<p>This is why I decided after a speeding ticket 20 years ago that I was done, just done with speeding. I never went all that fast, but you have to be ultra vigilant all the time, or face those flashing lights and all the attendant hassles. You don’t get anywhere all that much faster, so to me, it’s just not worth it. I had to take a defensive driving class to keep the ticket off my record, and it was 8 hours of total and complete boredom. I vowed that it was the last one. I hope that is true; I occasionally find myself going just a tad over the limit if I let myself daydream, but as long as I’m mentally engaged, I can keep it pretty close to the limit. </p>
<p>It takes practice to slow down, but as with all habits, it can be done.</p>
<p>If you know the ticket is accurate and you know you did commit the traffic offense, how about admitting guilt and paying the fine?
Nobody likes to pay bills or fines, but you’ll feel good knowing you had the personal responsibility of accepting consequences of your actions… It’s not always easy, but sometimes taking the “high road” feels good.</p>
<p>As it applies in this case, yes, my definition of high road is to pay the fine if a person knows they committed the offense. In this case I’d find it hard to see that escaping a ticket due to a misspelling, or escaping it due to purposefully re-scheduling a court date in an attempt to inconvenience an officer as the high road. They might be effective, and they might be legal methods of escaping consequences, but I could not consider them the high road(assuming a person knows he is guilty).</p>
<p>Yes, that is a continual song for me Mowc. Thank you for noticing. But who would argue it is best to sometimes take the low road? Or to always take the low road? Personally, I strive to live my life with integrity, willing to accept praise for what I do right, willing to accept consequences for what I do wrong. Not to say by any means that I always do right; but that I try to do so, a clear distinction. And if I don’t, I am willing to accept the consequences. I paid a traffic ticket a couple yrs ago, I was guilty and admitted it.
I have been in court as the plaintiff in small claims, and have admitted facts that I might have kept secret in order to bolster the amount of money I was seeking. Yes, those admissions cost me some % of money, but in such a case I want all I’m entitled to- no more, no less.
That way of doing business has shocked my atty; it is his feeling of “not asked?, don’t tell” in court. My feeling is tell the whole truth and get whatever results I get. Sometimes I’m disappointed with the result$, but I get consolation knowing I handled it honorably rather than withholding facts to fool a judge. This is a course that works for me.</p>
If we lived in an ideal world where speed limits/traffic laws are set according to what is safe and reasonable, and the cops are all scrupulously honest, I might agree with this sentiment. However, in far too many places these days, tickets are used as a means to raise revenue (you will often find a line item in the budget! Can you say “quota”?), not to enforce traffic laws or enhance public safety. I pay enough in taxes as it as, and I cannot respect a system that sees me as another cash cow to be milked. So as far as I am concerned, any way to beat the system is fair game.</p>
<p>Example #1: There is a road near where I live, that, for a certain stretch, has a 30 mph speed limit in one direction, and a 40 mph speed limit in the other. It makes no sense - the road is the same in both directions. Guess which side the cops hang out on?</p>
<p>Example #2: Numerous towns have put in red light cameras to catch and ticket people running red lights. It typically gets paid for by paying the company that installed the camera a certain percentage of each ticket; this way it costs the town nothing up front. So what is the first thing the installing company does? They shorten the yellow light time, which causes people who may have been in the intersection when the light turned yellow to now be running a red before they can clear the intersection. More tickets = more revenue for the company, and you won’t hear the town complaining either. (It also causes more accidents, because as people adjust their behavior, they start slamming on their brakes the instant the light turns yellow, leading to more rear-end collisions.)</p>
<p>Can you respect any process that manipulates the law to make me a scofflaw to raise revenue? I can’t. So if you can beat a ticket by hook or by crook, more power to you.</p>
<p>And for me anyway, the biggest cost by far is in increased car insurance. If it was just “pay the ticket and by done with it” most people would just pay, particularly if it is only $100 or so, because it just isn’t worth the time. If one ticket is going to cost me $1000+ in insurance charges, you bet I’m going to try to beat it.</p>
<p>Well, on my last ticket, I had the option of taking a defensive driving class vs. just pleading guilty and paying the fine. I never thought of that as not taking the high road. Trust me, that class turned out to be worse punishment than paying a fine.</p>
<p>With respect to those who think you don’t need a lawyer for a traffic ticket, including the lawyers who have expressed that view, I must disagree. And given that you can find a lawyer to handle a traffic matter for very little money (really, you can because there’s no legal heavy lifting involved) you may benefit in a number of ways, both today and in the future.</p>
<p>Here’s a good example. In New York, there is a “drive responsibility assessment” that requires drives with a certain number of “points” to pay an annual fee for three years. This is over and above fines. Other states also have this fee. So by saving you a single point, you may avoid three years of fees. </p>
<p>And it is on the first ticket where a lawyer can often save you the most points. This is the irony of some of the responses I often hear when people discuss tickets. People think you don’t need a lawyer on the first one because there are no significant consequences for your first time. While literally true, how you handle your first ticket may affect how future tickets are adjudicated and how your insurance rates are calculated. For these reasons, I suggest not being penny-wise and pound-foolish.</p>
<p>I hear what you are saying, but in some jurisdictions you simply don’t need counsel for this type of ticket. Even if you called a lawyer, you might be told that you should just go on your own. That’s been the case several times in my family’s past. It just really depends on the county/court. In some places you would just pi$$ the court off if you went if lawyered up for your 9 miles over ticket.</p>
<p>That is exactly what the OP has been advised to do, by me and MOWC, and I’ll bet that is what she does. By admitting guilt in Maryland, however, she will likely not be found guilty but will receive probation before judgment. There will still likely be a fine and some court costs.If she is ticketed again within the probation period - 3 years I believe - she can be found guilty of this offense. The law provides exactly what you desire hoss, but builds in a “second chance” for good drivers.</p>
<p>As someone who gets tickets fairly often, in NYS at least, having your name misspelled would void the ticket. I once was pulled over by a very nasty state trooper and, I won’t go into details, but he was way out of line. He gave me the ticket and I realized I couldn’t read it. It was from a hand held computer printer where the paper was like old time Xerox paper, making the print very smudgy. I honestly couldn’t tell a “5” from a “6” - so was I going 66 in a 55 or 55 in a 66 or what? </p>
<p>I said this to the judge in court and he said if I couldn’t read the charge the trooper had to deliver a new ticket to me. I live about 45 minutes from where this court is so I knew he would never drive all the way out to me to give me a new ticket. He asked the judge if he could mail it to me which is apparently not what is supposed to happen, and the judge said no, it had to be hand delivered. Not even left with someone else, but hand delivered to me personally!</p>
<p>This is a long way of saying that different states do different things. In NYS you do need to have an absolutely correct ticket in order for it to “count.” It’s also incredibly rare to get a ticket if you’re going less than 10 mph over the speed limit. Usually that’s where they negotiate your ticket down to - instead of 20 mph they bring it down to 10 mph - less fine, less points.</p>
<p>I also just found out that many states do not have point reciprocity with NYS. So if on vacation this summer you get tickets, you should look into it - it may just be money, not points. For me points are always the problem - insurance rates go up, you need to take that very boring defensive driving class, etc.</p>
<p>I don’t know why you quoted me, notrichenough, in your post 46.</p>
<p>You gave examples of instances where you felt laws were unfair, and that in those cases you’d try to escape consequences “by hook or by crook” but your examples had nothing to do with my quote or with the Op. The Op made no mention of any extraordinary or particularly unfair conditions thereby making his speeding ticket unfair. I responded to the Op beginning with “In this case…”
Other cases with different circumstances might lead to different opinions.</p>