“Umm, excuse me, but signing the citation is NOT an admission of guilt.”
Right, sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads the fine print on the ticket?
What happens if you refuse to sign the ticket? I read about that in a book & recently saw it on Cops, basically they call in a supervisor who comes out & discusses it.
And . . . so what happens after the discussion? From experience and knowing from others, at least in Texas, there is a two step process:
You get citation, sign it, and are asked to go to the municipal court. (I don’t know of anyone who has refuse to sign it).
At municipal court you are asked to either:
a) Plead Not guilty and ask for a court appointment
b) No contest - pay the fine, go through driving classes, and get your record cleaned.
XicanoreX
Your original post says that the ticket was for “failure to maintain proper speed.” That has nothing to do with “speeding,” that means she was going too fast to stop. If the speed limit was 45 and she was going 5 mph and couldn’t stop in time, she failed to maintain proper speed. It has nothing to do with “speeding”. It has to do with going to fast to control the car. Period.
Now, having said that, if you want to contest the ticket, you should NOT rely on the well-meaning but amateurish comments on this Message Board. The laws and requirements are different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. If you seriously want to fight the ticket, you should consult a lawyer in your state/city to find out what the odds are.
It is often true that you don’t even need to have an argument, you can just hope the cop doesn’t show up. In which case, the judge MIGHT decide the case in your favor, but may not be compelled to, the judge could just order another date.
Bottom line here is that you should NOT be looking for legal advice from an online Message Board.