Always Fight Speeding Tickets
In April, I got my first speeding ticket. I almost never speed, but I was driving my friend’s car and was not really paying attention to how fast I was going. I was given two citations: speeding ($180) and passing on the right ($100). I appealed and received a court date to meet with the Magistrate who would make a decision. Note that this was not a trial. I have written about getting out of speeding tickets in the past and about the trial process. This meeting was the step before the trial. Some cities/towns have you meet with the magistrate to expedite the process. If I was unsatisfied with the magistrates decision, I could appeal and set a court date for a trial.
Here is what happened at my hearing. I was called into a room with the magistrate and a police officer (not the one who pulled me over, but a representative) and the charges against me were read by the police officer. These were the notes that the officer had written on my citation. I then gave my case. The magistrate then made a decision. He found me not responsible for the passing on the right and reduced the speeding ticket to $120.
At first, I asked to appeal right away, but then thought about it and took his decision. My reasoning was that it would cost me $50 to appeal and schedule a court date. So the only difference would be $70 and possibly a slight bump in my insurance. Since this was my first and only ticket, I don’t see my insurance rate jumping significantly. I figured it would take me half a day to go to court and complete the trial. This would not make it worthwhile for me to waste my time, so I decided against going to trial.
I am pretty certain I would have won the case if I had gone to trial. I remember all the details of the day and noted them on my blackberry right after the traffic stop. The officer only had the notes on his citation and there is no way he would have remembered a 6 minute traffic stop 2 months ago. If he even showed up to court, I could have discredited his testimony by asking him questions about the incident that he would not know the answer to. (ie. the weather that day, traffic flow, what color shirt I was wearing, etc). I do not think they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I was speeding and passing on the right. Still, it made more sense to take the magistrates decision because of the opportunity cost (ie. my time).
Have you had similar experiences?
Categories: In The money
