<p>Ugh, DS1 got a speeding ticket a while back and was supposed to take defensive driving. He’s ‘normally’ very responsible so I never really gave it another thought. Well, until today, when he received official looking envelope from his local municipality. I called him and opened it for him - he FORGOT to finish the defensive driving and now he has a court date for not meeting his date to turn in the paperwork.</p>
<p>The letter said he had to show up on a date later in January (after school starts) or pay $300. There was a caveat that if he pays the $300 he will have a conviction on his record ACK!!!</p>
<p>I scanned the letter and emailed to him. I have instructed him to go down there and find out if he can reverse his action to just pay the TICKET and see if that could make this other infraction disappear, but not sure that will be allowed. If he does have to go to court I guess I need to find him a “traffic lawyer”? He was going 42 in a 35mph if that matters.</p>
<p>I don’t see why he’d need a lawyer for something like this and the $300 fine doesn’t justify hiring one IMO unless that’s the convention for where you live. He should go to court and see if the judge will give him a second chance at the driving school since that’ll help with avoiding increased insurance rates regardless of the fine. He can check with the court and see if he can go to court earlier - one often can for traffic court. </p>
<p>Otherwise, he should pay what he owes and be done with it.</p>
<p>I hope he ends up paying the fine and any increased insurance costs himself. If he does, it’ll be that much more incentive for him to be responsible next time - i.e, not ‘forgetting’ to complete the school (which sounds pretty strange to me) or maybe even not speeding as much in the first place.</p>
<p>But he would have a conviction on his record–? Is this something he then would need to put on applications and such?
At least consult a lawyer to find out if this is a big deal or not.
DS1 no doubt is still young enough that his brain is not fully developed. Agree he should pay any amount the increase in insurance is but a conviction? I would need more information.</p>
<p>The letter says something like “if you wish to waive the ‘show cause hearing’, pay the $300, but understand that this will result in a conviction”. That was the part that scared me. I think this refers to his “failure to comply” (not sending the drivers ed certificate) crime, NOT the ticket itself.</p>
<p>He already paid a couple of hundred dollars including a “fee” to be allowed to do the defensive driving. He also paid for the defensive driving. He’s already in about $350 plus if he has to pay this $300. This is in a small town near his school.</p>
<p>I won’t criticize you for being too involved and taking care of stuff for your kid that he should be taking responsibility for himself, because I would likely be doing the same thing for my adult sons if they were in that situation, but if my son “forgot” to finish a defensive driving course that was part of the deal, there would be serious consequences. (I mean, I would be really ticked off!)</p>
<p>My only involvement was reading him the letter and then screaming at him for a while. I asked here only to calm my nerves. </p>
<p>He just texted and said that they allowed him to pay the original ticket. He is out a considerable amount of money for this ticket (approx $500 total I believe) so hopefully that will make an impression (probably more than my screaming did).</p>
<p>$500 for 42 in a 35 zone! Wow. I can’t remember the last time I got a ticket, maybe it was back when the freeways were all 55mph for a bit, and I was going 62 or so. I had no idea traffic violations were so expensive. Add in the increased insurance costs, and you really feel it. I hope these policies are truly preventing and reducing accidents/injuries. Are they?</p>
<p>I don’t think you normally have to list traffic offenses on job or college applications, unless they’re for something really serious like DUI, reckless driving, or leaving the scene of an accident. The insurance company will be notified, however, and his insurance rate will go up.</p>
<p>The insurance may or may not go up. We have had a couple of speeding tickets and they have never caused the insurance to increase. I think it depends on how much over the limit the speeder was going and if it was enough to put points on the license. And on the insurance company. </p>
<p>Yikes. $500 for 7 miles over the limit seems excessive. The cost of speeding tickets does seem to have increased by quite a bit. I haven’t had one for many years, but I think it was $60 ish back then. My son got one last year that was almost $300 (it did not increase his insurance).</p>
I don’t think the original ticket would have been $500 - the extra cost is the result of paying for the privilege of taking the course and then paying for the course but then not actually using it due to “I forgot”. I’m sure the original ticket must have been substantially less than $500.</p>
<p>Routine traffic tickets don’t need to be claimed on college/job apps.</p>
<p>Insurance may or may not increase as a result of this since it depends on the insurance company and other factors. If I was the OP and paying for his insurance I’d keep an eye out for any increases as a result of this and make sure he reimburses for the additional costs - either as a direct cost increase or lack of a reduction due to a clean driving record.</p>
<p>gladGradDad is correct. The total of ticket, fee to be allowed to take DD, DD course cost + penalty for being late all together was what I meant. He’s lucky he’d already gone back to school when I found out!</p>