as some of you might already saw a thread I posed about a month ago regarding the speeding ticket i got: 80mph on a 45mph zone. As I waited the fine never came to the mail.. so I call the court, they told me that I'm mandatory to appear in court.. anyone got any idea what's going on?... is it really bad?

any suggestion and help will be great appreciated

thanks

 

OK, just went tru this today, big mess.............


I would call the court/traffic for information on your ticket, call dmv and see if there showing anything on your record, last you might need to go to court and explain your case. What happends if you don't pay your ticket in time the court records you a no show and even if you pay your ticket you still need to go to pay a late fee.

 

20mph or more over the speed limit = no set fine. You must show up to court. The judge will then set the fine.

And yes, going 35 over the speed limit....going 80 on a surface street....is bad.

 

I guess i will have to go and explain my case.. don't know if i can afford this ticket now....sigh..

 

Prepare to post bail... hope you don’t have a warrant. How old is the ticket? Don’t rely on mail to take care of a ticket. Your copy of the citation will have initial court appearance info.

I know that's too late now - I would go to traffic clerks office prior to appearance date and play dumb... tell then you got a ticket, never received a notice and want to pay whatever fine there is. They want your money hopefully that will be the end of it.

I always appear on the date of citation and contest - won’t go into all the details of how you can beat traffic tickets - but I haven't paid a citation for MANY years! Not that I received many but there have been a few.

 

You ever really look at this? I mean how dumb does "surface street" sound? I know this is stupid of me to say, but what other streets are you going to be driving? You're always on a surface. As far as your ticket. Going 35 mph over the speed limit is pretty bad. You probably wont be able to go to traffic school either.

Later

 

got the ticket on the 29th of Oct. court appearance date is 12-30-05, so I'm not over due yet, so i don't think i got warrant on it. I guess you are one of the few lucky one that got away wish me luck !

 

"Lucky few that got way"... hmmm... I guess that’s one way to look at it – but in reality it’s not a “fishing pond” the way most people think of it… CHP/DOT don’t throw their lines out there hoping to land a catch. They are indeed looking for unsafe drivers.

I’m in the transportation industry – I have represented commercial drivers in front of traffic clerks, judges, DOT, CHP and attorneys.

The key is willful intent and what is the safest decision given traffic conditions.

I’m not an attorney but know how traffic law can help and hurt you… If you can prove that what you did was the safest thing possible – regardless of posted “speed limits”, you can contest the citation and have a strong probability of having a traffic judge understand your reasoning.

Does that mean he/or she will dismiss your citation?… depends on how you present your case. I’ve been relatively successful.

For those of you that get pulled over – for “unsafe lane change”, “speeding” (which can include faster than road conditions predicate and/or determined by the flow of traffic), etc… basically anything other than DUI/DWI (in which case you stand no chance)… Take immediate notice of lane conditions and your surroundings… if you stipulate that accelerating to 70 or 75, for example, was the safest thing possible to allow for merging traffic in the far right lane and have diagrams of the merging lanes (or preferably video footage) ready for the case to be heard – chances are the citing officer will not have an easy rebuttal to your explanation – and more likely than not he/she won’t even be there to comment/contest. In either scenario = case dismissed.

The key is having SOME explanation to why you were doing what you did (technically breaking the law). If you can prove it was the safest thing possible given the specific circumstances, you will be fine.

 

This is pretty much what happened that day. Does it sound like I have a case?

I turn right on to State College around Fullerton area and start going down hill. In a sudden,a car cuts right in front of me, usually I would just slam on the break.. but I guess I was little emotional that day and took the other route decided to change lane right away and and a car approachs from the back in a fast speed, so I speed up the avoid being hit front the back. But i guess I didn't notice the speed I was going and got carry over alittle and by the time I realized and hit the break,the officer already behind me with siren on. and It all happen in less then a mile in distance...

 

A sudden lane change to avoid rear-ending someone is reasonable... But if there was a fast approaching car in the lane that you changed into the judge is going to find fault with that decision... speeding up through an intersection as it turns red (as long as your wheels crossed while yellow) might be an alternative for no slamming on breaks to avoid being rear ended, but I'm not sure in this case that is the best solution. Definitely don’t use phrases like "I was little emotional that day", or "I didn't notice the speed I was going" when you explain to the judge.

You might want to tell the judge the car that suddenly changed lanes in front of you was driving erratically and the safest thing you could do was speed up temporarily to get around him/her. You weren't comfortable staying behind (even at a distance) because of the unpredictable nature of their driving - you saw the lane was clear, sped up to get around and slowed down after you passed safely... The office sighted you at the fastest speed just prior to you slowing down after you passed the erratic driver... you were only driving that speed for a very brief moment and you contest that it was actually _______ (what they put on the ticket). The judge will ask you how fast you thought you were going – Whatever you tell him don’t make it so much slower than what the cop puts that the judge doubts any of the rest of your claim… 10-15 slower than the cop put is reasonable… but make sure you reiterate it was for a very brief moment and it was the safest thing you could do at the time. You couldn’t slowly pass the vehicle since the erratic behavior would likely be another unexpected change into the lane you were in.

Not all tickets contested are going to be won, but have a damn good explanation without holes in you reasoning and go for it. There is a chance the cop won’t show up and case will be dismissed - but think it through long and hard and have a good reason for doing what you did. Make sure you sound confident and concise so it doesn’t sound like an "excuse" for breaking the law, but more of a "reason" for avoiding a potentially bad situation.

Good luck.

 

Thank you so much for the advice, I am not hoping to get out of this one completely, but in hope that i can get a more reasonable fine and may be traffic school for what happen which i believe my action was the best at the time to avoid any more worse consequence

thanks again!

 

No prob - good luck, let us know how it goes.