Speeding tickets and court
Reading other threads got me wondering.
Everyone always says if ticketed unfairly, take it to court.
From my limited experience the judge will side with the cop 99% of the time, no matter how wrong he is.
With the exception of the cop failing to appear, Has anyone ever actually beat a ticket in court ?
Everyone always says if ticketed unfairly, take it to court.
From my limited experience the judge will side with the cop 99% of the time, no matter how wrong he is.
With the exception of the cop failing to appear, Has anyone ever actually beat a ticket in court ?
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quote:Originally posted by Cyclonus
and for your information there wasnt any safe place to pull over.
Well I just figured since you went through 2 stop signs maybe you could have turned off on 1 of those 2 streets, nevermind....0 -
thats one thing about being in a small town i like. I know the night shift dispatcher. i got pulled over (91mph in a 55)and she told the officer she liked me and if he gave me a tix. she was going to make his life h*ll. the officer came back and told me what she had said. and that it pays to have friend in the right places. the next day i sent Stacy some flowers! 0 -
91 in a 55, you deserved the ticket. The dispatcher should be fired 0 -
I worked hard for every ticket I got. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Dave W.
Recently I was zapped on an interstate in Ft. Worth. I decided to appeal the decision, I went to court, to go through the start of the process. I was told I will be contacted by mail IN 8 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS with my prospective court date.
I was flat out told, not to expect to hear anything before the spring or summer.
Not all court systems are like this -- but the great thing about this, is if you write down your memories of the ticket now and date them (maybe even have a notary) you will be able to use this in court to get the cop. Most cops can't even remember tickets they gave a week ago, so you'll be great two years later.0 -
I've gone to court twice & both times the offices didn't show up.
In each case they collected all the tickets first & all the ones where the officer wasn't there were let go before they started on the rest. There were more that were let go than had to stay.
In Kalifornia you can go to traffic school, pay the fine & have it erased from your record I believe once every 18 months. With the insurance costs that is the best way to go & then if you get another ticket in that time frame you might as well take the chance the officer won't show. It helped that I worked for the Post Office so I could go on my day off & didn't have to lose work.0 -
I've told this on here before, so if you have already seen it, sorry. Here it is again:
My introduction to the legal system was in August and September of 1964. I was leaving the Ice Capades in Greensboro, North Carolina with my girlfriend, now my wife. There was a young policeman directing traffic. His first day on the job. I followed his instructions and hit a 1964 Ford head on with my 1956 Chevrolet. Totaled both, but nobody was hurt. The young cop said he didn't know what to do, so he called his sergeant to the scene. The sergeant asked the traffic cop what happened. I was a little surprised, but the traffic cop told him exactly what happened, the way it happened. The sergeant asked me where I lived. I told him Davisville, Rhode Island. He asked me where I worked. I told him I was in the Navy. He told the traffic cop "write him up for failure to yield."
He wrote me a ticket, took the wife and me to the local jail, the departed for elsewhere. The wife and I had to hang around in the front part of the building while one of the cops huddled up with a bunch of people and the local magistrate in the back. The cop came out and told me my bail was a thousand dollars. I said "Lock me up, I ain't gonna pay it." He said he knew I didn't have that much money, but they had a bondsman who would put up the cash and I would just have to pay him a hundred dollars. I said "I ain't paying you or a bondsman or anybody else, lock me up." He said wait a minute, and he went back into the back.
When he came back out he said my bail was five hundred dollars, that would just cost me fifty. I said "I told you I ain't paying you or a bondsman or anybody else, lock me up." He said wait a minute, and he went back into the back.
When he came back out he said my bail was a hundred dollars and he added "You better take it. I don't think he will go any lower."
My wife (then my girlfriend) said "I have fifty-one dollars, how much do you have?" I looked in my left pocket, and as luck would have it I had forty-nine dollars, so I swallowed my pride and bailed out for a hundred dollars.
My court date was in September and I had to be in Antarctica on 1 October. After we did the "all rise" and worshiped the judge for a few minutes, the bailiff told us everybody there that day was guilty. Anybody who was not guilty would have to see the clerk to get rescheduled for November or December.
I couldn't come back in November or December, so I had to plead guilty. The judge asked me to tell him my version of what happened. I told him. Then he asked the traffic cop who wrote the ticket what happened and he told him almost word for word what I had told him.
The Judge looked at me and said "Are you sure you want to plead guilty to this, son?" I told him I had to because I had to be in Antarctica on 1 October and couldn't be in court in November or December. The judge hit his desk with his little hammer and said "Dollar and cost".
The "cost" was thirty-six dollars. My insurance was cancelled and I was on assigned risk for three years.
I was not guilty. The judge knew I was not guilty. The cop who wrote the ticket told the judge I was not guilty. The judge simply couldn't make an exception to his rule that everyone who had their hearing on that day was guilty.
Legal? Yes. Justice? No.0 -
quote:-Oh yes! I have! Several times when I was a kid back in El Paso, Texas streetracing. I knew this lawyer that I would go see. His usual greeting was "Hey! Have you been out there sinning again?" He would have his secretary figure out how much the fine would be, I would pay him double that and the secretary would go down to the police station and pull their originals out of the file. End of true, no s#!+ story.
You do realize all you did was pay your attorney to go down and pay the fine for you!!!![B)]0 -
quote:Originally posted by redneckandy
Last week got an 87 in a 70 zone by a plane (got me as I was slowing down[;)]). Cop in the plane radioed a trooper who gave me a ticket.
That one is worth fighting. To get nailed, BOTH cops have to show up in court.
The last ticket I got was more than 15 years ago, but it was in a real speed trap where the speed limit goes down from 45 to 25. Guess where the radar cop was sitting? There was a radar operator and at least four ticket-writers pulling over cars. I contested it. The writing officer was there, but the radar operator wasn't, so the judge threw it out.0 -
I received a no seat belt ticket in 2001 in Austin, Texas. Of course, being the ass that I am, I requested the opinion of a jury of my peers.
I am still waiting for my jury setting...
[:D][}:)][8D][:X]0 -
quote:Originally posted by spurgemastur
I've never been ticketed except that I knew I had it coming. So I never contested it.
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I have a "Hoosier Veteran" license plate and a USMC sticker on the back of my car. I have not been pulled over since applying them. If I am pulled over, I'll try saying something about "hard targeting" or avoiding IEDs. 0 -
Have gotten 3 speeding tickets. Deserved 2 of them, went to court of the 3rd, no lawyer, 45 in a 25 zone (Reckless Driving). Took with me 3 color 35mm photos of the speed limit sign, which was behind a pine tree. Code requires a minimum 100 ft clear sight distance. Dismissed.[:I] 0 -
I have never gotten a ticket. I was pulled over once for doing 33 in a 25 zone and let off with a warning.
Since getting the Mustang, I do speed a fair amount during the day on the interstate. Not excessive, 80 in a 65 zone. Enough to get a decent fine if caught though. I once pushed 110 just for the hell of it when I could see 2 miles ahead and see no one was there. But in a state as flat as northern Ohio is, on roads I know like the back of my hand and know just where the cops sit and wait, if I get nailed I deserve it.0 -
To answer your question....HELL NO.
Thirty years ago the judge found me guilty and had me pay a fine for the word of a cop that was not even at the scene. He took the word of a pimple faced "safety officer" that was so full of s&)t his eyes were brown. The cop signing the ticket was fraudulent. But, traffic laws are seldom about safety, it is about generating millions in unaccountable money. I have driven well over a million ticket and accident free miles since that time.0
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