What should I do about this speeding ticket?

Question

Here is the deal. I was going 91 in a 65 zone. I got pulled over and recieved my ticket. I have to pay $144. My court case is in four days, but it says I don't have to go. I heard that if you were nice to your cop, the cop will sometimes not show up to the court case, and the ticket will become void. Do you think I should take that chance that the cop will not show up to court? This is my first ticket, and it is going to make my insurance skyrocket. What should I do about this?

Answer 1

Fr. Chuck, you seem like a nice guy, but in this case, stick to your field (with all due respect).

91 in a 65, huh? Not knowing the State of origination, I would say you stand to lose your license. 26 miles over the limit is serious.

You are past the point of "being nice to the Cop". He GAVE YOU A SUMMONS ! ! ! The chances of him NOT showing up to Court are slim to NONE. I will bet he will be there. Not just for you, but for other summonses as well.

You can plead GUILTY, waive your court appearance and accept the fine and the points by paying the fine before the court date.

Even though COURT APPEARANCE is NOT required, I would strongly suggest that you call the Court Clerk and make arrangements to attend the Court proceeding.

Once you're there, you will be given an opportunity to speak with the Prosecuting Attorney. In some instances (like in N.J.) there is the possibility of changing the offense from SPEEDING to UNSAFE OPERATION of a MOTOR VEHICLE. The speeding offense will be a lower fine WITH points (in your case 4) which will ultimately affect your insurance for at least 3 years. The unsafe operation offense carries NO points, but has a larger fine attached to it and will not affect your insurance premiums.

Those are your only options.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

You do not have to appear in court if you plead guilty and pay the fine. Look at the summons carefully and you will see that you have 2 choices. Check the box you choose.
#1) Guilty as charged: Pay the fine and recieve points against your licence, you are not required to appear in court.
#2 Not guilty: Go to court and convince the judge that you were not guilty of going 91 in a 65 zone.
If the judge rules against you you now pay court costs + the fine for doing 91 in a 65 + points against your license.
If you decide to contest the charge in court consult a
lawyer first. At best you might be able to get the speed reduced by a few mph, to save you some points and fine money.
If you decide to contest the charge, there is an old saying that goes like this.
He who represents himself in a court of law is represented by a fool.
Good luck, and please slow down.

Answer 3

You could risk the chance of the officer not showing up...BUT, I think they may only NOT show up if something else interferes with the court date (like.....he is on duty and a murder happened within an hour of your appearance....etc) OR....(and it does happen) you know someone who knows this officer and it is arranged he doesn't show up so you get off.

But all of the officers I've worked with go to court. I mean, why write the ticket if you are only going to get it tossed out of court?

91 in a 65 is quite a bit over and I feel no sympathy for you!! And you know you did wrong....be honest:)

Answer 4

If you pay the fine (through a courtesy notice), you will get a point on your record and your insurance will go up. Usually on the courtesy notice, it will indicate if you are eligible for traffic school. If you are, you still have to pay the fine but after completion of the course, (you can do it on line) your record will be clean. Your other option, would be to plead not guilty, go to trial and hope the officer doesn't show up. If he doesn't show, the state can't prove it's case and it's dismissed. Last time I did that, there were 40 cases on the docket and there were only 6 officers present so the choice is up to you. If the officer shows up and you lose, you may still go to traffic school and keep your record clean. That would be up to the judge....doing 91, he may not let you. Good luck.

Answer 5

Wrong, you got the ticket, your to be in court to pay the ticket. He does not have to be there unless you contest the ticket.
91 in a 65 just call and pay it. SLOW DOWN before you kill someone other than yourself. If he was in a good mood and you would have been able to sweet talk him on the spot and you would have gotten a verbal

Answer 6

Don't count on the officer not showing up, his boss looks at stuff like that and could rain on your parade. Go before the court date and see what you can do. You waiting kinda late to do anything. You should have been aggressive on this one. If you were on a major highway, with lots of traffic and multiple lanes, you might have got the ticket reduced or dropped.

But, if you were speeding just to speed, well, have fun paying the fine. Anytime someone is out driving the flow of traffic, they send up flares and smoke to call attention to themselves and that will get you a invitation to see the judge in any state.

Answer 7

O.K. lets weigh your options
you could pay 144.00 for your infraction and pay the increase in your insurance.
or you could not show up for court and have a bench warrant issued for your arrest,
get arrested and post bail try to get your car out of impound
go to court get convicted pay your 144.00 + any other fine placed on top of that amount. plus the possible suspension of your driving privileges for a year. and then when they reinstate your license you think the increase in you insurance is going to be high now. you don't even want to know what it would be with all the other charges on your DMV printout added just because you were silly enough to listen to someone who gave you such a ridiculous piece of advice.
You made a mistake while driving
don't compound it by making an even bigger mistake.
go to court pay your fine and learn from the experience.

Answer 8

it is not being nice to the cop, unless he issued you a court date for a day he knows he won't be there, but normally all tickets written in a certain week are scheduled for one court date. It is just that on average about 1/2 of the officers who write tickets don't show up for various reasons, they are working thier regular shift that day, they are on vacation, it is thier day off and the dept does not pay them to show up at court.

So basicly it is worth the showing up and pleading not guilty.

Answer 9

confident....you additionally can contest a radar or laser cost ticket. besides the shown fact that, your possibilities of combating it are slender. whether it relatively is you vs the cop, the decide will bypass on the belief the cop has no reason to lie yet you do. you opt for to get out of the cost ticket, no longer pay the high quality and not get the factors. in case you base your protection on the cop telling a lie for some unknown reason, your possibilities of triumphing are approximately 0. you will might desire to combat it on the belief the cop made an blunders in calculating the cost. when you consider which you're asking approximately non-radar/laser tactics, confident there are different tactics which could be utilized. If the cop pulled up in the back of you on your blind spot and then matched your velocity, examining his qualified speedometer, and sees which you have been over the cut back (oftentimes it must be a definite volume, which includes 5 mph to allow for blunders on your uncertified speedometer) he might supply you cost ticket based upon tracked and spoke of velocity over the cut back. you will might desire to offer sensible doubt as to the accuracy of how he did it. IE: Springtime and that they in basic terms switched to summer season tires from their wintry climate tires. Did they recertify his speedometer? in addition they can use a timer device in some factors. The cop can initiate one end watch as you pass a definite mark, then whilst he crosses the comparable mark, he starts off a 2d end watch. Then once you pass yet another mark, he stops the 1st one, and whilst he crosses the comparable 2d mark, he stops the 2d. a working laptop or pc then suits the two end watches and the gap traveled and springs up with a velocity on your automobile. They even enable in some factors the cop to mark out four hundred and forty yards and he then sits with a end watch and "clocks' you (it relatively is the place the term got here from) as you commute the quarter mile. If the cost cut back is 60 mph, he knows to bypass one mile might desire to take you extra effective than a million minute, and to bypass four hundred and forty yards, it would take you extra effective than 15 seconds. in case you do it in 10 seconds, he knows you have been rushing and back might supply you a cost tag. Pay the cost ticket and watch your velocity.

Answer 10

I'm surprised that you are not required to go to court. In NC, they take your license away for anything above 15 miles over.