The only outright deception I’ve noticed was the sppedometer failure post-ticket but pre-courtdate.
Wow, I’m surprised that so many people think it is worth trying to get out of the ticket.
I’ve only had a couple of tickets, but I paid them on time and in full. To me it wasn’t worth the time and effort to go to court (and get a lawyer if necessary) to save $100 or so. It’s not like I can just throw away $100 on a whim, but to fight it I’d have to take a day off work to go to court, and I could earn more than the $100 I’m (possibly) saving in that time.
I just paid the money and moved on.
YMMV, of course.
When I lived in Texas, there were billboards everywhere that offered to get people out of tickets. They were advertisements for lawyers who did nothing but take speeding and DUI ticket cases. I had a 100% success rate with them, and used to do some pretty serious speeding. You bring your ticket in, a secretary looks at, charges you some fee up front (around what the ticket costs you if you’re guilty). has you sign a paper that says you understand this is a court of law, and there are no guarantees, etc. etc. Lawyer joe blow shows up in court on your behalf (I never even met him, although I had to appear) and appeals the ticket to a higher court, and repeats this process until they throw it out.
Now in the original post, you said money was a little tight, so that might not be the best option. My second choice is to fight the ticket. If the policeman doesn’t show, it will be thrown out of court. Something else that’s supposed to work is to request a jurty trial. I’ve seen other people do this, and their cases got dismissed. It’s costs the city more to prosecute a speeder with a jury trial than to just let it go.
Good Luck. Make sure you post what you end up doing!
E3
The first two examples would be perjury if stated under oath, which, of course, they would be because you’re talking about going to court to fight the ticket. The third is indisputably perjury because the poster said he pled down to “improper equipment,” which was not at all true at the time of the offense.
Oh great. NOW I see the “not” in the first example. My bad. 
MrWhy, how much did that effect your insurrance? That’s a bit more where my concern comes from. If the court fee is $100, I’d really only be saving myself $16, which I could care less about. But I’m paying $180/month for my insurrance now, and I really can’t afford to have that go up.
Anyone else pay a ticket? How does it effect your insurrance? I’m 23, by the way, and if the name “Elvis” hasn’t given it away, a male.
This won’t help you too much now, but it might help you avoid getting tickets in the future:
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/traffictix/traffictix.html
In Davidson County NC the fine for speeding is only $10, courts cost is $100. In North Carolina if you are convicted of speeding more than 15 mph over the speed limit the satate can take your license no matter what the court does.
It didn’t affect my insurance at all, but I live in Australia and I think, from what people in the thread are saying, that you have quite a different system from ours.
How much extra insurance will you have to pay?
For me, avoiding the hassle is worth paying a few extra bucks a month, but of course that depends on how many extra bucks.
I’m 28, live in Columbus, Ohio…and have accumulated around 56 points on my record. IOW, My license has been suspended for more time than not.
There have been a lot of good ideas posted and a lot of bad ones, too.
If you decide to go to court, ask for a continuance. This buys you time to do more research, save money, etc. When you go back, ask for another continuance. Keep trying until they refuse. Hopefully, by the time your “case” finally gets heard, the officer will be busy and not show up. Case dismissed. However, this rarely happens.
Getting a lawyer is foolish. It will cost you more money and time than it’s worth for a speeding ticket.
Generally, getting out of standard speeding tickets is difficult. Cop clocked you speeding, you pay the piper. However, other offenses that are not often issued can, sometimes, be easier to get out of. Especially if you have multiple charges, such as reckless driving, loud stereo and seatbelt. Sometimes the judge will dismiss or reduce the major charge and simply fine you for the lesser ones.
And finally, many folks have mentioned a “point-reduction” driving class. In Ohio (and I assume other states), this class is actually a point limit increase. Taking the class does not remove points from your record. Instead, it simply raises the limit of points you’re allowed to have. The limit in Ohio is 12 points. Once when I was at 10 points, I got another speeding ticket. If I was convicted, I would lose my license. Instead, i took the class, THEN was convicted. I didn’t lose my license because my limit was increased to 14!
The first two wouldn’t necessarily have been perjury, because the first appearance – without a lawyer (in Michigan, anyway) – is informal and you’re not sworn in. This is the point where you can please guilty, guilty-with-explanation, or innocent. It’s senseless to please guilty - you’ve wasted your time. Innocent, and you wait with everybody else until the “quickies” are done with. With explanation, you get out of there quickly, and often with reduced fines and whatnot.
The last item wasn’t perjury either, since it was “pled down.” This is done all the time so the state/city/whatever get some money, and you get a less serious penalty. Pleading is an agreement between the prosecution and defense – no perjury involved.
The trouble I’ve seen as far as the “technical” ways to get out is the judge can still ask you “Were you speeding?” If you knew you were speeding–you have to admit to it…otherwise that whole perjury thing becomes an issue…
This is not necessarily true.
It all depends upon whether or not the procedure used in that particular jurisdiction requires the accused to allocute the factual basis for the plea. In other words, if the accused simply stands mute, or nods vigorously, when the prosecutor tells the judge that you’ve reached an agreement to plead guilty to equipment failure, then I agree no perjury has been committed. However, if the acceptance of the plea is conditioned upon telling the judge, under oath, the basis for the reduced charge, then it is perjury.
Balthisar, are you aware of what procedure was in use in Orange County, North Carolina’s traffic court at the time Jonathan Woodall’s case was heard?
If not - why would you post such a confident message?
- Rick
Maybe. It depends on whether or not you’re offering testimony. If your defense involves questioning the officer, perhaps objecting to a lack of foundation for his radar readings because of a failure to comply with whatever statutory requirements may exist… then the judge has no right to ask you any questions that go to any facts under adjudication. Once you offer your own testimony, you’re absolutely subject to such questions.
Of course, this is technically true… but in traffic court, formality is not the rule of the day. Judges are used to dealing with a parade of laymen, and tend to relax the rules.
In Virginia, traffic offenses are heard by the General District Court, and you have have an appeal as of right to the Circuit Court. So any error made by a judge at your traffic trial can be cured at your new trial.
- Rick
No, absolutely not, and you’re right in this specific case. I shouldn’t have said “wasn’t” perjury in this particular case, because according to Jonathon’s earlier post I’d have to agree that his method of getting out of it wasn’t honest, and possibly perjury – I ignored that context in my reply. However I do stand by my intended implication that plea-bargaining in and of itself isn’t perjury, but that’s not to say someone charged wouldn’t perjure himself to obtain the plea-bargain.
Hope that clears things up!
In answer to the original question - don’t take your foot off the accelerator (works in the movies anyway)
Ernie’s House of Whoopass has a lot of info on speeding tickets.
That is correct. Actually, if I remember correctly, I did not even lie to the ADA. I said “My speedometer is inaccurate” on the day of the first court date. I never said, although I did imply, that the speedometer was not working during the date that I commited the offense.
I suppose I wouldn’t have gotten away with this if it was a real trial and I was under oath, but… they got their money, and that seemed to be all they cared about.