First Ticket
 

Last night I was issued my first ticket ever...71 in a 55. Bleh, I wonder what the fee for that will be...or what insurance is going to think about that. 5 years of driving and this is my first...I suppose thats not too bad.

In MD you need to appear and plead. The point is not to get 'points'. Wear a jacket other than your Ferrari red and learn to say; "Yes your honor."

The insurance company is going to act like you raped the President's daughter. You can't change that.

BTW: the dial in the center is NOT the speedo.

jim

did he get you with Laser or radar?

Check out this site. It may be helpful, but will require some research work on your part. Could even be fun!

http://www.blurofinsanity.com/Speeding.html

Yes, sir.. No Sir. It won't happen again, Sir.

Parking ticket, school, no points.

Chances are your municipality just wants your money.

wait a minute aren't you in the military? didn't you show him your military ID?
Must have been a coast guard vet.

being in the military doesn't help me when I'm in the military town...they are already tired of us, haha. He got me w/radar. Thing is, I have a cobra, and the damn thing was acting funny that day, going off in the middle of no where and such, so when it registered the smallest hit of K band, I ignored. At night, this was a bad idea.

Those K signals can travel for miles and miles, this can be a nightmare for those who live in middle of nowhere and drive their all the time. I guess the strength meter can be the life saver.

Go In Your Military Garb
 

Throw yourself at the mercy of the court but allude to the fact that it is through your personal sacrifice and willingness to fall on the sword is your dedication to freedom, liberty & equality there are all there in their soft cushy seats meting out justice against a "humble serviceman". A few your honours would do the trick. Then just get bigger than they and say You understand the necessity to raise revenue but not on those who are the first line of defense of the country!
NOT GUILTY.

I am asuming you're joking, and if so, please make it more obvious next time! The judge will act like it's not about revenue -- it's about taking horrible evil lawbreakers who break the speedlimits by a couple MPH off the road. So you have to play to that level. You have to pretend that you don't see it as revenue, you see it as someone calling you on traveling at insanely high speeds that you had no idea you were travelling, and are shocked to hear that you were going 16 MPH over the speed limit! It's all about pretending to think you did something wrong. :)

yeah and while youre digging that grave ask them if they were serious about enforcing the speed limit why dont' they just have the cameras like over in Austria that trip a photograph of the license plate of each car going over the limit?

My advice (although I haven't been in court in 8 years) get to court early, find the Municipal prosecutor and ask him if you can enter a guility plea to non-points offenses like seatbelts, double parking etc that equal the same dollar amount as your speeding ticket. I've done this several times and my prosecutor seemed to have fun doing these side deals. Don't wait for the judge to give you mercy, he don't care brother.

Advice from a veteran offender (I have the insurance rate to prove it). You can try to fight it but if this is your first ticket, just pay the $130+ (My guess) and then take online traffic school. No points and if you zip through it you can finish in about 30 minutes!

I fought one ticket which I did not deserve and even with my pile of evidence the officer (a community college cop) just lied and I lost.

Good Luck

When it comes to moving violations, it is ALWAYS about the money.

Here in CA, we have made a fine art out of soaking the citizens in whatever way we can.

Makes the folks back east look like amateurs.

A Few Random Thoughts
 

I have been tagged numerous times in the 21 years I have had a license and usually behind the wheel on an exotic German car. More often than not I have been able beat to my citations.

I show up to court an hour early because the city/county prosecutor arrives early to review the paperwork for that days cases. You will most likely find the prosecutor in the courtroom.

I introduce myself (to the prosecutor) and politely ask him/her if they have a minute to discuss my case. Basically I state that I am not a chronic repeat offender and that it has been many years since my last speeding ticket. FYI: This better be true because they will have your driving record since you turned sixteen. No Joking here...they will.

Normally they are willing to accept sort of a plea bargain. Do not admit guilt. Basically say that you are asking for a suspended/contingency sentence and agree to pay the fine but don't want the ticket to show on your record. They will tell you that you are not to get another speeding ticket for a year. If you do so, this ticket will go away. If you get caught again in a year, it's double whammy.

The reason they are receptive to this proposal is beacuse technically they did not lose the case and did collect funds. They also quickly got one resolved. The arteries of our courts are so seriously clogged with stupid cases like speeding that they just want to blow through them quickly.

I sincerely hope this helps you.

MRC

Go with Mike's advice. That's the most intelligent and rational post on here.