overpaying your ticket by a few dollars and then never cashing the refund check actually keeps your points off the record.

What if the cop was a dick?

Youd have to be an idiot to try and argue with a cop at the scene to reduce your ticket. The only thing being a jackass is going to do is make it worse. At the very least just dont say anything, and then show up to court and deal with it then.

Of all the cops ive known, not one of them has ever let someone off the hook because they argued or convinced them to do it.

People who were prepared (had license and registration ready), courteous, and sincere were the ones who they gave warnings and breaks to.

Also, every cop ive ever asked has specifically said to ALWAYS plead not guilty to a ticket.

Interesting. Apparently you have never run into a cop running a speed trap then.

The kind that comes up to the car handing you paper with what you will paying before he utters a word.

The kind that attempts to write you up for no seat belt when you take the belt off in front of his eyes to reach into wallet you are sittin on to get siad License and insurance card.

Damn straight I pleaded not guilt because I was not guilty.

Trial is next month.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Going to court for traffic fines has got to be an East Coast thing. Out West the judges have more important things to do than deal with traffic tickets. Unless there was some kind of damage caused, the court clerk will always cut you some slack on your fine just to keep it out of the court room.

 

[Eli]

Go to court, plead no contest. They will probably lower the fine at the least.

 

[Twista]

oh oh yes. Do what i did. Since your young and its your 1st time. Show the judge respect by dressing very nice. Please don't walk in there with jeans and gym shoes. Do whatever to show you are very serious. I walked out my 1st court date acouple months ago with the ticket dropped b/c of that and was giving court supervision. (yes, the LEO showed up). Just show you are sorry for what you did and hopefully learn something from this experience.

 

[toolboxolio]

I am so pissed I replied to this thread. It jinxed me.

I just got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign.....~$117 fine.


Seriously got to read the advice in this thread for my own benefit now.

 

[compuwiz1]

California allows you to do traffic school, as long as you have not attended a traffic school in the past 18 mos. You will have to pay your fine, but the ticket will not reflect on your DMV record, as long as you complete the test in the time allotted.

 

[Old Hippie]

He wont comment on whether the trick of overpaying your ticket by a few dollars and then never cashing the refund check actually keeps your points off the record.

I'm not sure of the logic behind that, but if I ever get another ticket, I'm gonna try it.

 

[JDub02]

Go to court. Talk with the officer beforehand. Plead to 5 over. Pay the fine, get no points.

 

[bignateyk]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

He wont comment on whether the trick of overpaying your ticket by a few dollars and then never cashing the refund check actually keeps your points off the record.

I'm not sure of the logic behind that, but if I ever get another ticket, I'm gonna try it.

If you overpay, they issue a refund to you, but it used to be that the "transaction" was listed as incomplete until you cashed the refund check. Points were not awarded until after the transaction was final, so by never cashing your refund check, you never got the points. Dont know if it still works though.

 

[quentinterintino]

Originally posted by: jupiter57
A couple of post here with some good advice, but the majority seems to think you may suffer irreparably should you take responsibility for breaking the law.
Maybe they're afraid you'll set a precedent?

leftyman: :thumbsup:

What's with all the holier than thou people? bignateyk nailed it.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: leftyman
Pay your fine. Learn your lesson. Move on with your life.

Why do people give this advice? It's just as dumb as always suggesting they fight it. If you're clearly guilty, and it's your first offense, try to cut a deal, do traffic school, get a deferred finding, whatever. If the ticket was crap, and you can prove that in court, fight it. If it's questionable, and it's not your first offense, it might be worth getting a lawyer.

People who just pay the fine every time are shooting themselves in the foot insurance-wise.

Originally posted by: toolboxolio
Hire a traffic lawyer.... best thing you can do and it is way cheap and guaranteed to not get points on your license.

$500 or so is hardly "cheap". Traffic lawyers are worth it sometimes, but not every time.

 

[alimoalem]

Originally posted by: scarfase99
go to court. i went to court for speeding since i already had done traffic school, and before saying anything, the jduge was like, "In this court, i allow u to go to traffic school 2 times in a year."

so saved that from my record, just by showing up

wtf?? yolo county's (davis) traffic court judge is a dick. i showed up to my case and the officer didn't show up the first time so the judge made up some f*cked up excuse as to why it should be rescheduled and refused compensation. luckily, the cop didn't show up the second trial date either

OP, go to court. if you remember your arresting officer's face, see if he's present. if you don't remember his face, look on your ticket and find his name. it may look a little awkward but when you're at the court, see if any of the officers' names match. if they don't, DO NOT plead guilty. you could get your case dropped