Traffic tickets - what happens in court

I got a speeding ticket. My first. I was speeding - I was pissed, late, in a hurry and had to get home to be Mr. Mom for another night, yada yada yada.

I pull over immediately, before the guy even wings it around, because I knew it was over. 64 in a 45 - whoops.

He writes me the ticket, 4 pts and $150. He says, "come to court and I'll help you out", my best question to this is "why?". He says something about caring about your driving record and left.

What happens in court? I was speeding, I was probably going 64. I am not going to lie. What do I do, sit there and beg? Say it's too much money? Provide a 150 page powerpoint presentation showing that speed limits don't do anything other than increase revenue? Claim that speed limits don't apply to me because of my driving skillzzz? I guess this means that I have to go, but why? What do I do during the proceedings?

Brian - counting on the "GRM board is better at random crap than most specific boards are at what they are specific about" factor.

Acknowledge that you were speeding, point out that it is your first offense, and ask for leniency. Volunteer for traffic school if it helps. They will likely reduce or eliminate the points for the violation which will make it so that it dosent ding your insurance. You will likely still end up paying a decent amount, but the insurance hike is your biggest expense here.

Cops get reviewed on how many citations they write. Oftentimes it dosent matter if its overturned in court. They want to get them written so they get a good review. Either that or the courts want/need the money and this is a way they can get you without feeling bad for your insurance ding.

(thats my theory at least)

I don't know about where you are but in TX you can take DD to get it defered. As long as you don't get another ticket in the next 12 months you are free and clear minus court costs. Or you can get a traffic lawer to go for you. But, that way can lead to madness.

Hire an attorney. In my locale, the attorney takes care of it and you don't even have to appear in court. Very convenient, stroke that ckeck. Points gets you increased insurance rates, the attorney is a wise investment.

go to court. Be courteous and appropriately dressed. Ask for leniency. The officer may or may not be there but he should remember and advise the court that you acknowledged that you were speeding and pulled over for him without a chase. You should get a reduction of the charge and/or allowed to attend a driving school. You may get lucky and get a dismissal. The major thing is that you want to save the points and your insurance rating.
The investment of an attorney is a good idea(I do this all the time for a nominal fee).

In California, if you aren't planning to contest the ticket, you show up to court, and you ask the judge to reduce the fine and let you go to traffic school, and they say ok, and take $50 or $100 off or whatever, and thats it. Idk what it is like there though.

I've been on a jury for traffic tickets twice. We always let the guys go mostly because the cops were such jerks and the judge was more inclined to automatically believe the cop and automatically want to convict the people.

'Round these parts (and we both live in South Cackalacke), an offense under 4 points does not affect your insurance so since you are looking at a 4 point ticket it is definitely worth it to go to court. Most judges are OK with knocking points and fines down as long as you don't act like an ass. Show up on time, dress nice, be respectful, swallow your pride and apologize. It has worked for me in the past. The last ticket I got was 55 in a 35 , it was a Saturday morning and I was in a construction zone which was not occupied by workers.

If the cop shows up (and he/she probably will), don't try to get in a pissing contest because you most assuredly will lose. In my case I got it dropped from speeding in a construction zone to careless operation, $125 fine and no points. For those not in the know, a few years ago SC cracked down HARD on speeding in CZs after some people got hurt so I was lucky. And knowing that I was not about to argue, I would never have won.

Asking for a jury trial will also put you in a bad spot, even though you are certainly entitled to one. If you decide to go that route, you better have some real evidence. Also, they will not accept checks or credit cards for fines, only cash. Be prepared, hit the ATM before you show up just in case.

Speeding ticket = $150 plus your insurance goes up.
Court may be willing to drop it to a "non-moving violation" something like "loud muffler." You may still be fined and the municipality still gets it's $150 but since it is a non moving violation your insurance does not go up.

I suspect this is the type of thing the officer is eluding to. The municipality revenue will still need to be satisfied so do not expect that the fine will be dropped.

In reply to tuna55:

Funny you mentioned the power point presentation idea, cause I'll be going to court due to a speeding ticket, and jokingly thought of doing the same thing. Our local newspaper even printed an article a while back, which I posted in a thread on here titled 'Anatomy of a Speed Limit', and it quoted a Michigan State police officer who disagreed with how speeding tickets are handled. I thought about bringing that in and citing the studies that showed speed limits don't really improve safety, but in the end it would probably just be easier to swallow my pride as has been said and apologize.

We just took care of a couple for the wife. In NY we met with the cop and a prosecutor. Both times since she had a clean record they became $100 parking tickets. Haviing watched most of the other people go both days it seemed long as the town gets some money they had no interest in handing out points unless you did something spectacular or the judge had seen you enough to recognize you.

You're going to burn 1-3 hours of a day. You will most likely pay around $150.00, but maybe even more. Municipalities are hard up for money. Figure out how much this is going to cost you in lost wages. I'm guessing its close to $200.00 total. If you're "lucky" to go to tragic school, Figure 4-6-8 hours. How much did that cost you? Hire a lawyer who does this every day for $200-250. Done.

I agree on the "hire a lawyer" idea.
They call it a legal "system" for a reason. Step one of that system is that the courts would rather work with someone who knows the system and speaks the language - lawyer.

Aside from the math calculated above don't forget that points will affect your insurance rates for the next 3 years. Even if that is only a $500 increase that is $1500 over 3 years. Lawyers will take credit card as payment.

If unsure where to turn for a lawyer, look for ones that advertise for Drunk Driving, they typically are the ones in traffic court.

Wow. Hiring a lawyer for a speeding ticket is off the charts retarded.

I guess the idea of a lawyer may vary by local municipality, state or country.

Zomby, I am not sure if a lawyer is needed in SW Ontario, Canada but here in Ohio, USA (up against the prick-ish Ohio State Troopers) it is a good idea.

call the court clerk and get the scoop on how things are done there. they are generally pretty helpful if your nice to them, especially if you have a clean driving record.

when i went to court last over a speeder (50 in a 30, speed-trap) they pulled my record and nearly fell out of their chairs. the clerk i was talking to had never seen a zero violation report, she had to get someone else to double check to make sure she was doing it right. They said if i plead no contest , they'd recommend it be completely thrown out with just court costs. cost me $95 no points, no anything, still have a zero violation driving record, as far as theyre concerned anyhow.

The cop told you "come to court and I'll help you out", if you show up with a lawyer, you could piss him off???

Every state is going to vary, but in PA many times they will drop to "failure to obey traffic sign" which is a ~25 for the fine and ~100 for court cost. But there are no points on your record.

This guy pretty much already told you that this is what he has in mind. Like others have said, show up and be civil.

Last year while driving through Jersey, I got a ticket. It was about $150 and there is no reciprocity with points between NJ and PA for speeding tickets. So I just paid it. But, within the next week I got letters from 20+ ambulance chasers in NJ.

I did this..

I went to court, cop pulled me aside before the judge called me.. I asked him if he'd help out and told him it was my first offense.

He told the judge It was my first offense which knocked the points down.. Not the money, Gotta love small town western new york..

screw you cohocton.... go to hell and die. (3 of my 4 roomates got caught there)

My last ticket was a whopper. I was more than doubling the speed limit in a 35 zone. Of course the speed limit went from 55 to 45 to 35 in about a 1/2 mile on an empty road on a clear day. I pulled over and was respectful. Took my ticket, went to court and the officer told the judge that I was very courteous and had a clean record. I pleaded guilty - didn't ask for leniancy - I just said I was driving too fast and really had no excuse.

I ended up with a reduced ticket - the judge knocked a whole bunch of speed off the ticket saving me a lot of money. My take is that there are a lot of yahoos in this world and judges see them and deal with them everyday. Don't be a yahoo.

I've had ~18 tickets in three states. I've contested all but one, and I tried both the 'argument' and the 'contrite sinner' approaches, with much the same results.

I argued in a powerpoint-style way when I discovered that the speed limit on each side of a two-lane road was different - I had, of course, been nabbed on the slower direction of travel side. I made my case, diagrams, measurements, etc... and then found out that the township dividing line went smack down the middle of that road, and the speed limits were set independently. Ruh-roh. The judge and the cops were impressed, however, and reduced my offense.

Every other time I simply took my lumps and apologized, and I always got a reduction in the severity of offense. At no time did my insurance ever go up (this may depend on reporting methods of various states & municipalities, but nothing from PA, MD or NC ever impacted my rates.)

Bottom line - if you show up, you stand an excellent chance of getting a reduction in your fine. Of course, you must balance that against the lost wages argument, unless you have flex hours and can simply work around it.

Hire a lawyer. Pay the ticket and the lawyer. Double or more the cost.

zomby woof wrote: Wow. Hiring a lawyer for a speeding ticket is off the charts retarded.

A friend of mine put one on retainer (more money than sence) but it kept his insurance down in the thousands instead of yanking his licence. It eventually caught up to him and he totaled his Vette. He never learned and now is in a chair for the rest of his life. Sucks to be an idiot sometimes.

Here in NJ.. you do not even speak to the judge. You meet with the prosecutor and they cut you a deal before you enter court. Then you go before the judge with the reduced sentence, plead guilty, pay the fine, and go home poorer, but probably a bit happier than having had the whole thing to worry about

HIre the lawyer. The first thing that I do is pull the ticket to look and see if the officer has marked it in any way. An "A" circled or multiple stars means that you were an a**hole and no one can help you with that ticket. From there, I can usually work out something with the officer. Funny thing is that they all know that I am a car freak(having introduced myself on the side of the road several times myself) and that I wont ask for relief in the case of terminal stupidity. The last time that I had a ticket that just couldnt be dealt with was one of mine in a jurisdiction that had had a ticket scandal. No amount of influence ie calls by or to insiders could "fix" the ticket. I finally just had to show up for court and ask for drivers school. Luckily it is a town not on my usual paths. There is a well-known gun store in the town and I was need a particular ammo back last year when Obama was causing the shortage.

Wow, last time I went to court (just over a year ago), I had no chance to talk to the prosecutor ahead of time. Once I hired an attorney though, she had no problems talking to the prosecutor and working out a deal before we showed up in the courtroom. She (the attorney) was mad because she had to show up to court, normally all of this gets handled beforehand.

I think you stand a fair chance of showing disrespect for the institution by showing up without representation. The court certainly shows deference to those that show up with representation as they get to go first in line, everyone that shows up without an attorney gets to wait.

Last time I went, I stuck around afterward to watch the proceedings. The first guy up after all the lawyers left has a ticket for driving without a license, judge asks how he got there, guy said I drove, judge asked to see his license, he didn't have one. Bailiff took this guy out of the courtroom in handcuffs. Everyone else had to deal with a really pissed off judge, and he didn't cut anyone any slack. I learned that day that you don't carry a knife to a gunfight.

Your municipality may be different. Good luck.