I was all the way in the left hand lane of a 3 lane highway, Friday night coming home from a G-Love 'N Special Sauce concert. Now, I don't know about you all, but I am always very alert and aware of the cars around me, and always keep an eye out for The Man (this is how I stayed ticket-free for nearly 4 years). I saw a cop car merge out on to the highway about a quarter mile behind me, and easily recognizing the headlights of the cruiser I began to ease my speed down. I had been doing about 70 in a 55mph zone (not uncommon for this highway anyway!), but I had also been keeping up with traffic and had other cars around me. For whatever reason the cop singled me out, came over into my lane after catching up with me and then proceeded to pull me over. He claimed that by the time he had gotten behind me that I was doing about 70 (which is a lie because I had slowed down as I saw him merging on to the highway). Either way I remained polite and handed him my license/registration and he came back with the ticket.

Here's where I got screwed- he wrote the ticket as a "Failure to obey a highway sign", saying that he was knocking it down from a speeding ticket, as in he was doing me a favor. I think he really just didn't have me on radar and didn't want to write me a speeding ticket. But you see I've not been told that it would be hard to fight the ticket in court if it's already been "reduced". I had a perfect driving record (no tickets) at the time he pulled me over so I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on whether or not I should go to court over this ticket. I've known people before who've gone to court and gotten tickets dismissed because they had a clean driving record, I'm just not sure of the ins and outs of this method. Any assistance here would be appreciated.

Oh, and by the way he wrote the make of the car as a "Toyota" not a Scion. Idiot.

 

Well, usually the ticket says the exact speed you were going. You could try to fight him on it, but ti seems kind of dumb if it was already reduced. I got a speeding ticket also, but the cop wrote me up for impeding traffic. It was a no point ticket, thus, no insurance rate increase. (Not sure if your state does points at all on your license)

He/the city basiaclly just wanted money....

 

Do research, lots of sites on the web will help you fight your ticket. Try to find the exact law, and what it says you did wrong.

 

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...486&highlight=

 

Well, I've been in court twice: once for a moving violation with accident and second time for speeding 42 in a 30mph, running to catch a yellow (well... kinda orange) light.

Here's how it works: you will get a citation for a pretrial. You go there (you don't need a lawyer) and the judge offers you a deal, trying to avoid the expenses and waste of time of a trial. Usually, that deal is: no points, no school and reduced fine. If you accept the deal, the case is closed as "no contest". This ticket will not appear in the driver's record released to the insurance company but it will appear on your full driver's record (the one the judge sees when you go to court), so the judge will know about that one in case it happens again.

If you refuse the judge's offer, then you go to trial. If the policeman or the whitness doesn't show up, the case is "dismissed" and erased like it never happened.

I saw one of the cases you are talking about, a guy with no tickets in 23 years... The judge told him that once in 23 years he gets a ticket for free and dismissed the case. So it really depends on your driving record and the mood of the judge, but I'm pretty sure you won't get a dismissal with only 4 years...

My advice: def take it to court.
GL
C.

 

heres what i do if i get a ticket. 99% of the time, it results in getting the ticket dismissed because the officer didnt' show.

1. get as many extensions as possible. this will give you a better chance of the officer forgetting about your particular case, and not wanting to show up because he forgot what happened.

2. after your last extension, show up to the court, and plead not guilty, and have then set the trial date. then get as many extensions for your trial date as possible. (see step 1)

3. go to court on your trial date.

4. hope the officer doesn't show

 

First and foremost, thanks for the advice. However, I'm a bit unclear on the whole situation still.. you're saying that even for a simple traffic ticket like mine, that you get a pretrial? If/when I go to this pretrial (I'm assuming that's the date listed on my ticket) do I need to plead guilty or not guilty? Or do I simply go up to the podium and the judge offers me a deal... I've seen several people go to court for tickets but I can't remember what they had to do. I'm even thinking of possibly doing a phone consult with a traffic ticket lawyer. But any advice you could offer would be most appreciated cuz obviously I'm in the dark on this one.

 

I'm not very familiar with how it works in other states but like I told you, I got a pretrial twice and I know of another person with a minor ticket who got a pretrial too. I would think it's the same everywhere because they are trying to avoid the waste of time and the expenses of a trial (this is what the judge told us when I was in court). With the pretrial, they can settle roughly 100 cases per hour, so you see my point...

With the ticket you should have got a booklet in which they explain your options: pay the ticket, take it to school or take it to court. For the last one of these options there is a phone number. Call that, it should be self explanatory. A few weeks later you will get a citation with the date, time, address and room of the pretrial.

When you choose to take it to court you have already chosen to plead not guilty . But on the pretrial you just go to the podium and listen to the judge's offer. Take it or leave it, it's your choice, but in all the cases I know of, the offers were more than reasonable...

...With one exception maybe: while I was in there, waiting for my turn, I saw and heard all the cases, they are public. The only person who didn't get any kind of deal was this dude who was there for doing 65mph in a school zone

Sometimes I think that I should've taken the speeding ticket to trial (the policeman told me to take it court and he also told me he won't show up). I'm telling you this because it's a good ideea to simply ask the policeman if/when you get another ticket.

C.

 

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28008

here's how i'm gonna lose a lot of $.

 

Hmmm...did he write it down as a 2 door or 4 door?

Do you have any other Scion stuff on the back of your car besides the badge that everyone has (license plate holder...stickers...)

I'd say, take pictures of your badging (back, front, steering wheel, anywhere it says Scion clearly where he would have seen it on approach and while getting your registration)...and then send copies of your registration in (registration should say "Scion" on it) And then claim that if the officer wasn't compitent enough to copy from a piece of paper to a ticket the correct make of the car, then how could he make a judgement on whether it was you or another car that could have been a toyota that was disobeying the law....or something along those lines. I have a friend who has beaten about 8 tickets this year...by just doing things like this.

 

My cop told me I should take my last ticket to court. Cops will usually do that if you'r not being a total _______, the cop isn't a total _______, or you wasn't doing something really stupid or dangerous. Usually if a cop tells you to take it to court, its because they don't intend to show up and then your case will be dismissed (mine did through, that bastard).

I'd really think twice though about trying to prove the cop incompetent like the poster before me suggested. If you argue it well the judge might accept it. However this isn't a jury case, so if you ____ off the judge he could just throw the full fine back at you and appealing that would be a whole lot of hassle. Its usually safer to go for sympathy, especially if its a minor offense, and the cop doesn't try to paint you as being an _______ the judge will usually reduce it even if you are guilty. (my Mom was a parking violations Judge for a while, so I'm telling you what she would do..)

 

The NHTSA and many insurance companies classify Scions as Toyotas. You probally won't be able to get away using that argument.