Ugh. Speeding ticket, any advice?

Mtrhd0024

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Location
High Point, NC
Got a ticket, need a little advice...

I got a pretty bad speeding ticket tonight... 65 in a 45. :mad:
For those of you who live in High Point/Davidson county, I was westbound on lexington ave, I'd just crossed eastchester/hwy68, and was following 2 other cars... Another car turned onto lexington behind me while i was following those cars, and pulled right up behind me. The the car behind me was following closely, and as soon as the 2 cars in front of me turned off, I sped up... This is a long straight open country road, the speed limit is 45, but traffic often runs 55 in this stretch. The ticket itself even admits its that the conditions were open country, clear weather, good visibility, and light traffic. I'm frequently tailgated on lexington ave, even though I always maintain at least the speed limit. It was 11:00pm, the road was completely empty, and the car behind me kept following closely, so I kept accelerating. Finally, as I neared the road I was turning onto, the car backed off. I turned, and shortly after i turned, I saw the car that was behind me turn, and begin catching me rapidly. I was only on that road for 1/2 mile, and he caught up with me just as I was turning onto the road my neighborhood is on. I turned, he turned behind me, and about 30 seconds later I got the blue light treatment. Twas an unmarked charger. Greattttt.

He approached, and was very polite; told me the reason he stopped me was because I was speeding. I asked how fast I was going, and he told me I was doing 65. He asked me for my license, and then asked what year my Bronco was before heading back to his patrol car. About 10 minutes later he was back; didn't cut me any slack on the ticket, just asked if I'd ever had a ticket before, and told me I should take it easy, that those Bronco's were known for rolling really easy and he didn't want me to get hurt... I thanked him for doing his job, and went on my way. He followed me, and watched me turn into my neighborhood a 1/2 mile away. :shaking: I have to say though, I was impressed with how nice he was... The first time I was ever stopped, the trooper was downright mean. He wouldn't tell me how fast I was going, accused me of trying to run from him even though I pulled over immediately after he flipped on his lights, :confused: and was barking orders at me and interrogating me as if I'd just committed a triple homicide. I really have no gripes with this officer, (besides tailgating me) I know he was just doing his job, but I really can't afford a ticket, nor the increase in insurance on both my car and motorcycle. :( I'm a poor a$$ college student, and I really need my car to get to school and work, which is 35 min away.

So my question is this: Whats going to happen when I go to court? I don't have the option of just paying a fine, I guess because of the speed. What kind of fine would I be facing if I'm convicted, and could I lose my license? I don't have any points, just an improper equipment violation on my record from 1-1/2 years ago in a different county, but thats it. I will spend the money to hire a good lawyer, but I can't afford to have points because of the insurance increase, and also because in my career field (aviation) they look at your driving record as an indication of how you'll handle an aircraft, and I really don't need that. I'm only 20, and its difficult getting my foot in the door at this age as it is. If there's a lawyer in Davidson County you can recommend, then go for it! :D

Also, is there any possible way I can reschedule my court time/date? I'm scheduled to be in court at 8:30am, in Lexington. I'm supposed to be in class at 8am, and I currently have perfect attendance in the program I'm in. We're regulated by the FAA, and required to be in class a certain number of hours, so if I miss time or I'm late, I have to make it up hour for hour after school, and in some cases write a 2 page per hr missed paper! :mad: By the time I got through court, and make it to PTI in Greensboro, I will likely miss the entire day, and having to make up 5 hours, plus write a 10 page paper is not appealing. I dont think there is much I can do about this, but i was just wondering...

Thanks for any advice you can give, and please spare me the holier-than-thou "you shouldn't have been speeding" replies. I know I shouldn't have been speeding, but whats done is done... I'm just looking for some advice! Court date isn't till April so I've got some time. Thanks!
 
I always have used Legal Alternative in High Point when I had something like this.....they'll be knowledgeable & reasonably priced as well.
 
They'll reduce it when you get to court. If you haven't used a PJC (Prayer for Judgement Continued) you can use that. You may have to take the driving school as a condition for them letting you use the PJC. With this, the ticket will not affect your insurance.

Or just hire a lawyer. Most speeding tickets like this usually run about $200 or so for an attorney to fix it for you.

Either way, no, you won't lose your license for this, even if you just walked in and paid the fine for the ticket as is.
 
you won't have to appear in court if you hire a lwayer (which you most defintiley should). The lawyer can get it dropped to a non-moving violation without any problem, that's what they do. Then your insurance won't be impacted. The court system doesnt care, as long as they get their $$$.
 
^^ yep, lawyer will take care of all your concerns. At most $200 + the cost of the ticket, commonly less. You won't have to go to court and wont end up w/ any points.
 
Go to court, the DA will automatically reduce it to 10 over, (they do this for EVERYONE no matter how far over the limit they were.) It'll cost you a $10 fine and whatever court costs are. (Probably $120 or so). DO NOT USE A PRAYER FOR JUDGEMENT!!!!!!!! It will save you the $10 fine, you still have to pay court costs and if you get another one in 3 years, your insurance WILL go up because they both hit your record. Use it on your next one inside 3 years. Then don't get another one in the next 3 years. You will get one drivers license point and NO insurance points. (They won't tell you this but there IS a difference.) Your insurance won't go up at all and you won't have to pay a lawyer $200 to do what I just told you to do. (Because that's exactly what he/she does with with all his clients) I watched a Lawyer go through the box of tickets pulled out 5-6 tickets, go up the the judge and roll through them in about 5 minutes. That's $1200 for 5 minutes work. Saw in happen every time I was in court. A few years ago I finally slowed down. (7 tickets in 5 years will do that to you.)

Basically, you get 2 tickets in 3 years for just the price of court costs (x2) with no insurance hike. But only if you do it in the above order. (1st ticket pay the fine and court costs, second ticket use the PJC and just pay the court costs.)
 
You can get PJC's over and over and over. I've used them so frequently (in the past) that I had to do community service to "earn" another. And never have I had past PJCs come back to haunt me when I've gotten another ticket. One of the people at the Mecklenberg Co courthouse told me they rarely if ever go back and look for past PJCs to go against your insurance, said the system was too backed up to bother with it. This was 5+ years ago. How the system is supposed to work, like rattlecanpaint says, and how it actually works is quite different.
 
rattlecanpaint said:
Go to court... Your insurance won't go up at all and you won't have to pay a lawyer $200 to do what I just told you to do. (Because that's exactly what he/she does with with all his clients) I watched a Lawyer go through the box of tickets pulled out 5-6 tickets, go up the the judge and roll through them in about 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

The problem is that you have to decide what your time is worth.
$200 may not be chump change, but it may be better than missing a days work, or in this case a critical class, not to mention the PITA of going.

btw you CAN call and ask to have your date changed, but it will always by 8:30 b/c thats what time they have court.
 
RatLabGuy said:
The problem is that you have to decide what your time is worth.
$200 may not be chump change, but it may be better than missing a days work, or in this case a critical class, not to mention the PITA of going.
btw you CAN call and ask to have your date changed, but it will always by 8:30 b/c thats what time they have court.
Click to expand...
Or 1pm, afternoon session right after lunch.
 
Thanks for the help guys! I'm definitely going to hire an attorney. My first speeding ticket was a year and a half ago, and my lawyer got it reduced to improper equipment. He was also a family friend, so he didn't even charge me for his time. (Thank you Mr. Brown!:] ) That was in a different county though (Randolph) so I don't know if he would be good to represent me in Davidson or not.

Its certainly worth whatever the cost is, because I think they basically know going into it what they can do for me in court, (Most of the attorneys know the DA's and the judges personally! ;) lol!) so you just about know the outcome before your court date. As many of you suggested, hiring a lawyer will also allow me to be in class on the day, thus saving me further hassle with makeup time and papers.

I'm really not worried about the court costs/lawyers fees as much as I am insurance... I'm a little bit of a lead foot from time to time, but my driving record is otherwise clean, I have no accidents or other bad history, and since I'm only 20 I really need to keep it that way. Get a few points on the record, and I can kiss my motorcycle goodbye (saves me lots of $$ on gas during the summer!) and say hello to a couple thousand $$ extra on my car insurance over the next few years.

Another thing... I've heard of people claiming entrapment in similar situations such as this... I might normally speed a little bit on this road, but I honestly wouldn't have been going as fast as I was if it wasn't for the cop following me closely. I know its still no excuse for me to have been speeding, but I've heard of people getting tickets dropped if they can prove that the reason they sped up was because of an officer tailgating... This would be a best case scenario, as I wouldn't have to even pay the improper equipment fine, the ticket would be dropped entirely, but has anybody else heard of this happening before? Again, I'm not denying I was speeding, but I don't normally drive that fast on this road. Its usually in the 50-55mph range.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the help!
 
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