Board 8 > Question about fighting a traffic citation/suspended licenses

(+) Yeah! (+)

So back in January I got my first ever speeding ticket.

The cop said I was going 65 on a 40mph turn when I absolutely was not, and when I pointed out I was BEHIND other cars he said he clocked the car in front of me at 44.

So obviously that makes no sense, so I decided to plead not guilty, and did so with the email response, expecting to get a court date at some point.

Obviously, time passed, and today I received a notice in the mail that my license was suspended until I pay my fee.

I dont want to pay this, how do I prove I did what I was supposed to? Like I have the email proof, will they accept it? And was it my responsibility to double check they did their job or what?

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I think it depends on the state.

I'd get on the phone with a human at the right number and hash it out. If you missed your court date you might be boned

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At this point, I'd look into hiring a traffic ticket attorney.

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banananor posted...

If you missed your court date you might be boned

This.

A lot of times they won't inform you of your actual court date and the onus is on you to be in contact with the court to know when to come in.

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Thats so stupid, lol wtf

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As someone who recently started in a law office mainly dealing in traffic violations, it is indeed on the person to know when their court date is as it is publicly available information (In NC, anyway.) It's on a website here in NC, I would hope other states have the same, where you can just type in the name and find your court date, even a past one if it just happened. Perhaps you can check yours and see whether or not that happened. But it does suck for someone who wouldn't know that and would assume that someone would reach out to them.

What exactly was your plan, if I may ask? I'm just a receptionist basically at this point so I'm not goin to act like I'm an expert, and I don't want to come off as shilling for hiring an attorney as I just stated I now work at a place and probably wouldn't be taken seriously, I'm just wondering if you were planning to just rep yourself once the actual court date came around to try and prove that you weren't guilty, or if you were waiting to hire an attorney once you found out your court date.
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My plan (what I wrote on the form they had me fill out that I emailed to them) was to say I plead not guilty on account of the cop was wrong, and that the officer literally told me the car in front of me was going 20mph slower, so how was I one car length behind someone going 20 over, and with my driving history just hope for the best.

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Well I knwo in NC anyway, at least where I am, the officer writes the court date on the ticket, so here at least it's not like the offender is left completely int he dark about their court date. Most people we deal with just forget and don't know they can look it up anytime. No idea what it's like in other states though.
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Yeah in California I'm pretty sure it's written on the ticket as well. I've never gotten one myself but that's been the case for friends/family who have.

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ok so I looked up my exact ticket and the email contesting it because I was second-guessing myself about it already having my court date, and it straight up says I will be notified of the date and time of my hearing.

Augh, so if I have to hire a lawyer to fight this, Ill probably win right? But that means Im gonna have to pay some money no matter what, huh

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Same in GA. They even write a court date on warnings and then tell you you don't have so show up for it.
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Well regardless of whether or not things worked out completely in your favor, you might still have been on the hook for court costs which I think are generally charged no matter what.

This is not legal advice, but just my guess, it would depend on whether or not they can prove something was sent to you. Like if they have record of sending it in the mail and it being delivered, or them sending you an email but it somehow going to junk on your end or something, stuff like that might disallow you of getting off the hook. Basically if anything exists that shows they did their part, that's probably tough luck. If it's somehow as simple as "They said they sent me one, they actually didn't" Then I would have a hard time imagining you wouldn't win, but again NOT legal advice.

As for hiring a lawyer, everywhere is different but you might be able to find people who at least give free consultations, I know the firm I'm at does. Then they can give you what they would plan to do and how much they would charge, and you could decide from there if you want to hire them. Plenty of people around here give us a call and shop around. If you get really lucky then maybe the lawyer would just straight up do the work pro bono after hearing your story and how you did nothing wrong. Alternatively, if you make under some amount you could try asking for a court appointed lawyer where they will assign you one at no charge, but I don't know the details on that. But regardless, even if the fee ends up being for a lawyer, it depends on how much the fee for just haivng your license reinstated is, and that still I don't know if it would get you off the hook for stuff like points on your license. If it doesn't (which you could probably ask a lawyer), then paying them would probably be preferable to having a 25 over on your record.
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Good info, Ill try to call for a free consultation, thank you!

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Not a traffic lawyer so I don't know details but "notice" is a technical term. Like if you were mailed something but accidentally missed it, "But I never got it!" is not going to fly in court unless you get a lenient judge.

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One of my physics professors in college told the story of how he represented himself in a court and tried to use math+physics to prove that he couldn't possibly have been speeding. He apparently hadn't been speeding and there was another car they confused with his.

Apparently the judge told him something like, "the laws of mathematics don't apply to this courtroom" and he had to pay the fine anyway.

Hope it goes well anyway, though.

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RikkuAlmighty posted...

Not a traffic lawyer so I don't know details but "notice" is a technical term. Like if you were mailed something but accidentally missed it, "But I never got it!" is not going to fly in court unless you get a lenient judge.

Setting aside that the notice should probably be sent to me in the form I sent it (email), I check my mail closely every day (because I rarely get mail at all tbh) and they definitely never sent me anything

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I'm not sure courts do a lot of communication by email.

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I'd assume the court uses physical mail, but unless you can somehow prove they never sent anything you don't have a good argument there. At least you're not facing potential jail time?
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Fiop posted...

One of my physics professors in college told the story of how he represented himself in a court and tried to use math+physics to prove that he couldn't possibly have been speeding. He apparently hadn't been speeding and there was another car they confused with his.

Apparently the judge told him something like, "the laws of mathematics don't apply to this courtroom" and he had to pay the fine anyway.

Hope it goes well anyway, though.

This is basically why I didn't fight a ticket I got for "driving on the shoulder" on a turn lane. I was told that, basically, traffic judges don't care and aren't interested and hate their jobs so people almost never win. And in California, they're spiteful and will tack on other stuff if you challenge the ticket. They're not impartial and just believe whatever the cop says.

I just paid the fine and went to traffic school.

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Yeah usually for the firm I'm at, you don't "get rid of" traffic tickets, it's usually just downgraded to a lesser charge.
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So even though I literally didnt do the crime, something is still gonna be on my record?

Tight, cool system we have.

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I mean traffic court is an abomination, sure, but even now your situation is not the same as having an actual criminal record if that's what you're saying.
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Yeah I'm not gonna say any more than this because I don't want to be like, entertainingly wrong on something, it sounds like you at least have a plan to contact an attorney, so they should be able to . It also wouldn't hurt to try and contact your local courthouse and see if they can give you your next court date and whether or not you did in fact miss your first one.
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