yay speeding tickets!

[Ginger0]

yeah i got busted for a bullshit 18 over last week in a revenue generation speed trap on the road I live off of. Fuck those assholes.

I saw that one - it was a Douchie Mc Douchstein trap. Everybody plows through there at around 50... and they're not trapping for safety's sake, either, since they're only there on nice, sunny days when the whole club can gallavant around and drink coffee.

[REED]

hmm yeah I see you point - my court date isn't until august (of course its conveniently in the way of the Rock & Roll 1/2 marathon) so I have some time to mull my options

on a positive note being stopped made me realize my inspection was up this month

ask for an extension, then show up for court - they'll likely reduce the fine and there is a chance the cop may not show with an extension

This is sneaky, and by no means guaranteed to work. Go to court and ask to take a driver improvement course. Why no one ever suggests it is beyond me, but if it isn't reckless, there's a good chance you can get out of it altogether if you ask to take the course, especially if you already have a good record.

I took an online course BEFORE headng to court once. The judge reduced the fine, and the course itself dropped my points by a good number.

Did this from work: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.idrivesafely.com/">http://www.idrivesafely.com/</a><!-- m -->

Now that it is almost August its time I acutally did something about this.

From what I've read, a 20+ speeding ticket is 6 points
I didn't know this, but you can earn "safe driving points" 1 for every year that you go without and accident or ticket - I'm guessing this is why my driving record only shows +2 points.

I plan on taking the driver improvement course next week. My new question is on my actual court date. I have no idea what I should say to the judge - I'm not really pleading "not quilty", but i don't want to plead guilty and have the judge just "dismiss" me being there at all.

any suggestions?

oh and I also get to serve jury duty for the next two weeks - I should just move into the courthouse at this rate.

[ViPER1313]

It really might be in your best interest to pay for a lawyer. Depending on how the actual stop went, your attitude, road conditions and how big of a dick the cop wants to be, it can really pay off to have someone who deals with judge and cop on a weekly basis. You can plead 3 things in VA if I remember correctly:

-Not guilty. If you were on radar, you are guilty and the judge will laugh at you if you plead this (some here may disagree, this is my experience.)
-Guilty with explanation (ie... my accelerator peddle was stuck, I had a dieing kid in the back seat) - if it wasn't something of that severe nature don't bother, judges hate it when you waste your time.
-Guilty. You plead guilty, explain you take your driving record seriously and that you were mistaken for driving so quickly. Basically, you throw yourself at the judges mercy - he/she may or may not let you off with a reduced fine based on your attitude and driving record. I did this for 60 in a 25 in MD, judge reduced it to 43 in a 25 and told me never to come back. She also mocked me in front of the court (much to it's amusement) -

J - "What type of car were you driving"
Me - "A Ford Taurus"
J - "A Ford Taurus?! What were you thinking? Were you trying to see if it could fly?!"
Court "HAHAHAHHAHAHHAHA"

Option #4 is to talk with the cop / prosecutor directly and make a deal - this is where a lawyer comes in. You might be able to take driving course with an increased fine for a lesser amount of points. All parties approach the bench and explain the deal, and if the judge agrees everything is good. Depending on the judge's attitude he or she can actually refuse the deal though (I have seen it happen - pretty funny stuff.)

[Jess]

What code section was written on your summons/ticket? (just verifying that it still isn't reckless by speed). It will be the number starting with 46.2 - ???

Your three choices for a plea are guilty, not guilty, or no contest (not admitting guilt, but agreeing the evidence is enough to find you guilty). In my experience, if you plead guilty, explain what happened in a nice and civilized manner (i.e. don't be dick, don't act like the cop is retarded, etc), and if the cop agrees that you were cooperative, ask the judge if you can have the opportunity to take DIP. In my traffic court (Roanoke City), the judge will let you take DIP class and get the ticket dismissed if you haven't done DIP within the past 5 years or so. The other alternative is the judge will consider reducing the ticket to a lesser grade of speeding, and cut you a break on fines and points.

Be friendly to the cop when you get there, he may talk to the Commonwealth for you, or he may just recommend a lesser infraction to the judge. Usually I find that the CAs don't get involved much with the speeding tickets, at least in my jurisdiction. They're usually too busy talking with us defense attorneys about the real cases coming up after the "guilty plea" line and leave punishment to the judge's discretion.

I wouldn't bother hiring an attorney unless you know someone who can do it for cheap. Most of the time with speeding cases people come out the same without an attorney as they would have with an attorney (but we still like people to think we got them a "great deal" on their case). :wink:

[John]

It really might be in your best interest to pay for a lawyer.

I think the minimum a lawyer would take in NoVA is around $1200... not sure how cost-effective that is considering the best they will do is get it reduced.

[Ryan T]

Speeding tickets do suck. I got my first one not too long ago, 90 in a 45 in Tennessee. Cop was really cool about it all too. Didn't give me reckless, just speeding. Sent the fine state of TN a money order for $143 and that was it.

[REED]

What code section was written on your summons/ticket? (just verifying that it still isn't reckless by speed). It will be the number starting with 46.2 - ???

Your three choices for a plea are guilty, not guilty, or no contest (not admitting guilt, but agreeing the evidence is enough to find you guilty). In my experience, if you plead guilty, explain what happened in a nice and civilized manner (i.e. don't be dick, don't act like the cop is retarded, etc), and if the cop agrees that you were cooperative, ask the judge if you can have the opportunity to take DIP. In my traffic court (Roanoke City), the judge will let you take DIP class and get the ticket dismissed if you haven't done DIP within the past 5 years or so. The other alternative is the judge will consider reducing the ticket to a lesser grade of speeding, and cut you a break on fines and points.

Be friendly to the cop when you get there, he may talk to the Commonwealth for you, or he may just recommend a lesser infraction to the judge. Usually I find that the CAs don't get involved much with the speeding tickets, at least in my jurisdiction. They're usually too busy talking with us defense attorneys about the real cases coming up after the "guilty plea" line and leave punishment to the judge's discretion.

I wouldn't bother hiring an attorney unless you know someone who can do it for cheap. Most of the time with speeding cases people come out the same without an attorney as they would have with an attorney (but we still like people to think we got them a "great deal" on their case). :wink:

Yea 46.2-874 Speeding (L) - It sounds like "no contest" was the plea I was looking for. Jess do you think I would be better off asking the judge about taking the DIP versus taking it now before my court date?

thanks for all the help guys and gals

:wink:

[ViPER1313]

It really might be in your best interest to pay for a lawyer.

I think the minimum a lawyer would take in NoVA is around $1200... not sure how cost-effective that is considering the best they will do is get it reduced.

It was $250 down in Hburg - considering how hostile the cop was, it was the best $250 I ever spent.

[Mike]

It really might be in your best interest to pay for a lawyer.

I think the minimum a lawyer would take in NoVA is around $1200... not sure how cost-effective that is considering the best they will do is get it reduced.

It was $250 down in Hburg - considering how hostile the cop was, it was the best $250 I ever spent.

falls church/arlington ain't hburg.

[Jess]

Yea 46.2-874 Speeding (L) - It sounds like "no contest" was the plea I was looking for. Jess do you think I would be better off asking the judge about taking the DIP versus taking it now before my court date?

thanks for all the help guys and gals

:wink:

I'd ask the Judge about taking DIP. One, it's a bargaining chip, and gives the Judge an alternative to just giving you a fine straight out for speeding or lowering the grade of the offense.
Two, taking DIP before hand may come across as a bit presumptuous, and the judge may still end up giving you the fine, not lower the grade of the offense, and then you'd have wasted the money (and a Saturday) on DIP.

my .02, which is valued at $250. I accept paypal. :wink:

[WRXtranceformed]

Dodged a bullet today. Came back from the golf course early because I was shitting it up and have to work in about an hour or so. Got nabbed doing 55 in a 40, but that speed limit is bullshit for the road I was on. Everyone cruises 50+ on it because it's 4 lanes and wide open. Turned my car off, rolled down the window, put the hazards on and put my keys on top of my roof. The officer asked me what I was doing, and I told him I had friends in the force that said they felt safer when people did this because they knew they wouldn't try to run away after they got pulled over. Came back and gave me a warning and I thanked God for avoiding another ticket

[ScottyB]

Turned my car off, rolled down the window, put the hazards on and put my keys on top of my roof. The officer asked me what I was doing, and I told him I had friends in the force that said they felt safer when people did this because they knew they wouldn't try to run away after they got pulled over. Came back and gave me a warning and I thanked God for avoiding another ticket

nice! i've heard the same deal about the keys....windows down, car off, keys on the roof or the top of the gauge cluster so it's clear there's no monkey business. i'll have to keep the "friends in the force" line in my back pocket 8)

[kcook]

i got nabbed for 47 in a 30 a few days ago.. first time ive been pulled for speeding in 4 years. I typically cruise @ 35-39 on this road. I had my reasons to speed, i was avoiding getting into an accident and he caught me after i was in the clear. I will be fighting this

he was coming in the opposite direction.

[Dave]

It's not a speeding ticket, but I'd like advice regardless: I got pulled by a trooper for my tint being too dark and feel like it's an absurd ticket. He was well-hidden and I was driving, literally, 65mph in the right lane. I.E. he had absolutely nothing better to do, in a heavy traffic area/time of day when he could have easily caught somebody flying down the highway, than to come out of hiding and pull me over. My back tint was in line with the law, but the front was 20% too dark (50 vs. 30, 50 in back). I explained that I purchased the car in N.C. and didn't realize that I wasn't in compliance b.c I've never had a car with tinted windows (yeah, ignorance is bliss), but he didn't much care. Too bad, here's your ticket.

My question is: is this really the kind of ofense that a cop can actually pull you for? Like, I've heard seatbelts is a secondary offense they can fine you for if they have another reason to pull you - seems like that would be the case here too.

I'm sure that I can take a razor and strip the tint, and I probably will to make sure this doesn't happen again, but I don't want to pay the court/processing fees that go with it. Would it be effective to talk to the judge and point out that the cop had no good reason to target me as a menace, I've fixed the problem since then, my record has been clean for years aside from one speeding ticket, and ask him to simply wave my ticket and fees?

[.RJ]

If its not a points offense, I'd pay it and forget about it. Not worth the time to go spend a day in the wonderful mixing bowl of society that is traffic court.

[Mike]

If its not a points offense, I'd pay it and forget about it. Not worth the time to go spend a day in the wonderful mixing bowl of society that is traffic court.

+1. You broke the law (even if you didn't do so knowingly). Pay it, save your time, hope you don't get pulled over again.

[CaptainHenreh]

Would it be effective to talk to the judge and point out that I've fixed the problem ?

Yes. Don't do any of the other bits. Fix the tint, take it to court, the judge will probably throw it out. Or, just pay the ticket. But yes, a cop can pull you over for this. Just like a front plate violation.

Alternately, you can just pay the ticket and you probably won't get pulled over again until after you've sold the car.

[Apoc]

Just pay the ticket. He may dismiss it if you correct, but I seriously doubt he will dismiss the court fees. I don't think it's worth the hassle considering there's a decent chance you'll still have to pay the ticket.