hire lawyer, have him contact DA and do a plea affidavit, thereby avoiding court.
Don't do pre-paid legal, that is a scam.
Source - Not an actual lawyer, I just play one in real life. Nothing I just said is legal advice and nothing I ever say should be relied upon.
Plead "not guilty".
Got my court date... (Mid-February)
Court summons doesn't say anything about a reschedule. Is it worth calling the court to see if I can? It has been a few days since the notice came in.
Yes. If you want to reschedule (they call it a continuance, but play dumb), you'll have to call and ask. The last time I did that, I just told them that I had an important project report due that day, and could,we please reschedule? Depending on how far out the date is, you might want to hold off they'd probably be a little suspicious if you're saying you have something important that you can't get out of in a month and a half.
Best of luck, and let us know how it goes (if you feel like it)..
better call saul...
snailmont5oh wrote: Yes. If you want to reschedule (they call it a continuance, but play dumb), you'll have to call and ask. The last time I did that, I just told them that I had an important project report due that day, and could,we please reschedule? Depending on how far out the date is, you might want to hold off they'd probably be a little suspicious if you're saying you have something important that you can't get out of in a month and a half. Best of luck, and let us know how it goes (if you feel like it)..
Interesting.
So you think I should wait till like a week/week and a half away to ask for a reschedule? I guess it wouldn't hurt. If they won't give me the reschedule at that point, I'll just go on the set date I guess, and there's a better chance of the cop not showing up if I do reschedule.
Let us know what happens. Good luck!
In reply to AWSX1686:
If you're trying to avoid paying anything at all, yes.
The only downside I can see to that strategy is that (if I remember correctly) the statute of limitations on a summary offense is 30 days. If the hearing is after that, the trooper can't write a new ticket, like he would have to do if he were to want to change it to "failure to obey signage" instead of "maximum speed limits".
A super prick move would be to get the continuance, dupe him into writing the new ticket, making the old one go away, then fighting the new ticket on the statute of limitations argument. He'll only fall for that once, and the target on your back would be large and day-glo.
Also know that none of these suggestions are guaranteed to work. A disturbing amount of your success or failure depends on the mood of all involved.
snailmont5oh wrote: A disturbing amount of your success or failure depends on the mood of all involved.
Yeah, that's the part that has me on edge. I mean, it will be what it will be, and I'm not too worried about it, but still.
I'll have to look into the statute of limitations thing. If it's 30 days, I may was to go for the continuance anyway since I got the ticket on 12/31/16, and the court date is 2/20/17...
Court was today.
I showed up half an hour early, well dressed. The officer walked in the door about 5 minutes early, asked me if I'd be ok with him lowering it to 10 over. I said that would be great. Paperwork, etc. I'll be getting reimbursed $85 and have 2 points on my license, which given a year of clean driving will disappear. We'll see how insurance changes, maybe they won't notice....
In reply to AWSX1686:
Nice outcome. I was just reading an article today about when to fight a ticket and one of the tips was to see if you can lower the fine or points. They seemed to think that anything less than 3 points very often is not looked at by the insurance companies. Hopefully they let you slide. Its one thing to pay a speeding ticket but I think the insurance company wacking you is not right. Just because I was speeding doesn't mean I was a real danger to society or a risk to the insurance company. My last ticket was on an empty road, just me and the trooper I came roaring up behind. I paid the fine, I figured I got away with it 20-30 previous times so I was due. Fortunately my insurance company never cared.
Awesome! I'd call that a win, that's about the best you could hope for really. With an otherwise clean record, insurance should be pretty forgiving.
Don't make any major insurance changes in the next couple of months and you should be fine. Even reporting a ticket when getting new quotes it didn't seem to affect anything, but you will be obligated to report it for a couple years.
Although I've found in the last couple years that communication between insurance companies and the state has gotten better. I used to just get insurance for the car, get dropped because I couldn't afford it, and still be "good" for a year with the card. Now as soon as your coverage lapses, the state gets grabby with the license plates. How that translates to tickets I'm not sure though.
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