It's up to you to put a moral or ethical value on whether it is "right" or "wrong" to contest the ticket.
The law is on your side, as a ticket that is written incorrectly can be dismissed AND possibly, if the officer does not appear in court, your ticket will be dismissed.
Don't let another person's morals or ethics dictate your actions.
His ticket isn't written incorrectly in a legal sense.
If you show up at court and are polite with the prosecutor, you can ask to plead guilty to a "no-points" violation (equipment citation, etc.). That can keep your insurance from going up.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
That's basically what I was hoping for. I'll begrudgingly pay some amount of a fee, but what I really want is to avoid my insurance going up.Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor
A few other things I noticed driving the same road today: There is no indication anywhere in the area of what the "restricted hours" are for the place I got pulled over. What happened was I was going 38 in a 35 zone, but it's also a school zone and apparently it was during the restricted time frame. The thing is, the school zone sign only says "during restricted hours", there's no blinking light to indicate it's a restricted period, and there's no signs anywhere saying an actual time frame. Furthermore, the school back the road a ways DOES have times listed and they're 2-3pm. I was pulled over at 3:15.
Would any of that potentially help?
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Fight the man or he will own you.
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The Operator (05-19-2013)
Aside - I heard something awhile back that insurances aren't as able to tell if you have gotten a moving violation lately because everytime they check you or others out at random, it costs them money...which hasn't been paying off for them...
Any insiders know about this?
If your main concern is avoiding having your insurance go up you could call the court and ask if you can take a defensive driving class (at least to know your options). You'd probably pay the court the same as if you just showed up today to pay it off. But, by taking the class it won't count the same so the insurance won't know anything about the charge. The court gets paid (which is all they care about with most violations) and the driver avoids any hike in insurance payments. Happens all the time.
Did you know it was a school zone?
Don't drive almost 40mph in a school zone at 3:15 in the afternoon. Even if it's a 2-3pm restricted zone. Come on.
If you didn't know, then fair enough, mistakes happen. Either way, I wouldn't waste my time fighting it, you will probably lose. For every story of someone getting out of a ticket because a cop didn't show up, there are probably ten people who tried and the cop did show up. They love to in Columbus, it's generally overtime pay. But it varies everywhere.
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The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
It's definitely worth showing up -- as long as your driving record isn't terrible, most DAs will have no problem doing something to help you on the charge.
As long as you aren't demanding a dismissal and show up ready to pay a fine + court costs, politely asking for a reduction in the offense charged is usually no big deal.
A broken tail-light (for example) charge looks a lot better on a record (and with your insurance company) than a speeding ticket.
Last edited by Caveat Emperor; 05-21-2013 at 12:23 PM.
Cincinnati Reds: Farm System Champions 2022
Had court today. The Court Magistrate was extremely nice, and after explaining the school zone she agreed to amend the charge. She went out of her way to compliment the fact that in 10 years of driving I've had only one other citation, which I thanked her for. To be quite honest, for being in court as a defendant she made it about as pleasant of an experience as it could possibly have been.
I ended up paying a $10 fine + court fee, and 0 points will go on my license.
I can live with that. Losing money is always a bummer, but it could be way worse.
Thanks for all of your helpful replies, folks. Being my first ever time in court I really needed the coaching.
Last edited by The Operator; 05-22-2013 at 12:54 AM.
Phil Castellini puts the FUN in Trust Fund.
HeatherC1212 (05-23-2013),Sea Ray (05-23-2013)
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