edgalang

I was heading up north on 280 (Milpitas to San Francisco) and was going "slightly" faster than the flow of traffic (which on this freeway, it's usually around 80 mph...but the limit is the standard 65). It was dark out and I could of sworn I was looking at every single car I passed and any potential cars comming from any onramp. Anyways, I wanted to pass a slower car up front and as soon as I signaled and got on the fast lane red lights flashed behind me. He must of been hiding in the pack somewhere waiting for a "sucker" like me to get impatient. Regardless, he paced me going 87 downhill and pulled me over. Being my first speeding offense, what is the standard procedure from this point?

tgif

Pay the fine and go to traffic school.

tdoh

Like he said...

Even though it's after the fact--were you in front or near the front? I guess what I'm trying to say was that when you passed the slower car did you wind up in front of traffic and therefore stuck out like a sore thumb?

Just don't get another ticket for 18 months.

Not that you plan on getting another one but at least that's how long you have to wait before getting another "get out of jail" card.

Tony

Road Rage

1) ask the clerk for another court date - say you will be out of town on business
2) try it again -
3) show up for court about 1 hour early try to see if the officer made it to court that day - find an attorney milling about waiting for a case to be called - offer $75 to represent you - they may find something or have a good rapport with the judge and get it reduced in terms of speed or thrown out

always fight these things.

azn g ryde

I use to live up north too. the police up morth are very very anal. They are very good at hiding too. Around milpitas, there should be a races so you should check out those if youa re a speedy driver. i got like 3 tickets in the two year spand I was up there.

Going back to your question. jsut pay the fine. It shoukd be like $100 somthing $. shouldnt be that much since is your first offense. you cant fight a speeding ticket because you are CAUGHt. you could however fight like a more contriversial ticket such as stop sign or waht ever. speeding you are pretty much outta luck.

BG

Road Rage

My attorney and I do not agree that speeding is unbeatable. I have been "caught" twice since 1978, and never paid a dime. Rage against the system and they will lose, as just showing up costs them more than the ticket.

I showed up once and told the judge " I do not believe I was going 78 in a 65 mph zone, although I am sure the officer is honest. I felt strongly enough about it to take time off from my place of employment and show up here today". Judge looked at my record, which showed no speeding before, my attitude, said "Your record is better than mine and I am not about to louse it up" and dismissed the case.

tdoh

Perhaps so, but if it backfires and the officer does show up (no matter how many times you put off the date), there's no guarantee you'll be able to go to traffic school if you plead guilty because by then, you would have probably pi$$ed the judge off for wasting the court's time. There's nothing that says that a judge has to allow you to go to traffic school if you ask and/or qualify for it...

Tony

tdoh

If only all judges were like that.

Tony

Road Rage

Tony:

True, true.

Amazingly, the case after mine was a guy on his 4th DUI - he had passed out and crashed into an exit ramp guardrail. A bottle of booze was splashed all over him and the interior. His attorney started a line of defense about "oral cold medication" and that the booze may have been splashed by a "overzealous" police offcier who "had it in for my client". What cojones! The judge went from being the affable judge of my case to a 6 foot Cobra, cutting off the defense attorney, REVOKING the guy's license for 5 years,a nd sentencing him to 3 months in jail for his "reckless public endangerment". Yowsah!

edgalang

Well, I could see why a judge would let you off. But I am a 24 year old male driver, and I doubt my chances are as good. I'm not saying your old or anything, and I dont want to start any flame wars with Mr Hyde again (the old age matters debate), but if I were the judge, I would be more leanient to an older driver with more experience than a younger one even though its both of their first offenses. I'll try going with the traffic school route when the opportunity comes along.

jbrown

DO NOT PAY THE TICKET!

I have been issued 24 traffic citations in my 9-years of driving, (only two were in the past three years) and my attorney, a Mr. Bruce LaKam is a perfect 14 for 14 on every one I have had him take care of. Some were adjucation witheld (2 or 3), which is the same as going to school, but you don't have to go. The rest were flat-out dismissed, which is the same as never even receiving the ticket as far as your driving record and insurance are concerned.

Talk to some friends and find a good lawyer, and then, don't get any more tickets.

tdoh

Your lawyer must really like you to be willing to defend you on traffic citations or you have lots of money.

Perhaps in Florida you can use an attorney for non-felony or non-misdeameanor traffic citations but in California, you may consult an attorney but you cannot have him/her help defend you in court if you wish to contest your traffic citation. IOW--what you were able to do in Florida would not be permissible in California, AFAIK.

In any case, I salute you on getting out of your traffic citations; I wish I was that lucky! But then again, if I were you I'd wonder how I got 24 citations in 9 years to begin with. I've been driving for almost 20 years and I've gotten nowhere near the number of citations you got; heck, I don't think I'll even get half the number of citations you got for the rest of my driving days...

Lawyer or no lawyer, you are one lucky guy to have gotten off 14 out of 14. You probably jinxed yourself with that statement...

Tony

jbrown

Hell yeah he likes me, 14 x $175 = $2,450.00. He even got me acquitted on one after I was found guilty due to missing the court date! I got myslf out of 5 of them and went to school for another four (you're allowed to go 5 times total in FL, but only once per year). That makes a total of 23 that were dismissed, adjudication witheld, or found not guilty. Yep that's right, only one ticket in my entire life, only one time out of 24 incidents have I been found guilty and issued points on my record! But please understand that none of the incidents were in a school or construction zone or resulted in an accident. I do not always drive irresponsibly, I just drive fast...a lot.

sklongis

First I should say that I am a matrimonial attorney not traffic attorney. Having said that allow me to offer some NY advice. Ask around and see if you can find out from the local bar association who is the king of traffic court defense. Don't just hire anyone, get someone who spends his day every day in traffic court. It makes a difference, they know the judges and D.A.s. They know the best strategy to try to help you.

Here in NY you can sometimes plead to a lesser charge, in other words a different moving violation.

What's the difference...well in NY if you get too many (3) speeds you can lose your license a lot faster than if you have a conviction for failing to signal a lane change.

There's an old saying which is always fight your first speed ticket, because you will lose your second speed ticket and then if you pled guilty on your first and decide to fight and lose your second now you have two speeding convictions.

The concept of constantly getting your case adjourned is also important, because police officers retire, get sick, go on vacation, take personal days or just don't show up. So if you know the cop is not there then you are ready. If the cop is there, you are not ready.

Hope this helps you.

Road Rage

Hey - my mom always said I would have made a good lawyer - now I just argue the cases of electromagnetic fields!

The court date ploy works! And as I said, get there early and ask around - an attorney will likely steer you to "Bob, the traffic guy", which means he is the expert and has the "ins" needed for your defense. Right or wrong, that is how our system works, baby.

It is incestual. The judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney are all in the same game, and could be wearing any of those hats on a given date - it is fluid. Work it to your advantage.

RichieRich

Don't pay it. At least go to court and tell the judge it's your first offense and that you'll never do it again, usually they'll lower first offenders to maybe like a seatbelt violation.

Also, I think someone said it before, there are usually lawyers hanging around who know the judges. You can always pay them to handle it. What happens is you won't get any points, but you'll still pay the fine to the lawyer.

Good luck!

edgalang

Problem is if I hired a lawyer I would still have a hard time contesting it. This stretch of freeway is notorious of its fast flow of traffic and the judge would know if you are lying or not because noone on this freeway drives the standard 65mph posted speed limit. Like I said before, the flow of traffic fluctuates around 80 and I was just a dumb ass for sticking out like a sore thumb with all my turn signals and everything. Maybe if I was by myself then it would be the cops word vs mine, but to be stuck in traffic where everyone is going at the same pace (but myself for trying to pass) I'm not quite sure that would fly. My court date is Dec. 6 and I was told that there is something comming from the mail to me?

sklongis

Don't be your own lawyer and decide what can be contested. It won't cost you anything to find out what the lawyer thinks he can accomplish for you. Then you can make your decision as to what makes sense. There will be a fine no matter what, the question is how many points and are they speeding points.

tdoh

That's what you get for putting all them mods on your car--it's no surprise you stick out like a sore thumb that way! j/k...

Anyways, you could hire a lawyer but remember, if you decide to contest your citation in a trial (no juries in traffic cases) you cannot have a lawyer present to help defend you (this is true for CA; there are exceptions, but they wouldn't apply to your situation).

The "something" that's coming in the mail is a notice saying that your car is gonna be impounded!! Just kidding again...most likely you'll be mailed a courtesy notice telling you what your fine is, whether you're eligible for traffic school and if so, what you need to do (depends on what county you got the ticket in), and where you need to go in order to pay or contest the ticket.

Keep in mind that there is nothing that says you are supposed to get a courtesy notice, so don't wait around expecting or assuming that one will show up in your mailbox; your ticket should state what date you can show up by in order to plead your citation.

IMHO looks like you should just bite the bullet and take traffic school; from what you said, it looks like you probably don't stand much of a chance of winning. Plus--if this was your first ticket in 3 years, you won't lose anything other than a Saturday and probably less than $200 total (fine + admin fee for TS + TS itself); unless you can't afford to get another point or are ineligible for TS, it's not worth to contest it.

Just my two cents worth...

Tony

P.S.: whatever you do, don't ever mail in anything (most likely a check to pay the ticket) to the court; they have a habit of getting lost in the mail, and the court isn't gonna cut you much slack if it doesn't show up in time.

RichieRich

off the record, there are usually lawyers who are "in" with the judges. i know someone close who got off by paying this lawyer the same amount as the fine. all the lawyer did was go up, say something, and that was that, no points.

DJ Iceman

What is all this bull$hit about lawyers and ways to cheat the system?! You broke the law (you don't dispute that you were speeding), you got caught, now accept the consequences--a small fine and a couple of hours in traffic school.

I'm not really mad at you for asking the question, because it doesn't sound like you're trying to get out of anything. But it really torques me off to see all the replies from chronic lawbreakers who have used their money or underhanded tactics to escape responsibility. That's what's wrong with our society and why lawyers are sucking us dry.

And yes, I have gotten quite a few speeding tickets in my life. I knowingly and willingly break the law and then accept the consequences when I'm caught.

jbrown

My take on the situation is simply that the speed limits are bullsh!t. By my parents home, the speed limit on the main road was 30 mph from1987 to 1998, then it was 40 mph from 1999 to 2000, now it is back to 30 mph, and nothing has changed, except the speed limit signs. In front of my old high school, they widened the road from two lanes to six and LOWERED the speed limit from 55 to 40 mph! The posted speed limit on the stretch of I-95 from Jupiter to West Palm has changed 5 times in various places from 55 to 60 to 65 to 70 mph back and forth based on who cries the loudest at that time.

I drive 80-90 mph on I-95 all the time and it can be done safely, with proper attention paid to the road. I do not even consider it as doing a bad thing even when I get caught, and if they are going to make the system that easy to beat, you're damn right I'm gonna beat it. If they would earn my respect by building proper roads with proper drainage, interchanges, merge lanes, and speed limits in the first place, I would honor their rules. Instead what they do is widen a road to two lanes only AFTER it is a dire necessity, and by the time they finish, after NUMEROUS construction delays, rock chips, potholes, detours, lane closures, and traffic jams, they stop for one month and then begin widening it to three lanes! It never fvcking stops! I-95 has been under construction between Jupiter and West Palm continuously since 1995 and it isn't scheduled for completion until 2004! US1 has been under construction between Lake Worth and West Palm for over a year and they are just now hitting the halfway point!

I haven't even touched traffic lights. How about the ones that take 7-10 minutes to change at 2AM, when there is so little traffic that they should simply be blinking red in the first place. Or the ones that are timed to turn red RIGHT BEFORE you get there from the last one of those red bastards EVERY TIME! So much for traffic flow. I run them all the time after a brief stop when the coast is clear to make sure I won't kill or be killed, or ticketed.

How about stop signs at an intersection with a one-mile visibility, I just slow down, what's the point in stopping if you can clearly see there is no oncoming traffic, slow down and roll through it. You're gonna give me a ticket for that...the hell you are!

Basically what I'm saying is earn my respect by building better roads and I will honor your rules, but until then fvck off! Try arresting some drunk drivers, murderers, or drug dealers instead.

tdoh

Jbrown--

Man, you must have had a bad traffic ticket experience to be ranting the way you did!!

I understand where you're coming from, though--some of the speed limits and such seem to make no sense, but we just gotta accept them for what they're worth. People choose to deal with such in their own ways; looks like you decided how to deal with yours...

Just drive safely out there while you're questioning authority!

Tony

jbrown

I got a ticket a few years ago on my way to work for going 38 in a 30 mph zone and was falsely accused of driving on a suspended license. The officer would not let me drive the two miles back to my home since my license was suspended, so I had to walk home, wake up my mother and have her and her friend go get my car. I spent all day on the phone only to realize that there was no suspension and the officer was mistaken. I then had to drive to the courthouse and get a letter stating that my license was not suspended at the time to get that ticket dismissed, and had my lawyer take care of the other one for $175.00, not to mention losing a day's pay and upsetting my boss. To top it all off, two months later they changed it to 40 mph! Can you fvcking believe it?! If that had been done earlier, I never would have been pulled over in the first place!

So yes, tdoh, I do have issues with them, but I also drive responsibly, I just do it a little faster than most people.

asiankidd

i dont get it really....just a week ago i myself got pulled over on the 57 south bound freeway....this was at 1 in the mornin with no damn traffic.....i was crusing with my lady friend in the passenger seat...i swear i could have slept on the middle of the freeway at that hour.....and i wasnt even accelerating, braking or changing lanes....but then in my rear view mirror i see a car speeding and changing lanes aggressively way behind me...all i could see was it was a lil dot of light moving hella fast...put at that hour i paid no attention to it but then i realized that the ****ing car never passed by me....so when i looked back it was a cop tailgating my ass...!!! next thing i know the red lights came on and i took my car off cruise control.....with the speedo reading between 70-75.... and my friend saw it too....as i pulled over the cop had asked me if i had anything to drink and that i was exceeding the maxium 65 mph limit....on top of that the ****er put me down going 81 mph...(my thinking was while he was speeding he was well over 81 mph and read the incorrect mph off his speedo...since i wasnt even clocked by a radar or anything...but somewhere along the line of him speeding up to my ass he must have read the speed wrong) but wtf is that 1 in the morning going 75 at most....that is absolutly wrong....who the hell goes 65 in normal traffic hour let alone 1 in the morning....also the 57 freeway is about 6 lanes wide!!!! Is there anyway in hell i can contest this in court....because i have a clean record.....and am eligable for traffic school still but i dont wanna use it up....and the ticket was probably because a stupid cop wanted to meet his quota being that it was on october 28th .....hey road rage....i would love to hear from you on how i should go about this.....can i email you ....i wanna ask you about what you mean about lawyers who are "in" and how to go about finding them? thanks guys i really appreciate your help......

asiankidd

i dont get it really....just a week ago i myself got pulled over on the 57 south bound freeway....this was at 1 in the mornin with no damn traffic.....i was crusing with my lady friend in the passenger seat...i swear i could have slept on the middle of the freeway at that hour.....and i wasnt even accelerating, braking or changing lanes....but then in my rear view mirror i see a car speeding and changing lanes aggressively way behind me...all i could see was it was a lil dot of light moving hella fast...put at that hour i paid no attention to it but then i realized that the ****ing car never passed by me....so when i looked back it was a cop tailgating my ass...!!! next thing i know the red lights came on and i took my car off cruise control.....with the speedo reading between 70-75.... and my friend saw it too....as i pulled over the cop had asked me if i had anything to drink and that i was exceeding the maxium 65 mph limit....on top of that the ****er put me down going 81 mph...(my thinking was while he was speeding he was well over 81 mph and read the incorrect mph off his speedo...since i wasnt even clocked by a radar or anything...but somewhere along the line of him speeding up to my ass he must have read the speed wrong) but wtf is that 1 in the morning going 75 at most....that is absolutly wrong....who the hell goes 65 in normal traffic hour let alone 1 in the morning....also the 57 freeway is about 6 lanes wide!!!! Is there anyway in hell i can contest this in court....because i have a clean record.....and am eligable for traffic school still but i dont wanna use it up....and the ticket was probably because a stupid cop wanted to meet his quota being that it was on october 28th .....hey road rage....i would love to hear from you on how i should go about this.....can i email you ....i wanna ask you about what you mean about lawyers who are "in" and how to go about finding them? thanks guys i really appreciate your help......oh yeah according to the law....it states the 65 mph maxium speed limit goes no person shall exceed the limit....wtf is the cop doing them to get me.....how is he above the law when it comes to that...? it just dont make sense to me....thanks again.....

jbrown

Fight it, beat it, be happy!

8ball

Wake up, man. This isn't cheating the system, this is the system.

DJ Iceman

It's true, I may be naive. But I believe that we live in a civilized society, where rules and norms are to be obeyed while we work to change them. The way to change the rules isn't to break them--we have ways in our democratic society to make things better. That's why I don't buy the "Well the speed limits are too slow and the cops should have better things to do and the roads suck" argument. All those things are true, but they in no way excuse one from following the law. As I said, I speed often and get caught sometimes. That's the risk you take breaking the law. But in my view, to try and weasel out of the punishment that our society has deemed fair is slimy, underhanded, and costs the rest of us that much more. Maybe the cops WOULD be able to prevent other crimes if they weren't always going to court for guilty offenders who are trying to get off on a technicality. If you can't afford the $100 fine, then don't speed. It seems pretty simple to me. And at the very least, I'd rather that money goes to the government than to the kind of lawyers who clog up our legal system with bogus cases like this.

tgif

Well said. Even the author of this post said that he is going "slightly" faster than the traffic. Can't imagine this post had turned into about how bad the legal system, lawyers, and cops.

RichieRich

i know some people are trying to cheat the system, but a lot of times these lawyers are there and they already have agreements with the "system", that should tell you something about the law and THEIR underhanded tactics.

not for nothing, i've paid every fine i've gotten, but i agree with you that this all sucks and there should be a better way...

tdoh

Asiankidd--

I feel your pain; it does suck that there may be times where road conditions appear to be such that we could probably go faster than the posted speed limit but we're forced to do otherwise. Also, it's odd that the cop wrote you down for 81--usually they'll write it up in 5-mph increments. Either he used radar (you didn't mention whether or not he used it) or a better guess would be that since CA penalty schedule for speeding are based on a graduated scale, as follows--

MPH over limit Base Penalty Total
1-15 $25 $51 $76
16-25 $50 $85 $135
26+ $100 $170 $270

--the cop decided to really hurt you in the wallet. As you can see, if he wrote you up for 80 mph (15 over speed limit of 65) your fine would have been $76 (before penalty assessments--this is where you get docked $17 for every $10 of your fine--and other court fees). Apparently he must not have liked you--as you can tell, an 81-mph speeding ticket will cost you at least $135; amazing how just 1 mph can make a big difference when it comes to how much a speeding ticket can cost you. Sorry to have to break it to you that way.

I dunno--either you gave him an attitude or he must have a thing against Asian (I assume you're Asian given your screen name) drivers for him to cite you the way he did (81 vs. 80 or less).

OTOH--you were speeding; you admitted as much. Your best bet would be to argue that yes, you were speeding, but you weren't going 81 mph. I mean, I can't see a cop actually wanting to pace a car at such an odd speed unless he was using radar. If money was an issue here, you may want to argue this; otherwise, pay the fine and ask for traffic school.

Best of luck...

Tony

P.S.: Again--not to say that you gave the cop an attitude or anything but sometimes, how you present yourself to a cop can make a big difference as far as what he'll write you up for. I got busted one time on my motorcycle for speeding (I was doing 100 mph while weaving through traffic--yeah, not the smartest thing I ever did); I knew it, told the cop as much (I admitted I was speeding big time but didn't admit I was going 100--I'm not that stupid), all the time being polite and respectful towards him. He told me that I was doing 95+ and that he could easily write me up for 95, but wrote me up for 75 in a 65 instead. As you can see based on the speed fine chart above, I got off easy big-time as far as the fine was concerned.

Oh yeah--I'm Asian, and was riding an F4; not a really positive stereotype to be if you're pulled over by a cop.

mushen826

I'd say pay the ticket and suck it up.

But 280 is so fun to drive with the TL-S. 5 lines, good scenery, nice fast flow of traffic, lots of space. Man, when I hit 280, I always gun it and go to the left most lane. I love driving my car on that freeway. I guess that's the set backs of having such a fun car to drive. Cops. LOL