To make a long story short, some *** was tailgating me...I was going 65 in a 50 in the passing lane, and the man stayed on my ***...I sped up to 80 so I could pass the car on my right. I signaled, saw that I had 1 1/2 car lengths in front of the car on my right and I cut over. DT cruiser, radared me, and pulled me over. Started yelling at me for speeding and "cutting" the guy off. He then said stuff about me being young and having a nice car. Also said that my car belongs on the track, not on the road, so if I wanted to speed, bring it to the raceway.

He claimed he was giving me two summons (one for 80 in a 50, the other was for unsafe lane change). We talked a bit and he knocked it down to just the 80 in a 50. I knew I sped up, so I sucked it up and took the ticket. He told me "i'm just giving you one and i'm giving you 80 in a 50. If you were one more mph over, you'd have to go to court. If you choose to go to court, I WILL bring it up to the judge about the lane change." Seems like he was kind of trying to coerce me not to go fight the charge.

I don't mind paying the fine, because I know I broke the law. I should've just ignored the tailgater. Regardless, I'm split about whether or not to fight the ticket...because I'm going to get 6 points on my license and my insurance will skyrocket. I have a clean record (the ticket is only $150...not that bad in terms of $$ damage) and although the lawyers fees will cost more than the ticket, I'm willing to fight it to reduce it to no points. On the other hand, I don't want the cop to bring up the unsafe lane change charge (which I believe is full of crap...but its my word against his) which will give me another 2 points...so i could theoretically fight and lose and have a total of 8 points on my record. Do you guys think that its worth it to fight? Is it realistic that the points may get knocked off? Any recommendations for NYC traffic lawyers?

 

I would postpone the court date 2 times and hopefully the cop won't show up on the third try. If he doesn't show, you could have it thrown out, plus it would be about 14 months or so which means it shouldn't show up on your insurance for at least that long (I think). I would fight it. I don't think the judge could award anything for unsafe lane change if the cop didn't issue a ticket. I would at least fight it with a laywer cuz typically they will barter with the DA and have it reduced. At the least, they might drop it down to a seatbelt and broken taillight or sumtin so that NYC will get their $$ and you won't have to worry too much about insurance. From my understanding, I think insurance co's give ya 2 points leeway. You might wanna talk to Blitz about that one. But yeah, fight it!!! If you have a clean record, they should def drop the charge a bit! What precinct was it? I may have a hook. Small chance, but might!

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I don't know about NY but in TX you can pay the fine and take defensive driving once every couple of yrs for about $75-100. The ticket then doesn't go on your record(no pts in TX).

 

Go to court. Fight the ticket. Only postpone once. If you postpone more than once, it looks bad on you. It's a risky move trying to out schedule the cop. When in court, ask to speak with the prosecutor. Ask if you can plead guilty to driving in an unsafe manner instead. No points, just a fine.

---------------------------------
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First off, he can threaten the lane change all he wants, but like mentioned above, it can't be used if the cop didn't write the ticket. Cops would be able to throw in all sorts of stuff in traffic court if that were the case. Your lawyer would have some serious objections to this, and have that withdrawn. Unless, like someone mentioned above, you can go to driving improvement, and get points taken off, I'd fight it. (Assuming you don't mind the cost). If you fight it, theres no guarantee it'll get dropped, but you can pretty much guarantee a more reasonable "lesser" charge.

 

Did you ask to show you the readout of the radar gun? You said he got you for exactly 80 in a 50. Maybe he just observed you. That makes an even bigger care for you.

BTW, was this on the Belt Pkway?

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<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

First off, he can threaten the lane change all he wants, but like mentioned above, it can't be used if the cop didn't write the ticket. Cops would be able to throw in all sorts of stuff in traffic court if that were the case. Your lawyer would have some serious objections to this, and have that withdrawn.

<hr></blockquote>That's nonsense. The officer has full discretion as to whether to issue a ticket in a given situation. There is nothing that requires a police officer to write a ticket for *every* infraction he sees, and the advice above is ridiculous.

My advice is to go to www.motorists.org and join, then order their legal defense kit. Most importantly, find out what the laws in your state are pertaining to public access to public documents. What you want RIGHT NOW, if you're going to fight your ticket, is a copy of the officer's copy of your citation - FRONT AND BACK. This is the document where the officer is likely to have recorded any notes/observations about his encounter with you that he wanted to preserve but not record on your copy of the ticket.

 

Just to clarify two points really quickly:

1) In most (read: an overwhelming majority of) jurisdictions, the cop doesn't have to show you his radar gun. He doesn't have to show you jack. In fact, if you ask for his badge number, he doesn't even have to give that to you. Asking to see the radar readout is often seen as argumentative, and just ticks off the cop... so don't even bother. They can lock their radar guns onto any speed, so you wouldn't even know if you're seeing yours to begin with.

2) Officers no longer have to show up to court dates: they can use court liaisons. These people have a sole purpose of going to court on behalf of cops throughout departments, so the chances of him not showing up become slimmer and slimmer every day.

There are two "myths" that float around in every post... time to put the kibosh on 'em.

G

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In NY - the cop def. has to show up at court. My wife postponed a speeding ticket twice - on the 3rd go around the cop did not show and it was totally dismissed. Insurance Companies are not fond of young drivers to begin with, a young driver with points is likely to end up in the assigned risk. I will PM you with the name of a good traffic lawyer.


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I had a similar ticket on a street. The limit was 45 and I sped up to 55 (thats what the ticket said) to pass a guy going 40. I took it to court. My lawyer argued (successfully) that is is legal to go over the speed limit during a pass as long as the speed is under the safety limit for that particular street. In City Hall (maybe it was chamber of commerce I can't recall it was years ago) they keep a record of every street and the speed that a car can safetly travel upon it . He tracked that down and showed the street was "legaly?" safe up to 60 mph.

I was lucky because my pop was the attorney so I didn't have to pay legal fees. I'm wondering how much time he would have billed me for to do the research though. Might not even be worth it. Or might be something you should do yourself.

-JustICE

 

"That's nonsense. The officer has full discretion as to whether to issue a ticket in a given situation. There is nothing that requires a police officer to write a ticket for *every* infraction he sees, and the advice above is ridiculous. "

I wasn't implying that the cop could not have written a ticket. I was impling that sense HE DID NOT issue a ticket for this offense, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans in court. He threaten to use the lane change against him in court, if he tries to fight the speeding ticket. Please read the posts before replying folks.