I got a speeding ticket in Michigan?????

Question

I jus got a speeding ticket in Michigan by the state police (doing 84 on a 70 highway) and i'm from Ontario, Canada! My question is for anyone who have been in this situation. What do i have to do, what are my options, is there a good way to fight it, should i fight it, can i get away with jus ignoring it or should i just pay it and take my beating????

I did my own research online and concluded that i'm f***ed for insurance and the fine. NOT MY DAY!!!

Just want to hear your opinion and your situations (tell me in detail if u can) and if your canadian and got a speeding ticket in the US.

p.s. In canada the speed limit is 100 km/h but the police let u do about 115-118 km/h before you get a ticket. So i was thinking it would be ok if i went 10 above 70 mph.

Answer 1

You are lucky it wasn't a couple of miles per hour faster. Then it is a mandatory court case in Michigan.

You have a couple of options...

1. Pay the ticket and chalk it up to experience. Swallow your lumps and go on with life. You may think you are a safe driver even at that speed but you have very little chance to react to another careless driver. In Michigan , we have enough of those already. Have you ever thought of the time difference you would actually make on your arrival time by slowing down to 70-75mph? (10 miles per hour) = 7.5 minutes per hour.

2. Write on the ticket that you will appear for a hearing. Make sure you get to the court house EARLY so that you can talk to the district attorney and the officer who pulled you over. Try to work out a compromise to lower the speed variance on the ticket if that wasn't already done for you and you were actually going over 90 mph.My gut tells me the officer already gave you a brake by lowering it to 84 mph to prevent it from being a mandatory court case. If the 84 mph was the real speed violation and not higher,perhaps you can plead to another offence that does not carry points reported to Ontario like impeding traffic. The fine you will pay will not be reduced at all but you might avoid the points or have the number of points reduced.
That should be your defence... I know I was wrong.. I took off a day from work and came back to the States to take care of this. I would like to avoid a stupid decision on my part to have additional ramifications on my insurance for years to come. Be sincere.

DO NOT pretend this will go away. Michigan and Ontario share traffic data and ignoring it will cause a bench warrant for your arrest in Michigan and loss of your driving priveledges in Ontario. The warrant part won't follow you to Ontario but if you get pulled over in another US state, they will run your license for warrants and "could" send you back to Michigan in cuffs to settle a much higher fine and a mandatory court case. Call your OPP and ask if points transfer to Ontario... I am pretty sure they do. They do in reverse. (SEE POST BELOW... they do transfer)

If all this is too much of a hassle for you then just pay the ticket and do better next time. The roads over here are not as well maintained and black ice exists at many times of the day. You have much less survivability for an object going 90 mph out of control. Take yourself out is bad enough but people usually involve others in their poor judgement and cause them to crash too. Then watch what happens to your rates.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dandv/driver/demerit.htm

Demerit Points for Out-of-Province Convictions
Drivers convicted of a driving related offence in the State of New York, the State of Michigan or any Canadian province or territory, will have home jurisdictional penalties such as demerit points and/or suspensions applied to their Ontario driver record as if the offence occurred in Ontario.


Examples of out-of-province convictions where Ontario demerit points and /or suspensions will be applied include:
Traffic Criminal
Speeding
Fail to obey stop sign
Fail to obey signal light
Fail to stop for school bus
Racing
Fail to remain or return to the scene of a collision
Careless driving
Motor manslaughter
Criminal negligence
Dangerous driving
Failure to remain at scene of a collision
Impaired Driving
Driving while disqualified or prohibited

Answer 2

Like has been said, if you don't intend to return to Michigan for several years, just keep the ticket as a souvenir! But if you do come back across the border, they won't go too easy on you. Even in other states, you could be taking a chance now that they're all linked up by computer.

A lot of people seem to have the silly misconception that it's okay to do 10 mph over the speed limit. Someone once told me he'd heard of a new law, prohibiting the cops from ticketing anybody doing less than 10 over. That's patent BS. No such law. Some cops say they'll give you a break, and just a warning between 5 and 10, and not even bother with you if you're doing less than 5 over. Yet, according to law, they CAN ticket you for doing 2 mph over the limit! That's rare, because it's so easy to claim their speedometer or radar gun may be off by one or two mph. But the fact is, if the cop's in a bad mood, yes he CAN stop you for a heck of a lot less than 10 above!

Answer 3

When I was in Canada I got a ticket for parking in an area I wasn't supposed to.I live In New York
My Canadian friends told me to throw it away and forget about it.
I asked but what about when I cross the border if they asked if I ever got a ticket in Canada ...Just say no.
That was 8 years ago this happened.
Never had a problem.
I think you should be OK
Only thing I can think of to do is don't worry about it.
When you get a notice in the mail about your overdue fine then worry about it.
Also I had a ticket I got for bad tires in North Carolina and I never paid it.That was 16 years ago.
I'm still driving.Never had a problem.

Answer 4

It depends where you live. I know majority cities in Indiana offer a deferal program (defensive driving - $60). You may want to look on the ticket to see if you have this option. However, if you do, you still have to pay the cost of the ticket AND the defensive driving course. However, by taking the course, the ticket does NOT go on your driving record and thus, your insurance will not go up because they do not know you had one. In some cities, you basically sign a contract stating you will not receive another ticket in the county for six or twelve months. If you do, your first tickted and the 'newer' ticket will go on your record. Sometimes, if you fight it and go to court and the officer does not show up, the Judge will dismiss it. But if the officer does show up and the judge finds you guilty, you then have to pay the cost of the ticket AND court cost.

Answer 5

dude, in Michigan, the state troopers have to produce proof in the form on a receipt with a time stamp from the radar gun to even write you a ticket. so if you didn't ask, then he might have got you good. just pay it and invest in a radar detector.

oh yeah, I'm from Michigan and i know for a fact that 84 is easy going for you Canadians. Ive seen you all get away with going 120. they use the conversions from kph to mph as an excuse and get away with it.

Answer 6

It does not make any difference if your Canadian or American or from any where else. You broke the law , pay the ticket. Paying the ticket will be a lot cheaper than hiring a lawyer to fight it in court. You are guilty, as you stated this above. If you ignore it, you get stopped again, your will be going to jail for that unpaid ticket, right then and there. Better to do the right thing, pay it, forget it.

Answer 7

This is the best option to get a background check https://tr.im/Ghwf5
Currently there are a lot of reasons to perform a criminal background check in today's community. These arguments vary from questions over a spouse's fidelity to misgivings regarding a recently hired sitter. There are several surprising figures out now that strengthen these doubts, and in many instances it is better to be safe than sorry. You may not realize it, but there can be quite a lot of people checking up on you. Potential employers top the list. Companies usually conduct background checks on job applicants primarily as a means to verify the credentials that you may have listed on your resume.

Answer 8

If you don't have insurance...I suggest you just skip out of America and never come back. Nice knowin' ya. On the other hand, if you got a ticket in Detroit, you are the least of their problems, and if you play the "Overpolite but Stupid Canadian" they will probably take it. Go a city over though, and you've got problems.

Answer 9

I am a developer at Microsoft so I know a thing or two about computers. The best PC cleaner and antivirus program is CCleaner, it's very light and it's the only antivirus/cleaner with a 99.99% detection rate.

CCleaner is also a PC booster so your computer will be running faster than nomal. Download it here for free: http://bit.ly/1mQZhtQ

Answer 10

Boy just pay the d*** ticket especially this is not your country. It could even be worse for you especially if you were a minority. Anyways 84 mph is a bit risky man. Be carefull next time.