I found out something today that blew my mind. People still exist in this country that don’t know the proper way to handle getting a speeding ticket!!! I’ll explain it to you poor souls right now.
Once you fail at talking your way out of that speeding ticket, your mind goes crazy thinking about how you have to pay this fat fine and how your car insurance will go up because you got a couple more points on your license. Most people figure they’re obviously guilty and the best thing to do is to pay the ticket through the mail and not embarrass themselves by going to court and trying to convince a judge they weren’t speeding even though EVERYBODY SPEEDS!!!
But that’s often the worst thing for you to do!
If you don’t have a buttload of points on your license and you haven’t received a ticket in the past 6 months or so, GO TO COURT!!! Even if you did, you have at least a 1% chance of getting less of a fine and fewer points for the violation.
One million times out of one million, the officer talks to everyone who he/she gave tickets to and asks them about their last ticket. If you’re a decent driver, the officer will give you the opportunity to pay the fine and receive fewer points or no points at all for the violation. And this is simply for SHOWING UP! You don’t have to do ANYTHING else. Well, dress nicely and treat the officer with respect when you two talk.
If the officer doesn’t show up to court that day, you’re completely cleared of all charges. The officer will most likely show up though. I’ve heard that if you ask for as many continuances as you can, the odds are greater that the officer won’t show up.
Also, if there’s anything wrong on your ticket, you can get out of it that way. If it was raining and the officer put sunny, the color of your car is different from what’s on the ticket, if the officer wrote the wrong location… anything simple like that can get you out of the ticket.
You can also talk to the magistrate and try to convince them that the officer is a liar and you weren’t actually speeding. That has never worked for me but I wish you success with it.
The most important thing that you should get from this post is that you should NEVER mail in your payment for the speeding ticket. Just by showing up to court, you have a GREAT chance at getting something less to deal with.
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True THAT! It’s definitely better to at least TRY to defend yourself. A few years back I got a speeding ticket while I was leaving the airport, so naturally I decided to fight it. When I showed up to the court, the DA told me that he was turning all of the speeding tickets that day into double-parking tickets. The fine was about $40 more than the speeding ticket, but I’d get no points!
Turns out that the double-parking ticket proceeds go entirely to the city, as opposed to speeding tickets which have to be split with the state. It was a win-win situation for all!
It’s such a dirty system. All they care about is MONEY. They don’t even think about what you might have to do that day instead of sitting around a court room in a monkey suit.
And there’s nothing we can do about it.
One night I was leaving Sparty’s (now called the Whiskey barrel) in E.L. and I had to poop something ridiculous. So I came up with the genius idea to go over to Brody and take over a bathroom. So I preceded to go 55 in a 35 down K-zoo and of course a cop was there. When he pulled me over (I made it to the Brody parking lot at least) I motioned for him to hurry and come to the window. He came to the window and I told him that I had to go BAD. He called for back up and said I had to wait. When back up arrived he escorted me to the bathroom where something ungodly happen. When I got back guess what…a ticket was waiting for me. I fought it and the judge said that having to go to the bathroom is no excuse. Looking back maybe I should have just took a dump on myself and maybe he would have taken pity on me and not give me a ticket.
Oh my god Freddie!!! That was an AMAZING story.
That’s one of those stories that you always hear happened to a friend of a friend’s cousin’s sister. Now everyone who reads this can say they know someone who had it happen to them!
Thanks for the comment.