Moving Violations
CalGal -- Wednesday, July 16, 2003 -- 07:27:47 PMAKA: Your state's other revenue source. How does it work where you live? What's the best way to minimize your damage?
This thread is tagged: ticket, police(All users will see what tags exist for a thread. Please tag carefully!)
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What do you mean, what do they do? I described it, above.
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In Florida if you ask for a court date, you have a tendency to end up with court costs and fines being exactly what the ticket is, if you lose, but most of the time the points don't go on your license if you do court.
More Sunshine State weirdness, I guess.
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I totally agree! FWIW, we don't have traffic school here, just an appeal to a judge. If I get there and see my cop, I can just say "I no longer contest the charge and will pay the fine right now." If nothing else, I've bought myself two months to pay.
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No traffic school? You must have really low insurance rates.
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I pay $1300 a year for me (2000 Honda) and DH ('94 Hyundai). Is that low? It doesn't seem that way to me!
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Did you happen to notice the number that I mentioned earlier? Granted, they were using my ability to get lots of tickets as an excuse to get me to pay for their old people. But even before that I was paying $200/month. I am finally down to something approaching normal and am paying 1200/year for a 7 year old Honda.
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From what I understand, it is possible to do traffic school twice within 18 months in CA subject to approval by the judge. Also, everyone I know who has bothered to contest their ticket has gotten the fine reduced. So it's definitely worth showing up if you have the time.
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cj-
One last thought for you. I live in a State where anything over 80 is considered reckless driving and you have no choice but to go to court on it-- it's a requirement. You also get 6 points for that sucker. Ouch.
So... I got a ticket for 87 in a 65 in a small rural county. I figure well I did it, I should just go to court, wait for my 2 hours to get called, plead guilty, pay my fine and be on my way.
My wife says, if you have to go anyway, try to get out of it to save us on the insurance.
I called a couple of lawyers I knew in the area who told me that the traffic judge HATES speeders and actually assigns massive fines. He also gives jail time for anything over 90. They all recommended that I hire a local lawyer who knows the prosector and the judge.
I follow their advice, hire a lawyer and send her the $250 she charges to represent me. Of course, then I have second thoughts as I'm driving down to court to meet her, thinking, no way is this lawyer gonna save me $250.
So she goes to do her thing and talks to the prosecutor before the docket call starts. We're on the second half of the docket so I have some time to kill and go in to watch the first half.
First guy who goes up has been charged with 88 in a 65. He's nicely dressed in a suit and says guilty your honor, I really have no excuse. The judge responds with, thank you for your honesty. That will be a $1000 fine. If you cannot pay today, you have 30 days to pay. I think, oh shit. That would have been me.
The next guy had a ticket for 86 in a 65. He tried to give some crap excuse and got hit with a $1250 fine. The third person, a woman, 92 in a 65. $1000 plus 48 hours in jail.
I go outside to find that my lawyer has cut a deal with the guy who is prosecuting the second half of the docket. They cut the speed to 79. $150 fine and only 4 points. (Apparently, my being nice to the cop had a lot to do with it, because they give the officers a say in whether or not to cut a deal). Needless to say, I took the deal and drove away very happy.
What that taught me is that the best way to deal with these tickets if you don't really have a valid defense is to talk to the local prosecutors to cut a deal. In smaller jurisdictions, they might talk to you before your court date. I got a speeding ticket in another state, WVa for example. I called to find out who the prosecutor was and they told me. I called him up, told him that I was speeding, but didn't want the points on my record and asked if we could cut a deal. We just BSed for about 15 minutes and it ended up with him agreeing to call the cop to see if there was anything unusual about my case. He called back the next day, said that the officer said I was real friendly and that I had a nice car and that they had decided to cut me a break and nolle pros the case. Ticket dismissed.
Bottom lines, be nice to the cops. Call the prosecutor. If the prosector doesn't do deals till the morning of court, get there early, figure out who the prosecutor is and see if you can cut a deal.
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The wonderful Commonwealth of Virginia. It's not so bad up in Fairfax County, but trust me. Any time I drive south on I-95 and see the sign "Entering Hanover County," I set that cruise control to 70.
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If you're driving from DC to Charlottesville, Madison County is a known series of speed traps. I got my only ticket there.
Thanks for the heads-up on Hanover, Jimmy. We're heading south this weekend and I will take note.
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The state of California would be up in arms if such a system were tried within our borders.
The idea is to raise revenue. It appears that Virginia is more interested in full employment for lawyers.
I cannot fathom a traffic court that requires prosecutors to meet with defense attorneys for an 80 mph speeding ticket or imposes a $1000 fine. That's unbelievable.
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Welcome to the genteel Commonwealth of Virginia.
Shoot, I grew up in Texas where a State Trooper laughed at pulling me over at 102 because my brakes were essentially locked at the time and I had a cloud of tire smoke billowing behind me. He chuckled that if my brakes weren't so good he'd have caught me at 120. (Actually, It was about 125 when the radar dedector went off - not soon enought obviously).
Definitely a different attutude towards speeding in the Old Dominion.
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Reckless driving in Virginia is actually considered a MISDEMEANOR, believe it or not. So you get convicted of going 80 (which is only 15 miles over the Interstate speed limit) and bang, all of a sudden you might have to disclose your "misdemeanor" conviction to a potential employer.
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Wow. It must be profitable. But Jaysus.
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What is this traffic school you speak of? How do I find out whether New York offers this?
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Is traffic school only in California?
It is a sop to the public. The state gives the public a limited way to game the insurance company increases, while still taking tons of money from the insurance company to add all sorts of non-driving "points" to records that allow the insurance companies to up rates.
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Harri,
here is info on NYS Defensive Driving courses. They are not bad, I took one myself for the insurance rate cut a few years back. 6 hours and a lot of videos.
New York Point & Insurance Reduction Program
New York motorists who complete the Defensive Driving Course 8/6 program in New York through a Department of Motor Vehicles approved training center:
- may receive a reduction of up to four (4) points on their driver record (course may be taken once every 18 months for point reduction).
- will receive a minimum if 10% reduction in the base rate of the auto liability and collision insurance premiums each year for three years, providing the motorist who completes the course is the principal operator of the vehicle.