I was driving home from ourlake house in Sandusky yesterday when I was pulled over in Mt. Gilead. The speed limit was 55 on the road that I was on but then it changed to 35 as you entered the town. I know quite a few of the members on this forum are from Ohio, so you might know what I am talking about. But anyways, I didn't see that the speed limit had changed from 55 to 35 and as I came over this hill, I saw that there was a cop with his laser out. I tried to find a road I could lose him on because it took him awhile to get in his car, but there were no roads at all. He clocked me at 54, even though I was easily going 60, but he only wrote me a ticket for going 50. He said he only wrote it for 50 because if he wrote it for 54 I wold supposedly have to go to court, but at 50 I can just mail in the fine. But the thing is, he was parked in someone's private driveway when he got me. I didn't know that cops were allowed to hid in driveways like that. I was wondering if anyone on here knows any of the laws about this stuff that might get my ticket dismissed in court. The ticket is only for $100, but I just don't want the points on my license because I am only 19, and can't afford any more points. All the information on the ticket is correct so I can't use that to get my ticket dismissed. Thanks for any help.

 

Don't bother with it. Look up in the Yellowpages for "traffic lawyers" and call one up. Tell them what happened and they will take the case for you. It costs a flat rate (around $75) and they refund it if they can't get you off with no fines or points.

You don't even have to go to court, they go for you. All you do is drop by their office, sign a few things, pay them the lawyers fees and you are done. If they need anything else from you they will contact you.

 

Eh...you did something illegal and was caught. The cop was nice and let you get away cheap. Shouldn't you just say thank you and pay the fine? Don't you guys have to take responsibility for anything in your country? Hey, maybe you can sue the Officer for something. Emotional stress or something like that?

I don't get it.

 

Eivind,
Let me help you get it.
1) GW944T, asked about help with a speeding ticket.
2) You offered no help.

Clear things up a bit? Now lets try to stay on topic and maybe offer some advice.


GW944T,
I do not know Ohio law but in Georgia 15 over is points on your license 14 is not. So the cop was just being humorous lowing your speed to 15. In Georgia you would have a couple options:
1) Go to court and plead Nolo you would have to pay the fine but no points would be assessed. The judge has to approve this and you can only do it once every 5 years. (I recommend you save this for a bigger ticket)
2) Go to court you can usually plea bargain with the DA that if they will lower the speed by 1 mph you will plead guilty and pay the ticket.
3) Go to court and hope the cop doesn't show. I would guesstimate that here cops don't show 30% of the time. But you have to plead not guilty and come back another day when the cop will be in court. (This has worked for me once)
4) Get a lawyer, they can do amazing things but here they usually run 200-500 smackers.

Hope this helps,
John

 

So what you are saying is that even though we, as Americans, have the right to question a speeding ticket in a court of law, with an attorney present, we should forfeit that right and just trust the officers judgment.
People have died to provide us with these rights as Americans.... Use them or someday when you really need them they may be gone.

 

Travis, I think what he is saying is "slow down, learn your lesson, and pay the ticket." Dont you guys get a little tired of these posts? I mean really the only answers of any substance are:

1) Get a lawyer, that is what they get paid to do

2) Slow down and avoid getting the ticket in the first place
2a) Learn the rules of driving and follow them
Do we need a thread on this everytime someone gets a ticket? Does the advice ever change?

It seems like people post these things looking for sympathy. If you have a clean driving record then go ask for deferred adjudication, do defensive driving, and keep it clean. If you dont then see rule #2 subsection a. Very few people are randomly selected for a traffic violation.

It is similar to when people say, "Prof. so and so gave me an 'F.'" No they didnt you EARNED an F.

Since the poster admits his wrongdoing then his course of action is #1. BTW - isnt this like the 3rd-4th thread on this subject in the last week or so?
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Maybe we should put 'Get a traffic lawyer' in the 944 FAQ. Then we could all use the handy little

 

People don't always understand the full repercussions of a ticket though. If you are under 25 and you just "pay the ticket," you are going to pay that ticket every year for the next 10 years. You will pay it in the amount your insurance goes up. So take that ticket, multiply it by 10 then decide if it is worth it to pay a lawyer.
Anyway, Matt is right. This is about the 4th post about " tickets " in the last few weeks. Are more people speeding or are just more people getting caught?

 

Travis when I was 18 I got a ticket for 47 in a 35, I paid it and moved on. Insurance is effected for 2 years (have you had any citations in the last two years is the question you will be asked when switching insurance companies) and it raised my total rate by a whopping 14 bucks a year. To me it was worth it just to get it over with. I have not had another ticket since. I have been pulled over a number of times, some with written warning, some with nothing.
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Travis, he admits to driving 60 in a 35 and getting fined for 50. What is there to question?
Sorry for suggesting he do the right thing and take responsibility for his actions.
Do you think it's fair that he should clog up the justice system in your country and waste the taxpayers money when he is at fault?

 

Well, if you re-read the post, he actually said he was doing 60, in a 55, and the speed limit changed to 35. He didn't see that it had changed, and the cop got him whenever he was getting ready to slow down. I got caught the same way, but I explained what happend to the cop and he didn't even give me a warning. Especially if you hadn't driven on that road much and can't really see the signs that well.

 

Call the DAs office and talk to him about it. Perhaps since you missed the sign he might give you a break if you are not familiar with the area.

But you admit you were speeding and driving a Porsche a judge is not likely to have pity on you. If you speed you have to be prepared to pay the fines.

 

The reason I bring that up is not so much the first ticket but what happens (depending on your insurance company) after the second or third.

My Dad had this problem. He had statefarm auto insurance and received 2 moving violations in the same year. Not speeding but a seatbelt and tail light. They dropped him after his policy was up and told him they would only take him back on "assigned risk." which was 4 times the amount per year he was paying.
He had to switch insurance companies and with the 2 moving violations on record he was (and is) paying 2 times what he was before. It has been a few years and no, it has not yet gone down.

You can say what you will but I am happy clogging up the justice system and I encourage anyone else to do it as well. I am 24 years old and officially ticket free (on the books). Its just not worth the possible hassle down the line to just "pay the ticket." I would rather pay a lawyer more than the ticket amount even for something as stupid as a tail light infraction.

Thats just my view and experience with these things so you can take it however you like.

 

I understand! The seat belt tickets will get you dropped in a heartbeat down south.
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Thanks for the help guys, I guess next time though I will read through a bunch of posts before I post anything. I didn't realize that there were so many posts on tickets. As you can see, I don't post much on here because I don't want to get torn up by the old vets of this site. I think I might see about finding the lawyer like Travis advised, just so I can avoid the points and most importantly the higher insurance.