Mike 350Z

A couple weeks ago my gf and I did the drive from up here to southwest florida. We were going down for vacation and also thought it would be cool to drive her dad's extra car down there to store it for the season.

So we get to the Gainesville area (the town was called Waldo actually ) and I'm cruisin along minding the speed limit. So I turn onto rt 24 south and I notice this news van from WJCB tv on the shoulder with some FIIIIIIIINE latina news girl with whole button down blouse and supertight skirt outfit showing her fiiiiine badonkadonk. (the skirt was probably a few sizes to small actually).

So being the red-blooded American male that I am, my head is on a swivel as I pass this girl and I guess I missed the flashing "School zone 15 MPH" sign.

Next thing I know I see the flashing reds and blues so I pull over. Oddly enough the same news van flys up to get a shot of the scene

The cop gave me 31 in a 15 school zone amounting to a $316 fine. I can't really be pissed because it was totally my fault. My gf even told me about the sign but I didn't hear her. Let's hope I learn my lesson.


Now I need to know about the points. The cop didn't say anything about points but I looked around online and it looks like it's a 4 point violation. But will these even transfer to my MD license? Also, will my insurance find out about this? It looks like MD and FL are reciprocal, but I'm not really how that works with insurance. I just don't want my rates to go up. I can take driver improvement to clear the points, but if my insurance will still go up anyway, then there's no point. Any ideas?

Yep, I'm an idiot, and now I gotta pay for it.

JJ4Short

I bet if you would have told him about the fine chick he would have laughed and lowered the ticket...unless he was the antisocial kind of "heres your ticket, bye" cop

TCM 01 CL-S

Ticket lawyer down here for $80 should take care of it. There are quite a few. Sometimes they do tack on some hefty court fees, but it usually ends up cheaper than paying for the increase of insurance and etc.

Renegade

Eh...Waldo lol....speed trap central and also a POS

Renegade

btw just do traffic school knocks off the points, pay the fine, and insurance shouldnt be affected as far as i know

subinf

^ - Off topic but how did the LSAT go?

And on topic - my buddy got a few tickets in FL when he was going to school down there and his CA insurance never went up. He just paid the fines and went on with everything.

Renegade

The LSAT sucked, the first section were logical games, harder than the past 3 tests and i panicked and then sucked up that section. reading comp was okay, 1 logical reasoning was hard as hell, and 1 logical reasoning was really easy.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

There's no need for traffic school or anything like that. Go to yellowpages.com type in a zip code of that area you were in. Find a ticket lawyer. Pay them the $80-$100, to fight it for you. Your a 1st time offender & out of state. The most your going to get is a reduced fine.
You will not get points, & you will not have to be in FL. You can fax & email everything to the ticket lawyer.

And BTW cops do not play here when it comes to school zones. I've seen people pulled over for 5mph over. 15 limit & they were doing 20. I've also seen cars picked out of a group that was traveling the same speed above 15mph.

Chief F1 Fan

Did you go to your home state's dmv site to see if they have a reciprocal agreement w/ Florida? If not do that first. If they do not, plead guilty, pay the fine and be done w/ it. This goes for EVERY single one of these "I gotta speeding ticket in . . . . " threads.

Chief F1 Fan

Bad advice there Fuzzy w/ all due respect. I'm a lawyer who occasionally has to be in traffic court and there is no need for one here where all OP has to do is send in ticket, plead guilty and wait for the fine notification.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

In FL it works that way. Of course if points don't transfer then yes pay it & forget it. But if they do it's the best option. I've worked the FL system many times & we have a pre-trial hearing with every ticket. You can plead no contest at this hearing, or choose to go to trial & another trial date is set where you bring all your proof & the cops needs to show up.
A no contest plea means the judge will look at your record & then decided what to do. In points cases, if your record is mostly clean you will get a reduced fine & no points by pleading it out this way. This is the way 99% of traffic lawyer in FL do it.

CLeanATL

never speed there, lodi, or s. georgia

SidS1045

Waldo FL is notorious across the country as one continuous speed trap. Something like 70% of the town's budget comes from speeding tickets.

o1s

i've also been pulled over in waldo for going like 4 mph over the speed limit. all i got was a lecture about how speeding was so dangerous.

Mike 350Z

Ok thanks for the replies everyone. I've researched and read about the Drivers License Compact (DLC) and it looks like MD and FL are both part of it. I've also heard rumors that out of state points don't transfer to MD licenses, even though they do tell MD about the infraction. And I've also heard that is B.S. too.

I keep getting tons of traffic school/lawyer stuff in the mail which is funny since I've never seen this before and I've had several tickets.

I'll read all this over tomorrow and decide what to do. I still have a couple weeks.

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

Yeah, that's what happens in FL with moving violations. Expect more of them.

gatrhumpy

iTrader: (1)

Waldo cops are like that. They're assholes.

ggesq

iTrader: (1)

IMHO- do the traffic school. Not sure about other states, but in FLA, you can even do online traffic school.

Mike 350Z

Yeah. This guy didn't really seem like he was in a joking mood.


I think that's what I'm going to do. Pay the reduced fine now then I have 60 days to complete the 4 hr. class. I can probably do it at work too. Seems cleaner than dealing with a lawyer which may or may not result in anything positive for me.