First speeding ticket, how should I deal with it?

MindLib

Got caught in a speed trap outside of Albany, NY going 52 in a 30 marked down to 50. A 4 point infraction. My record is otherwise clean. I hear all the time about how people can get their speeding tickets reduced or thrown out. I'm a little nervous about just asking for it, though. Advice?

Powerpuppies

I'm in CO, so it may be different here, but here you go to court and you meet with a district attorney and they say "I will offer you this to settle things now or else you go see the judge." Show up, dress nice, be polite, take the deal. Out in 90 minutes.

Invisible

Do a google search for your city's traffic court. It should list your options such as traffic school or other deferment options.

honkymcgoo

I'm in FL so I'm sure the rules are different, but here if it's your first offense you just do traffic school and pay a reduced ticket. You get no points on your license and just move one. If you have an option like that I'd suggest taking it. Fighting a ticket is a big hassle and there's always the chance you won't win.

ceres

What Invisible said, but also in my opinion (which is of course just my opinion) you were doing 50 in a 30 and that's kinda shitty, so you should probably just pay it and then not do that anymore, or if they let you, go to traffic school for the reduced ticket and then not do that anymore. It doesn't sound like you have much in the way of extenuating circumstances for why you should be let off of this one.

DevoutlyApathetic

Powerpuppies wrote: »

Powerpuppies wrote: »

I'm in CO, so it may be different here, but here you go to court and you meet with a district attorney and they say "I will offer you this to settle things now or else you go see the judge." Show up, dress nice, be polite, take the deal. Out in 90 minutes.

In NY this is not your court date on the ticket. From what I understand the pro forma here is write a letter to the DA, typically drafted by a lawyer. When I showed up for my traffic ticket in court their really weren't any options, something about them being citations rather than actual criminal charges.

For a first offense I'd just suck it up and pay the damn thing. You're probably looking at somewhere between 100 and 200 dollars with court fees.

zerzhul

DevoutlyApathetic wrote: »

Powerpuppies wrote: »

Powerpuppies wrote: »

I'm in CO, so it may be different here, but here you go to court and you meet with a district attorney and they say "I will offer you this to settle things now or else you go see the judge." Show up, dress nice, be polite, take the deal. Out in 90 minutes.

In NY this is not your court date on the ticket. From what I understand the pro forma here is write a letter to the DA, typically drafted by a lawyer. When I showed up for my traffic ticket in court their really weren't any options, something about them being citations rather than actual criminal charges.

For a first offense I'd just suck it up and pay the damn thing. You're probably looking at somewhere between 100 and 200 dollars with court fees.

Yeah if I'm remembering correctly, in NY you have to plead not guilty by mail first. The letter thing makes sense to my brain. Then they will give you a court date (I think). Unless it literally says on the ticket "THIS IS YOUR COURT DATE," which it might. If you plead guilty, they will then send you the amount of the fine by mail and a date by which to remit payment. My one NYS ticket was a couple years ago. I was doing 83 in a 65, the officer wrote it up for 74 in a 65, so I just told the officer thank you, and plead guilty by mail.

bowen

ceres wrote: »

What Invisible said, but also in my opinion (which is of course just my opinion) you were doing 50 in a 30 and that's kinda shitty, so you should probably just pay it and then not do that anymore, or if they let you, go to traffic school for the reduced ticket and then not do that anymore. It doesn't sound like you have much in the way of extenuating circumstances for why you should be let off of this one.

Yeah. To be fair, those speed traps in Albany are fucking terrible.

ceres

Also worth noting: I hear tell that sometimes traffic school is more expensive than just showing up and paying the ticket. You really do that when it's not the money that bothers you, but the points.

Rend

In CA, iirc, and this might be different in your state, you can go to traffic school once per X time to get rid of the points the ticket gives you, which is expensive. However, you still have to pay the fine.

Don't speed, and suck up this ticket. It sucks, yeah, but so does being dangerous in a car, so take this as an object lesson and get yourself down to the speed limit.

Also I would highly recommend a comedy traffic school. The thing is 8 hours long and if they are boring, they will drag like hell.

grouch993

But the points plus the increase in car insurance might be more than a day in traffic school plus the cost of the class.

Madpoet

If you can't get traffic court, see if you can get an abeyance. Basically you go double or nothing on the ticket - you pay the face value of the ticket as a "court cost" (ie, the fuzz gets their due) and they forget about the ticket for a while. If you're a clean driver for that time, the ticket vanishes. If not, you have to pay it again. I did this on my first speeding ticket and it never showed up on my record, and driving around with a $200 ticket over my head made me a pretty safe driver.
I set this up with a call to the court clerk - probably the first step to see what your options even are.

Kharnastus

Pay the man their blood money and get on with your life,
Oh and don't speed no more. They will find you. Peskiferous fuzz.

DevoutlyApathetic

grouch993 wrote: »

grouch993 wrote: »

But the points plus the increase in car insurance might be more than a day in traffic school plus the cost of the class.

I could have sworn when I looked into this you need to have more than a single ticket within a certain time frame. I had a ticket from running (newly installed) stop sign from like 4 years ago and a speeding ticket from like 9 years before when I switched insurance companies and they were, by law, now allowed to count the older one and the other one by itself wasn't enough to matter. All in NYS.

NY IIRC doesn't do "traffic school" so much as defensive driver courses. The courses remove a couple points from your license and mandate some small reduction in auto insurance rates. It's one of those thing I always meant to do but have never gotten around to. A quick google found this which if it is legit I should totally do at some point. Removing the hassle of having to go somewhere? Brilliant!

kuhlmeye

http://www.nydefensivedrivingcourse.org/

Doesn't look like it eliminates the ticket fee like some states, but you can get rid of the points, and a reduction on insurance costs.

override367

I just got one a bit ago and it was my first one as well, but the prosecutor just cut me a deal for half the points off and 2/3 the price (i could have gotten 2/3 off the price and the full points as well but I elected for higher fee/less points. He wants me to e-mail him with the offer and he'll accept it and then I just gotta mail off a check

In most municipalities you can negotiate a ticket down and avoid a trial entirely (if you can't figure out who to talk to about this, try the court house or at worst show up quite early for traffic court), if you are going to court and you call for a continuance, it's entirely possible the cop won't be there and it'll be thrown out - keep in mind if you challenge it and lose though any bargaining power you had is gone.