Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hi there and thanks for allowing us not so smart traffic violating civilians pick your brains about legal stuff. Its great to have the opportunity so thanks. :)

That being said I have a situation I would like bring up and get your advice on. I realize the best advice is to juts not get a ticket and obey the laws. Your right and I have been trying to improve my driving lately. But I think like all people accidents still happen. :( I have never been one of those people who blatantly break the law and show boat around but I do tend to have a lead foot when I am not paying attention.

I recently received a speeding on my way to work. I was 2 blocks from getting there and running behind and was guilty of going 37 over in a 25. I have no excuse except I wasn't paying attention to my speed like I should have. I only have one opportunity for driving school left on my record since I used 4 of them when I was younger trying to keep my insurance down. I would like to take this ticket to court and plead no contest and see if they will remove the points but not sure if its worth the possible court fees. I am not looking to get out of what I have done or just soften the blow. I am 24 going to be 25 in April, and have sadly had probably 6 tickets in my past all but the most recent are withheld adjudication. The most recent is 3 point for speeding. Like I said, not the best driver obviously. 4 of those were removed with traffic school. One had the adjudication withheld in court about 3 years ago and the most recent before this one about 8 months ago I was accused of speeding and genuinely was not. My cruise control was set and he must have clocked the guy in front of me. I took that to court to plead innocent and lost.

I don't make a habit of trying to get out of tickets when I am guilty I just do the best damage control I can, which is what I am trying to do here. The one I received today, I did speed and was wrong, just trying to minimize the damage so to speak. But I am wondering due to past tickets and such if its even worth pleading no contest. I will be turning 25 in April and I am pretty sure insurance drops a bit then anyway but by how much I am not sure. Just looking to get your thoughts on how to approach this the best way. And yes I know the first thing is to STOP speeding. :) I truly am trying to watch myself more, but for some reason it has ot be a conscious thing for me, if anything else is on my mind I speed and don't realize it. Apparently I have a bigger speed issue then I initially thought. Anyway I am just trying to get your thoughts on the recent ticket and how to address it? And even maybe ideas for keeping my speed conscious and under control. I really want to improve here and not have to keep dealing with this. I really want to try and fix my driving habits, not just do damage control all the time. But as for the ticket what do you think? Pay it and move on? No contest (try for withheld adjudication)? Any other ideas or helpful thoughts? Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond.

You seem to have a handle on the biggest issue - slow down.

You can try and elect court, and ask the judge to give you the withhold of adjudication. Depending on the judge they may give you the withhold - maybe not. But, you will also have court costs in addition to the fine.

Ask the judge to assign traffic school - it doesn't count as one of your elections. But they may assign a longer school than 4 hours - maybe 8, 12, or even 24 hours.