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It Pays to Fight a Ticket

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Saw this article on MSN Money.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourcar/P51288.asp

Excerpts:

The best advice is simply not to speed, at least not brazenly. But if you get nailed, fight it -- because a $50 ticket can cost you thousands once your insurer gets wind of it.

* Don’t admit guilt. “The absolutely fatal question is, ‘Do you know why I stopped you?’” says attorney Mark Sutherland, co-author of the book “Traffic Ticket Defense.” Authorities can use any admission of guilt against you when you contest the ticket.

* Traffic school. Often your best alternative is to take a six- to eight-hour safety course for drivers. Policies vary by state, but often a minor speeding conviction can be wiped from your record and therefore go unseen by your employer or insurance company.

Simply asking for your day in traffic court can save you money. Count the ways:

* Showing up is half the battle. ...“A lot of times the courts will change the ticket for you, to encourage you not to go to court” -- sometimes reducing a moving violation to a lesser charge that your insurance company won’t penalize you for...

* Cop no-shows. ...defense attorneys say that in 20% to 25% of cases the ticket-writing officer won't. If the officer is required to show up (jurisdictions have different rules), no appearance usually means the ticket is thrown out. No-shows by police happen even more in summer, when even they take vacations.

* Errors matter (sometimes). While courts will often excuse minor errors on a ticket -- a misspelled name, a quibble over whether your Jag is ochre or orange -- if the officer cites the wrong statute on the ticket, or grossly misidentifies the highway or your make of car, you may to get your ticket dismissed, says Skrum. It’s often best to keep mum about the gaffe until you go to court, however, and reveal the mistake after the officer has recounted the wrong information.

* An 'A' for effort. If you do get all the way to a magistrate or traffic commissioner, any reasonable objection you have to the ticket is likely to at least reduce the amount of the fine, and perhaps change it to an infraction that won’t hurt your rates.

When Michael Pelletier, a 32-year-old computer systems engineer in the Bay Area, got a ticket a few years ago, he rented the nine-pound (!) legal defense kit from the National Motorists Association. (The rental cost of the packet, which is tailored to the requester’s state, is $50 per month, with a discount for NMA members.)

“The only thing I did was crank the legal crank,” says Pelletier. That meant asking for continuances and requesting records -- proof of when the officer’s radar gun was last calibrated and when the officer was trained in its use -- in hopes of finding a flaw in the authorities’ case, or simply wearing them down until they offered a deal.

A pre-emptive strike
Battling in court can be time-consuming and complicated. Pelletier estimates he invested nearly 50 hours in the year 2000 to fight his ticket, which he received driving his motorcycle 47 miles an hour in a 25 mph zone. He got it dismissed seven months later based on an esoteric legal definition of a “local street or road.”advertisement

..The free piece of advice they [lawyers] give, however, is the same: Confront your speeding ticket, even if it’s your first, and do your darnedest to make it disappear. After all, they add, you never know when you’ll get your next one, with higher premiums close behind.
 
I just went for deferred ajudication for my last speedy encounter. Expensive? Yes. As expensive as increased rates? Who knows. I just figured I could at least behave and ride/drive like an old man for the 90 day probationary period and avoid further messes. Shelling out the cash for the ERC (cost went up since last time) for the last one and going deferred on this one is enough motivation to behave. :oops:
 
Getting DA

Getting deffered (sp) is a good thing for all involved. The court gets what they want, money, and you get what you want, no record. In the past I always just paid up or took DD. Then I got to thinking about the cost of DD when you add your time into the cost. I have much better things to do on a Saturday.

Sooooooo, my last ticket I asked for and got DA for 90 days and paid the court $173, 81 in a 55. The nice thing about the DA was I really thought about my driving for those 90 days and really played it safe. In the past after taking DD I had no remorse or fear of judicial reprimand, but with DA..........

Long story short, I agree with fighting any ticket.
 
Some good advice, some is just filler for this guy's book. And remember, he's probably from California and that place is a whole different world.

My advice:

Be courteous (notice I said nothing about respect. Respect is earned. Good manners should have been taught by your Ma&Pa)

On the point of showing up.........Don't show up and you'll get FTA'd (warrant for Failure To Appear). This includes sending a rep, like your lawyer. Lawyer appearance doesn't qualify as you being there.

Don't worry about the "don't admit guilt" part. Any 1st year lawyer or halfway educated person can get res gestae statements excluded, that is unless your contact is recorded. However they VERY RARELY play a part in traffic court. The State would rather focus on the officer's observations.

Errors.......Good faith errors aren't cause for dismissal unless it is in the charging complaint and charges the wrong offense and only then if the court has called the case and it is underway. Even then the judge can allow the State to dismiss and re-file. And if the ticket is COMPLETELY wrong it doesn't matter. The ticket is only your notice to appear.

Last piece of advice..........When you're in front of the judge be polite to the extreme. Yes maam/sir, etc. Common sense, this person will rule on your case at the finish. You may need all the help you can get.



Interesting you would get deferred for 81/55 Chris D. Our court doesn't allow any deferred, DDC or anything but a max fine for 25 or over. I could have sworn that was law.
 
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