<p>He is paying all charges and insurance premium increases. He told me he would pay all the costs when he told me about the ticket. The only problem about him physically going to court is that it is 290 miles from school. This is a long drive in nice weather, an impossible drive in the winter.</p>
<p>I have a friend whose kid got a ticket going to defend a ticket so there you go.</p>
<p>My younger D got a ticket speeding on a country road. She is a very careful and slow driver. She was out in the middle of nowhere, and I think she just was not paying attention. She was nearly hysterical over getting the ticket. She was going 52 in a 40 zone. And I was surprized the cop gave her the ticket and not a warning, seeing that she was polite, in tears, and upset. </p>
<p>But at 16 with a license only 6 mos, the effect on our insurance would have been dramatic. So H hired an attorney, and the attorney was the only one required to appear. If he did so on her behalf she not not have to attend. The offense was “adjusted” to one that did not affect our rates and did not give her points. She was young and impressionable enough that just getting the ticket has slowed her down even more. She knows that another will be a repeat offense etc, and for us the decision to intervene and hire an attorney was worth it. It was not expensive, and less than what the insurance hike would have been. </p>
<p>If son hires an attorney that does alot of traffic cases, it will not be expensive, son does not also have to appear, and it can help with the insurance issues. But let S do all the work, and follow through. And he can foot the bill. If nothing else, it helps him from missing school and driving 300 miles to appear.</p>
<p>At what point in time did people start hiring lawyers to fight normal speeding tickets? I’d never heard of such a thing until I read it on CC and this includes never noticing a lawyer present any of the times I’ve been to traffic court but it’s luckily been around 20 years since I’ve been to one! Is it a non-California thing?</p>
<p>It is a racket as far as I’m concerned and the judges shouldn’t be a part of it. It simply pads the lawyers pockets. It doesn’t surprise me that Virginia does it - they require a lawyer’s involvement in a residential real estate sale - another racket. There is no reason for a lawyer to be required to buy a home.</p>
<p>From a judge’s perspective it seems to me that it’d be far more of an effective deterrent to have the offender face the judge rather than the offender buying a proxy in a lawyer. I don’t see why they’d routinely give breaks to lawyer-represented speeders that they wouldn’t give directly to the speeder (assuming this happens). Maybe it’s all about the money for the lawyer industry.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I can’t imagine getting caught for speeding in SoCal. Heck, most of the time, you’d be lucky to even be going the speed limit. But if I’m visiting my Mom in Central CA, you better believe I go the speed limit, they have nothing better to do.</p>
<p>I agree with trying to plead it down. For a first offense, I’m sure you can get reduced points.</p>
<p>Talk to a lawyer. Get it taken care of but make your son pay it. That way, he learns his lesson about getting a ticket (it’s humiliating, in my opinion), he has to deal with the lawyer, and he has to pay for the increased fine. Same lesson, no damage to your insurance policy. It doesn’t have to be “mommy made it go away” but it just seems pointless to plead guilty and deal with court etc in addition to everything else. He can learn a lesson without pleading guilty…in my opinion, of course.</p>
<p>When I crashed my car sophomore year, my parents “made” me get a job (I had sort of wanted to for awhile) to pay for the increased premiums. Not only did I end up landing a job that I kept throughout high school, I learned some really awesome life lessons and met some of my best friends while there. There’s a silver lining to everything…he just needs to find it! All the best, and good luck.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine hiring a lawyer for a speeding ticket either, and I’m married to one! In my opinion, it’s an excellent idea to determine what his options are and then make the decision as to which one he’ll choose. I do think that it is very dangerous for ANY 19 year old to be driving 82 MPH, regardless of what type of road they’re on and amount of traffic is present. This needs to be communicated to him very clearly, with no indication that it’s a safer practice than driving at 70 MPH and weaving through traffic. He’s fortunate that a deer didn’t run out in front of him, a common occurence in WNY, while he was driving at that speed.</p>
<p>Young drivers are approximately 3.5 times more likely to be in a fatal accident than the next closest demographic, almost always caused by excessive speed. Our provincial government has just introduced legislation to strengthen our graduated licensing process for young drivers that will include penalties for speeding offenses. The first offense will be an automatic 30 day suspension of the license, the second would result in a 90 day suspension, and the third would require that the licensing process start over entirely for the driver to qualify for the license. It also has provisions for number of passengers they may carry, age and relationship of those passengers, etc.</p>
<p>I’m glad that your son wasn’t involved in an accident but the combination of that kind of speed with inexperience is a dangerous one. I hope he’s truly learned his lesson, but I wouldn’t count on it. Sadly, that isn’t how it usually works.</p>
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<p>That’s exactly what happened to our son. Although he was driving at a much lower speed (but still speeding), he wrapped his car around a telephone phone and was critically injured. He’s very, very fortunate that he was able to make a full recovery and that no one else was injured.</p>
<p>Fatal accidents involving teenagers driving at excessive speeds are common around here. If our kids are caught speeding, they know they’ll have to bear the full consequences: they’ll be the ones facing the judge; they’ll have to pay for the ticket and increased insurance premiums; and they’ll face a loss of driver privileges from Mom and Dad (it’s still our car, after all.)</p>
<p>My husband and I want to make the experience as unpleasant as possible for our kids, because, hopefully, it will deter them from being repeat offenders. And as parents who have gotten the dreaded midnight phone call that our child has been airlifted to a nearby city after being in an accident, we can personally attest to the fact that no unpleasantness they could face over a speeding ticket could ever approach the heart-stopping, mind-numbing despair of a midnight call from the state police.</p>