BoostWanted

What do you guys suggest for me to do in my situation?

I was heading to Santa Cruz, about 2.5 hours from here, and as my way I was driving up there I saw a CHP on a bike. I noticed him and like always checked my mirror to see if he would follow me. He didn't for awhile and then I looked in my mirror and saw him there with no lights or sirens or anything. I thought he might just want to pass me to move to another place to radar people and so I pulled over, then he pulled over behind me and put on his lights so I pulled over, turned the car off and rolled the right window down. He asked if I knew why he pulled me over, and I said No, sir. He said because I was speeding. then asks for my license and registration. I give it to him and then he says he will be right back. So he goes away and does his thing then comes back and says he needs me to sign the ticket, so I grab the clipboard and before I sign it and ask what's the speed limit in that area because I honestly wasn't clear and was just following the flow of traffic. But I didn't tell him the last part. Just what the speed limit is. He said 50mph and I said how fast was I going? He said 67mph. I just said okay thank you sir and signed it and gave the stuff back. He gave me my license and registration back and said have a nice day, and I said you too sir.

What do guys think I should do? I was going to fight it in court and just say that I was following the flow of traffic because I hadn't seen a speed limit sign. On the drive back, I looked all around the area before where he was when I guess he shot me with the radar and there wasn't a speed limit sign for awhile except for the turn speed limits and like speed limits for towing and that but not a regular speed limit sign for actually quite awhile.

Or would it just be better to go to court and try to get traffic school and a reduction of the fine? Considering i'm a full time student and only work part time.

MikeisNissan

dont speed....

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xoxide

Your not getting out of that. Shouldve just been paying more attention. Atleast you werent a dick to him... maybe you can get a reduction on the ticket especially since your not from that area if I understood correct?

In before all the "fuck the police" hipsters come.

Phlip

Pay

a

lawyer.

it's what I would do.

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Matej

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yvang07

QFT

OP is this your first offense? Maybe you could pay an additional fee and stay clean for a year then the ticket becomes non-existent? That's what I did on my first offense.

If anything, just go fight it and give an honest story, most of the time from my experience and stories from friends they've gotten it lowered.

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SlammedS13Tx

juat pay it off, going to court and all that shit sucks balls man waste of time!

word sux

If you can afford a lawyer its always a good idea to have one


plead not guilty, go to arraignment, plea bargain it to something with no points, and pay the fine and go home.

if the plea bargains is not favorable then ask for an adjournment so that you may get a lawyer

BarrigaS14

It's always free to fight it in court. If you see a judge at least it is up to someone to decide if you owe the whole thing or if something else can be worked out or charges dropped all together. On something this small though, a lawyer is a waste of money.

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BoostWanted

Yeah, it's my first offense. I was thinking of doing a written trial by declaration. From what I see, it's going to court without actually being there. The courthouse is like 2.5 hours from my house. At this point, I feel like it will be hard to have it dropped unless the cop doesn't show up, but I do want a fine reduction and traffic school at the minimum. Since it is my first fine and I'm new to that area, I expect some leverage. Thoughts?

Corbic

Yes, take the legal extortion option.

Around here a regular ticket is $115, if you have no record you can pay $187 and they won't put it on your record if you don't get stopped again for 2 years.

You can also roll the dice and go to court. Get a date, call up, request a date change ASAP and make sure its a different time then when you got stopped. Typically if the office doesn't show up they dismiss it.

So if your stopped on a Friday at 8am, and they give you a 10am Tuesday date, try and get a 6pm Monday date.

The dream is he works 6-3 and is not going to waste his time to go in for an hour to do a stupid traffic court ticket.

If he does show, you'll be paying an extra $50-100 court fee and you will be going to drivers school.

fliprayzin240sx

Pay the ticket and go to traffic school. I dont think its worth driving 2.5 hrs to Santa Ana to plead not guilty, then come back a couple weeks later to fight it in court. Only way you really get out of ticket on your own is if the cop doesnt show up.

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Corbic

It's called insurance. 2pts could mean $50 a month for the next 5 years of your life.

You also don't know what can happen in the future, you could get another ticket (rolling stop ect), you could get in an accident. It would suck royal to be canceled because you got a ticket and 3 days latter an accident ect.

fliprayzin240sx

Thats why you go to traffic school, so you dont get points on your record. The only kicker is, you're only allowed to go to school once every 12 months. Dont speed, dont roll thru stops, cover your ass. If you decide to get another ticket, atleast keep it local so its too much of a pain in the ass to go to court. That or get a ticket out of state. CA will let you take traffic school again within the 12 months of going to school if the other one is out of state.

Shit, you can take traffic school online nowadays and some of them will let you click thru it and be done in 30 mins.

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Corbic

Must be a state to state thing.

Brian

You broke the law and got busted for it.

man up and pay the fine. Do traffic School. Go on with your life and drive better.

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ZenkiKid

There is no flow of traffic rule. If you go past 65 (which is the common posted freeway speed) you are speeding.


<---- Worked for a California County Court for 3 years.


Oh yeah and if you try to fight this even though youre in the wrong youre a part of the reason why the state of CA is so broke. Using up the States court funding on useless court meetings with the judge where to be honest youre probably going to lose anyway. Id just bite the bullet and pay and dont speed again.

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nassin31spr

Go to a shop that does speedo calibrations, pay the guy $20 to rate your speedometer off 10mph. Then hire a laywer for $200 and have him plead a case of improper equipment. You get it and all charges will be dropped. No points no court costs. It's a long shot but worth the work to keep a clean record. Just talk to a lawyer to see if your county allows that plea first as a lot of areas have caught on to this. I've done it multiple times.

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TheWolf

quoted for soundest advice in this thread.

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theicecreamdan

I think its 18 months, but you can go to a more "advanced" traffic school if you get another ticket in that time period.

This might be different today though.

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RU4REAL

Ok, check this out. I was told this by a friend who is a bailiff for the Orange County sheriffs dept.....he said "Whenever you get a a ticket, show up to court". Period! The ticketing officer only shows up 75% of the time. So far, I've showed for 4 tickets, all 4 for various speeds, and the officers never showed! Each of those times I've walked away w/o a blemish on my record. One of those times was at the OC court Laguna Hills where he was working that day, lol. After the ruling from the judge, the bailiff walks up to me with my paperwork and winks saying "I told you so". I'm 4 for 4. I'm sorry that I can't tell you what to say if the officer is there, but I don't think it could be any worse then the bail that you pay when you request a court date.

Wait until the date on the bottom of the ticket to pay your bail and request a court date. Give it a try!