Speeding ticket question

Factual Questions
1

So, I got my first speeding ticket the other day. Driving home from visiting some friends, kinda tired, not really paying attention to my speed, got popped for 70 in a 55. Fair enough. If I just pay the thing, as was my original intent, it’ll cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $150. Hurts, but I can swing it, and it’s what I get for breaking the law. No objections there.

The court date written on the ticket, though, just happens to be a day I have off from work anyway. The courthouse is downtown, not 15 minutes away from my apartment, and I have nothing better to be doing. So, my question is: is there likely to be any benefit at all to my showing up for court instead of just mailing in payment? A reduced fine would be nice, as would, I suppose, a reduced number of points on my license (which, up to this point, was squeaky clean). But if showing up and pleading guilty is just going to waste my time and cost me the same thing – or worse, if I’m going to get smacked with some kind of court costs that make it even more expensive than the original ticket – then, thanks anyway, but I’d rather not.

What do all you legal-type Dopers (or those with experience on the other side of the fence) think? Will there be any benefit to going to court, or should I just pay the ticket and get on with my life? Thanks in advance for any information.

The ticket is in Virginia, just for the record.

2

I don’t really know at all but my dad fought every form of ticket he ever got in court and never came out paying more than the ticket price, and usually came out paying much less.

3

I don’t know about Virginia, but here in Texas you can usually negate a speeding ticket as well as enjoy ~10% reduction in your insurance rate by taking a defensive driving course.

4

No, there shouldn’t be any extra charge, but, call the court and ask a clerk. If you’re up for the trip there, you might find it interesting to see other people’s cases. However, the judge may not like that you show up just to plead guilty.

Personally, I’d take the driving school option if its available. Here, you have to choose that ahead of time since the idea is really to reduce the time taken in court.

good luck

5

The benefit from doing something besides just paying the ticket is not to reduce the fine, but to keep it off of your driving record. Your insurance company looks at that, and will raise your insurance. That will cost you a whole lot more than the fine will, I promise.

6

I got one for 14 mph over the limit in NC a few years ago. There, 15 mph over the limit loses the license for a period IIRC. 14 over limit doubles if not trebles the insurance premium for 3 years (been there done that. I pled guilty by mailing in the payment.

In NC I too late now understand that hiring an attorney can often get it lowered to some lesser charge and, combined with a driving class, can keep it off the record and you might “learn your lesson”. Don’t know specifics about 15 over the limit, or VA.

Find a knowledgable friend who has a teenage son with (typically) some speeding tickets and see how they may have handled it. It might pay to consult an attorney.

Good luck but slow down and live.

7

This is the same reason I use to contest in Illinois. It’s been years since I’ve been to traffic court, but at the time I got ticketed I had three options (fines may be inaccurate):

  1. Pay the $85 fine, have it go on my driving record, and see my insurance rates go up

  2. Pay a $105 fine, spend four hours at a defensive driving course [second offense an 8-hour course is mandated], have it stricken from my record, no insurance rate hike

  3. Go to court

The first time, I chose 2). The second time, I went to court. At court, before any hearings began, the judge addressed all the traffic defendants and gave them an offer. If this is our first offense in 6 months (or perhaps a year), we can ask for supervision. Supervision entailed paying the original $85 fine, but the ticket being kept off your driving record as long as you didn’t rack up a second offense in a time period (once again, I think it was 6 months.)

Different jurisdictions may have different ways of dealing with it, but here in Chicago and the suburbs, that’s a typical way of doing it. Another thing you can hope for is the police officer not showing up to court.

8

Good advice, thanks. I wasn’t sure how things worked with the whole “getting the charges stricken” angle. I know traffic school exists as a punishment in VA, and while I’ve only ever heard of it being applied to minors, I can certainly ask if it’s an option. Also hadn’t considered pleading Not Guilty; I thought the idea was to negotiate, say, an under 10mph infraction in return for a Guilty plea. But if pleading NG isn’t going to cause me any trouble if and when I’m found guilty anyway, and might even be beneficial, then I might do that also.

I’ll call the clerk of the court tomorrow and she what (s)he has to say. That will probably give me a decent rundown of my options.

9

I don’t know about Roanoke, but where I live, it’s worthwhile to show up in court to contest a moving violation because of the chance that the cop may not show up, in which case the ticket is dropped. I’ve never been that lucky, but I’ve seen others just walk out of the courtroom when their cops didn’t show. When I see that my cop has arrived, I’d just take the traffic school route to not get a point against my driving record. Of course, the fine will still have to be paid. BTW, just showing up in court will not keep the points off my record; it’s the traffic school that does it.

10

IANAL. Many years back, I was clocked in excess of the speed limit in a town here in Georgia, and received a speeding ticket.

I took the route to go to court, the officer failed to show, and the charge was dropped.

I see no point in going to court if you plan to plead guilty, however. Negotiating a reduced charge, perhaps, but I can’t offer any insight to this.

When I went to court with the intent to plead Not Guilty, I also had prepared a defense. First, I went and found the state statutes the govern the use of “speed detection devices” (radar). I found that my state has a number of conditions as to when radar can be used to support a speeding ticket. I found at least three such conditions that I felt might help my defense.

The first one, probably the weakest, was that the officer had to offer to allow me to inspect the calibration records of the radar gun. He never did. I suspect this defense was weak, though, as I had no witness, and it could come down to my word versus his. The other two, I thought, were more compelling.

The second is that the radar is inadmissable when taken on a roadway with a gradient in excess of 7%. I suspect this is to prevent the cops from sitting at the bottom of big hills and nabbing truckers that otherwise might be trying to stay within the speed limit but happened to momentarily exceed it due to the hill. In my case, I was on a secondary road, but was going down a steep (albeit short) hill. I went back to the sight and took some polaroids, and using a level and a ruler, estimated the grade to be 8% at the point I would have been when the radar hit me.

The third was that officers using radar had to be visible within 500 yards (or was it feet, I don’t recall) from oncoming traffic. This appears to be intended to prevent obvious speed traps. And in my case, the officer wasn’t visible to oncoming traffic except within maybe 200 feet. I figured this was my most powerful defense.

But, as it turned out, I never needed to make my case, since the ticket was thrown out when the officer failed to appear.

Not sure if any of this is helpful or applicable to your situation, though.

11

Good idea. Various jurisdictions differ greatly. If you do appear, in addition to the fine, you will have to pay court costs; however, you may still pay less. Depends on the court. I’ve been to traffic court locally where defendants just plead Guilty and the judge lowers the fine, assesses court costs, but the net sum is still a savings. It’s not frivolous to appear just to plead Guilty if this is the custom where you live. You will have to find out how it’s done where you live.

12

Hmm…here I never paid court costs (unless it was already calculated into the $85 fine.)

13

While in college in NJ, I got a ticket for going 72 in a 55. That’s 4 pts, and a pretty awful prospect for a 19 year old driver with already high rates. However, the cop felt sorry for me and told me that if I showed up in court, he’d have them knock it down to 0 pts. (He wrote instructions about that on the back of the ticket.)

When I got to court, the judge told everyone to talk to the prosecutor before making a plea. Her default offer was to knock 4 pt tickets down to 2 pts and 2 pt tickets down to 0 pts. I explained that the cop had promised me 0 pts instead of 4 and she called him up to confirm it before giving me that.

In the end, I had to pay the fine, but got no points. It was great!

14

Let me enlighten you on a situation I overheard in an Toronto, Ontario traffic court.

Before the courts start the people with tickets go to the front and tell the clerk how they are ready to proceed. I did that and pleaded Not guilty. Fine, mine was dismissed because the officer was not in attendance, this is always a chance anyone should take. But let me continue about some other people in the court.

Several other people were called in the court and then the clerk called the police officers badge number and he never responded. This happened several times and someone next to me said the officer left the court room because all of his cases had told the clerk they were ready to plead guilty.

But that was the catch.
They told the clerk they were going to plead guilty but actually were hoping that would happen, the officer would leave because everyone was pleading guilty, but when they started calling up the people before the court for that particular officer they pleaded not guilty, they called the officer but he wasn’t there and the tickets were dismissed.

I always learn a new technique when I go to court and watch.

Always go to court that is your best bet.
Ask if they have a certified copy of the ordenance/bylaw that you broke, in hard paper copy in the court room.
Check over your traffic ticket very closely and make sure there are no errors.

And keep your fingers crossed while you are in the court room.
Good luck

15

A word of caution. There is a lot of traffic ticket advice floating around. Every state is different. Lots of advice comes from someone’s mistaken understanding of a situation or from something that doesn’t apply to their situation.

If you think you have a powerful technique for beating a ticket, then ask around in your locality before trying it. The reason being that traffic judges have heard it all before. When you’re wrong you look like a smartass and this irks the judge, who is only human and who has a tedious job.

In my city, the judges reduce many fines, but not for people who are argumentative or ill informed.

(That said, people do beat traffic tickets, so good luck.)

16

I’ve gotten four tickets in VA in 20 years. One, I paid by mail. One, I showed up intending to fight it but changed my mind at the last second; no extra cost incurred. Twice, I fought it and won. I saw other defendants fight it and lose, and they got socked with extra court costs.

If you don’t intend to fight the ticket, there’s no practical reason to go to court. Are you just really curious? Do you have any grounds at all for contesting the ticket, no matter how far-fetched or frivolous? I swear, sometimes judges find for the defendants just because they show up in a suit and tie (A surprising number of defendants show up in sweatsuits or worse).

17

Two reasons have already been stated: reduced costs and reduced points possible.
Dandmb50

You should go to the library and check that before you go to court; however, this is not going to avail you in the long run. The state can always amend the citation.

18

Ok, i’m shocked nobody has mentionned it before but what about hiring a lawyer?

Here in florida, whenever I get a ticket, I start receiving lots of mail from lawyer firms who specialize in traffic offenses. The way it goes is I pay them $50-60 instead of paying the $150 fine and they take care of it for me. No fine, no points, no record, “no nothing”. I did that twice.

For my first 2 traffic offenses, I just went to court and the judge dropped all charges. The first time, it didn’t cost me a dime, the second, I had to pay court fees (the folks in talahassee passed a law that prevents the judge from dropping those shortly before I appeared). but the charges were dropped.

So yeah, either go to court or hire a lawyer.

19

As others have said it varys quite a bit from state to state. Some states if the officer does not show up you are off. In Mass they have one officer stand in to represent all of them. If you claim you where speeding but not as much as the ticket says they will (in my experience) usually knock the ticket down to $50 (from $100 or more). Of course the insurance surcharge is way more than the ticket and you still get the points on your liscence.

You should check and see how it is done in your area.

20

If the officer does not appear, you should move for dismissal for want of prosecution. This is normally granted, since the officer did not appear to pursue the prosecution. However, that motion could be denied if you had moved for a continuance prior. Some people will continue to ask for a continuance until the officer does not appear, then move for dismissal. Usually one motion for continuance will be granted upon any reasonable ground, such as not enough time to prepare for the defense.