At least in the US, you should always get a lawyer for traffic tickets. The real cost isn’t whatever the court charges you, it’s whatever your insurance does.
My understanding is usually you can go before the judge and explain that the higher insurance rates will be a burden for you. Usually you don’t necessarily need a lawyer to go and ask for that. The judge will often add some stipulations like double the fine you pay now, and you can’t get another ticket for a certain amount of time.
When I lived in Illinois they had formalized the process and called it “court supervision” which is an option you can check on the ticket, but you do have to appear in court. Can’t get another speeding ticket for a year, and they won’t report it to insurance.
When I got a second speeding ticket though after 11 months, I did hire a lawyer. He requested continuance for me, so that by the time they heard the case, it had been 12 months, and I could do a second court supervision. Since then I decided to try to avoid getting more tickets.
Every time I talk to people about going to court for a speeding ticket, everyone shares the same story:
The judge is very fair. Sometimes, they shave the fee significantly. Sometimes they cancel it.
I don’t fully understand judges and what they get assigned. But it feels like getting the cool substitute teacher when to go to contest a speeding ticket.
Yup, I did that as a kid with my first speeding ticket, and got it placed on deferral. I didn’t even need to talk to the judge, I just went to pay the fine and they offered that as an option. Basically, as long as I didn’t get another ticket for 7 years, it would be as if it never happened. My ticket went from $100 -> $150, but my insurance would’ve gone up way more than that.
So, I drove extra careful until I moved out, and I got my second ticket around 7-8 years later, but in a different state (traveling near Las Vegas w/ flow of traffic…). I currently have a clean driving record, and I didn’t get a ding on my insurance until those dings meant a lot less (mid to late 20s).
If it’s a traffic violation you have a good chance of the cop no showing to court.
That doesn’t mean anything in a lot of countries.
Is going to court over traffic violations common internationally? I thought that was a US thing
I challenged a licence suspension in Australia when I was 19 years old. I gladly paid the $560 fine but I would’ve lost my licence for three months because I was driving 7km/h over the limit on a ‘double-demerits’ weekend. The magistrate sent me to a fortnightly driver’s course for 12 weeks, all the while I kept my licence, and after the course was over I fronted court again and successfully argued my three month suspension down to four weeks.
I’m pretty sure that going to court over traffic violations is a thing in any country that allows going to court over traffic violations.
FYI in most Australian jurisdictions, you can’t demand that the individual police officer who fined you attend court to defend themselves. That part is most likely a US thing.
All that over 7kmh? Holy shit, most cops in the usa won’t bother you doing 9mph over on highways and like 5-7mph on normal roads.
Yeah, I was on my P-plates (provisional licence) at the time where you have can have up to seven demerit points before losing your licence. As a P-plater, every speeding offence automatically is moderated to the maximum value, four points, and because it was a ‘double-demerits’ weekend (for public holidays), that four points was doubled to eight points. I received more demerit points than km/h I was over the limit.
For reference, if I was on my full licence and it wasn’t double-demerits, it would have been one point out of a total twelve. Instead, I got eight points which suspended my licence. Thankfully the magistrate I had was reasonable and granted my reduction - that also meant I didn’t have to pay court costs and I represented myself, so the whole thing cost me the initial $35 court booking fee. I managed to get something that resembled justice out of it, but I’ll still have a bitter taste in my mouth because of the whole rigamarole for a long time to come.
That’s insane, it’s not like you were reckless driving, and what the hell is a double demerits weekend? How is that even fair, like the weekend magically makes moving violations worse somehow. I’m all for being stricter here in the USA for our licensing requirements, but it sounds like you guys in aussie land went a little to far.
The logic is that road deaths go up during holiday periods (which is sadly a statistical fact here) so they ramp up enforcement and double the penalties for those periods to try to correct for it. I’m not a huge fan of the idea, but from a purely statistical and scientific standpoint it does at least make some amount of sense. My individual circumstance is a bit of a curveball because my punishment was way outstripping my crime, but I do have some understanding for the idea of double demerits. I think my issue was that what should have been a one-point offence (doubled to two points) became an eight-point offence just because I was on a provisional licence. That part I’m still very salty about.
Yup. Cops in my area usually won’t bother if you’re under 10mph over (16kph), though maybe they’d drop that in a school zone. 7kmk is pretty much nothing…
French guy here: I went to court once because the cop lied and needed tickets for his quota. I had all the proofs. The judge basically told me “I don’t give a fuck, you pay.” It’s useless.
Maybe don’t be French next time.
time for another revolution
Rookie mistake if I’m being perfectly honest
It’s not as much of a thing but people do object fines, most commonly mail-in fines when the owner wasn’t driving.
Is going to court over traffic violations common internationally? I thought that was a US thing
And if it’s below $1000, people often represent themselves because everyone knows lawyers are too expensive to justify it.
Yup, and most tickets in my area are like $100-150, assuming it’s just speeding and not insanely fast (i.e. <20mph over, most cops will cut it to 10 over on a first violation).
Not around here. Cops live for traffic court. They sit around all day doing very little.
not anymore
id rather pay a lawyer than reward the state for puking in my ass
