Going to work today, I was traveling about 70, which was the speed limit, but I entered a work zone that starts about a half mile before the bridge they are redoing, and the speed limit there drops to 50. I completely forgot about the change, and ended up getting pulled over and getting ticketed. I've submitted my ticket to an attorney online, and hopefully I'll be able to get it down to something akin to a moving violation so as not to get points on my record.

The thing that sucks the most is that this is my first ticket ever. $208 for traveling 20mph over the limit, plus $35 for being in a construction zone (workers weren't present, else it would be an extra $250). This sucks so much. I don't know what I'm going to tell my parents. Especially if I can't get it brought down to a lesser charge and my insurance goes up. This sucks bad.

Oh yes, any advice you have would be welcome and appreciated.

*cue Brian*

Pagewizard and I are banned from this thread as of now.

Prepare yourself to be bombarded with "OMG YOU SHOULDN'T BE SPEEDING YOU NEED TO STFU AND DIE CUZ SPEEDING IS AGAINST THE LAW."

Oh, and I don't have any helpful advice to offer, other than vibes for good luck.

Pretty simple. This is how it works down here, I hop you are as lucky. Go to the court hearing. The first thing to do is check if the officer who gave you the ticket is there. If he is not, PLEAD NOT GUILTY. If the officer is not there, they have no proof that it ever happened and they will let you go. If he is there, and this your first ticket..plead guilty..go to driving school and get it taken off your record. Not much more or less you can do.

Traffic fines are doubled in Construction zones in some places too. If that's the case for you, it's going to hurt even more.

hehehe....


Ric_Olie: Check your Private Messages. I may be able to help you.

Firstly, to those that tell me not to speed, I know I shouldn't have been speeding. Like I said, I was going the speed limit before the work zone, and forgot about the change. Yes, it is my fault for forgetting and for not paying attention to the speed limit signs, but it happens.

As for a appearing in court, I don't have a set court date. I can plead guilty and mail my ticket in with the money ($208 + $35 for work zone), or I can plead not guilty, send in the ticket, and they will assign me a court date. Hopefully the attorney I contacted will give me good advice on the best way to proceed.

Mmmmmmmm, Paaaancakes..

...PM me while you're at it. O_o

Anyway, Ric, if it's your first offense (or even your second or third) they'll almost certainly reduce it, or possibly even dismiss it. On the ticket is there a section asking for mitigation? Or is it just guilty or not guilty? You might ask for mitigation which would mean that there were extrenuating circumstances invloved. Where I live, if you do that they just reduce your fine and then set a court date that you only go to if you don't accept the reduction.

You admit to speeding, yet you won't pay the damn fine. This baffles me. There is literally no point to fighting it unless you want to be the stereotypical idiot American who places blame on everyone else for everything. There's no need to fight this, because you slipped up. Take the responsibility.

You were 20 miles over the limit. 20mph = 32.2 kilometres per hour. In Australia if you're caught doing more than 30km/h over the speed limit, it's an instant loss of drivers licence (i think for about 6 months).

Good thing you weren't friving in australia at the time.

dang... remind me to never live in australia.

Damn, Australia has its **** together! Congrats to Australia!

*cougholdmancough*

... :p

Actually, it's over 20 miles an hour you SHOULD get reckless driving and have your license pulled for 6 mo' up to a year. So yeah..

Not only that, but it was an accident in a construction zone. Construction zones are BS unless there's workers there anyways (which, therer weren't). I'm kinda with Ric on this one.

What are you trying to say here? I don't understand. I agree. Are you trying to correct me or something?

It's the law that over 20 mph (over said speed limit) you should get charged with Reckless driving, and lose your license for a period of time (it's also a felony).

Some cops just don't give out the reckless driving bit because...well it's a felony. You can't work at McDonalds with a felony on your record.

here it is. you got caught speeding. sorry dude. you gotta pay. cash and points.
i've had quite a few tickets. the last 3 of which were >135kph (85mph). i had to pay in full and go to a course becuase i had too many points. one of the tickets i got was in ontario, in a truck with new hampshire plates, with my california drivers lisence and they still found out about it and jacked my insurance.
the funniest thing about the course i went to was, i was the only person there who took responsibility for my actions. everyone else there had some excuse or blamed someone else for their speeding.
i've known people who have paid >$1000 to get out of paying a $200 fine and 3 points. f that!

Even if you were speeding, you should still try to get out of it.

its the same here also, but he already stated that it was only an extra 35 because workers weren't present. You are very lucky in this instance because around hear you'd just get slapped with the double fine regardless of the workers being present or not.

As for advice, go to the court and plead not guilty, usually you can knock off about 75-100 of the ticket ( thats the general amount for the county of essex here in MA ) so i imagine you can get about that also. Generally if the cop does not show up you can just say i wasn't going that speed i was only going 60 or whatever and usually the judges are pretty simpathetic

IIRC, in California, once you reach 90 MPH it's a reckless driving charge. My sister got a speeding ticket for doing 88 in a 70 zone along I-15. Her victory red Chevy Colorado was basically a truck plastered with "POINT RADAR GUNS HERE." That said, I duly reminded her that should he have caught here just 2 MPH faster, she would have been charged with reckless driving. I really wanted to say to her "walk into court and plead guilty." But I kept my mouth shut...that time.

I cannot offer anymore advice then what is all ready given.

I was caught doing 105 in a 50 zone. I didn't get charged with reckless driving (which I should have, here reckless driving is where you're at double the speed limit), but I lost 5 points and it cost me $345.

Having only 4 points on my probationary liscense, I lost it for 3 months. Sucks, but hey, I was doing about 120 so I wasn't going to go to court with my ticket. :p

Funny thing, my insurance actually went down the following year.

I was caught doing 27 over. No fine, not on my record, im a free man.

I don't speed. Ever. If I do it's usually because I wasn't paying attention, and even then I'm usually only 5mph over and it's easy to slow down. No fine, not on my record, im a free man.

Well look at you.

I love how all the law abiding citizen's just love to crash down on everyone like you are Jesus here to save us all. Give me a freaking break. I was at the court house a few days ago, and I was happy for every single person who got off their speeding ticket because ther arresting officer didn't show up. Why can't yall just stop hating. If you had not bette advice for Ric Olie other then "Don't speed you satanic, nazi, you are going to hell", the go away.

Holy crap Ubuu, I haven't even posted yet and you're already yelling at me.

In CA it's a felony if you double the speed limit. And it's a double fine in any construction zone.

When it happens by accident and the person admits that they were wrongit's fine in my book. He didn't mean to go over the speed limit, but it happens. What does bother me is when people go around bragging that they break the speed limit all the time and get away with it. And then they try to argue that driving 20 miles over the speed limit is safe. Give me a break!

I never said it was safe, nor right. I hurt no one.

Run a search on speeding tickets and read everything I wrote.

Lazy b<Genki>d. :p

Before putting this topic away, I'd just like to say a few things.

Firstly, thanks for the advice, from Page, Brian's past writings, and even Ubuu, Freelancer, and Evad.

Secondly, I understand I was breaking the law. I understand I should be punished. However, I believe because it was my first offense, and it was more out of absentmindedness than intentional (I know that doesn't hold up in court, but still), I should have the option of learning from my mistake by attending traffic school rather than immediately being fined. I accept responsibility for what I did, but I think I should have the option of traffic school and a reduced fine. Not to mention, because I have full coverage on my vehicle, I can't afford my insurance going up by 10-15%.

I've contacted an attorney service online which seems legitimate, and I will allow them to handle it. I would challenge the ruling and represent myself, but I buckle pretty easily under stress and in the presence of authority (the judge and cop if he were to show up). I'd much rather leave it to an experienced attorney who knows what he's doing. Hopefully, I will be able to attend traffic school, learn a valuable lesson about paying attention, pay a reduced fine, and leave my insurance rate unchanged.

Again, thanks to everyone for their help.

Woah..woah..woah

Whoever told you to pay for an attorney is flat our wrong. You have two choices. If they have you clocked and your officer is present, no one can defend you...they have evidence. You simply state you are guilty and the judge SHOULD give you the right to go to driving school if it is your ifrst offense. Hell, I think it is the law, at least here to allow you to go to driving school on your first offense. I was going almost 25 over and they gave me driving school. DO NOT PAY ANYONE.

My friend got caught doing 182 in a 55 on a street illegal racing bike...

He got off scott free; he said he was being recalled (He works for the NSA) and it was an emergency.

Best story ever..

it depends on how they clocked you.

If they used radar, your chances are good. Police Radar has the following weaknesses:

1. It only works if the target is on flat terrain and is traveling in a straight line. It does not give an accurate reading if the target is going up and down hills or around curves. any reading gained in these two situations should be disputed.

2. It can be detected everytime it is used, which gives you fair warning. Get a radar detector if you don't have one already-- they work and are legal in most states. Radar jammers are different-- the variety that works as advertised (the active jamming variety) are illegal b/c they transmit a false signal and if the cop finds that in your car you are in DEEP S***.

3. Radar needs to be calibrated often to give effective readings.


If the cops use a laser beam to scan cars with, your only defense is to get a laser-absorbing license plate cover, since the cop usually aims the laser at your licnse plate b/c it is usually more reflective than the rest of your car.


However, I do agree with representing yourself in this case. Even if oyu win, you would still have lawyer fees, and since you were actually there when the incident happened, you have all the facts and hopefully remembered all the details.

I always drive 5 over the speed limit, by sheer anger at how ridiculously low the speed limits are around here. At the most, I go 15 over(only when cars around me are also). Some friends and I were going 80 on a 40 and a cop went past us, didn't care cause everyone goes that fast, and he can't pull over everyone. This is a 3 lane road on both sides (and its a long road) so its basically a HIGHWAY, and the speed limit is 40. Makes me angry. 40 is poking along.

Radar detectors are illegal in Britain, but you can get around this (if you so desire, I'm not bothered) by getting a GPS system in your car, and then you can feed into it the location AND type of all the speed cameras in Britain. It even has the locations of cameras that radar detectors don't pick up.

Although for me, I think it's usually pretty obvious where the cameras are, they have to be BRIGHT ORANGE and signposted. The idea (supposedly) being to make you slow down, rather than to catch you out and fine you (debatable, but this is the government's story and they're sticking to it).

Also in Britain, road works tend to be plastered in orange cones and have many speed limit signs reminding you that the speed limit is different to normal. I take it that isn't the case over there? It's a bit hard to miss that there's a lower speed limit when they do that.

lolurkewl