Advices for court date?!

[tiptoezoomzoom]

Alright, I made a mistake and got caught for speeding and written down for +100mph on 280. I probably would have kept the speed limit but ya'll know bikes are fast, and mine is a liter at that. Mine got over a +100mph so fast that I didn't even realize it. Argh, maybe It was a beautiful sunny day and I was mindless for a sec anyhow the fine is way too high. I'm a student and it'd break my bank if I have to pay the amount stated. I was just wondering if anyone got any good experience or advice to help me lower the fee a bit for when I go to court. This would be my first time at court. I've also got some speeding tickets with my car before(not bike) but my record is good..no misdemeanor or anything.

And why is the dmn traffic school for me is $300, I don't recall it being this high when I got tickets with my car, ehh :(

[svclee]

maybe get a lawyer? +100mph is gonna be alot..

take the traffic skool and get that off your record if you can..cause in the long run your insurance is gonna rack up more then 300.00 if you keep that on your record..

[PantyBuncher]

it's a good question, why do "school" prices vary based on the infraction ? basically, the school fee is an administrative fee for the overhead of processing the traffic school completion and court costs, and a penalty fee is listed separately. i get the feeling that the court / local jurisdiction gets to keep the administrative fee, but has to send the penalty fees elsewhere. or, basically, some accounting reason makes the court prefer to charge you more for "school" and less for penalties. does anyone know for sure ?

[rwcfrank]

Which section where you cited for? 22350 or 22348(b)? The 22348 section is whats going to hurt.. Were you WAY over a hundred or very close? If you can articulate that you were under 100 mph the cite may not stand... Its up to the judge is they decide to amend the citing section down to 22350. If they do your fine will drop considerably..I am fairly sure the 22348 section is a 2 point violation, not good...

[RickyHayden]

You will probably get 2 points and only be able to go to traffice school for 1

[summitdog]

If you were in Santa Clara County, there is only one option for online driver's school.

As noted, you may wish to have an attorney assist you on this matter. It will cost some coin, but not nearly as much as the jump your insurance will take if they see this on your record.

Scotty

[Slowmofo]

dude paythe 300 now or end up paying the insurance over 300 every month to keep your ride at full coverage its sucks i only i have one ticket left and keeps my insurance up at 240 a month for my car and for my bike its 240 for liablity but on full its 2300 if i didnt have that ticket my bike would be on full and not on liabilty, by the way your car is effected by this point too hahhahah suxxs when they combine vechiles

[deaconblues]

dude... PARAGRAPHS would be a good idea... so would punctuation.... :twofinger

but yah, you have to think about whether it's worth it to spend $ now to save $$$ later. I'm just glad Geico never 'noticed' the two (three?) points on my lic.. instead of raising my rates, they lowered them for keeping the policy going for 2 years straight...

[Trogdor]

Tell us the section you were cited for. It'll help determine how best to deal with it.

[dspyder]

I'm confused... you have enough money for a liter bike but not enough for the ticket??? (they're fast you know)....

Sell the liter, buy a 600 (or less if you like)... use the difference to pay for the ticket (and hope the insurance break evens out the increase from the ticket).


I will give you one piece of advice a very good trial lawyer friend of mine gave me. "Court is about telling good stories, make sure your story makes sense".

Don't go in there saying you weren't doing 100 if you were. Don't say you had a momentary lapse of concentration if your next comment is "I noticed so and so car in the other lane going quickly". A good excuse in most motorcycle cases is that you were focusing on merging traffic and you didn't want to distract your gaze to check the speedo. As soon as you noticed how quickly you were going you slowed down.

Others advice re: traffic school is accurate. Be polite (and cleanly dressed), and hope the judge knocks it down to a 1 pointer. Or, pay for an attorney, and it'll almost automatically get knocked down to a 1 pointer and you won't have to waste time waiting for your name to be called.

--Darren

[Team-Excalibur]

Originally posted by tiptoezoomzoom
Alright, I made a mistake and got caught for speeding and written down for +100mph on 280. I probably would have kept the speed limit but ya'll know bikes are fast, and mine is a liter at that. Mine got over a +100mph so fast that I didn't even realize it. Argh, maybe It was a beautiful sunny day and I was mindless for a sec anyhow the fine is way too high. I'm a student and it'd break my bank if I have to pay the amount stated. I was just wondering if anyone got any good experience or advice to help me lower the fee a bit for when I go to court. This would be my first time at court. I've also got some speeding tickets with my car before(not bike) but my record is good..no misdemeanor or anything.

And why is the dmn traffic school for me is $300, I don't recall it being this high when I got tickets with my car, ehh :(

Damn dude, :wtf you're a student? I hope yiou plan on taking some basic grammer or maybe an English course!
Or do they teach that at Heald :teeth

[wackyiraqi]

Originally posted by Team-Excalibur
Damn dude, :wtf you're a student? I hope yiou plan on taking some basic grammer or maybe an English course!
Or do they teach that at Heald :teeth


:laughing :thumbup

[Team-Excalibur]

Oh whatever....:hand

[auntiebling]

you're lucky traffic school is on the table. a friend got ticketed at 99 in a 65 and wasn't allowed due to being more than 25 mph over the limit.

maybe the higher fee is due to being so far over, school is more involved in that case? i dunno

[tiptoezoomzoom]

Originally posted by rwcfrank
Which section where you cited for? 22350 or 22348(b)? The 22348 section is whats going to hurt.. Were you WAY over a hundred or very close? If you can articulate that you were under 100 mph the cite may not stand... Its up to the judge is they decide to amend the citing section down to 22350. If they do your fine will drop considerably..I am fairly sure the 22348 section is a 2 point violation, not good...

Sorry about the late reply but I've just found my ticket after having dug through my little moutain of papers. Anyhow, I've got cited for 22348(a) on the ticket which also states that I was in excess of +100 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Since I've sold the bike and bought an '83 750cc cruiser to keep insurance down which also is insured with several other cars. Hopefully I will be able to come up with a good excuse for the judge...anyone has any good experience?! So depress now...damn cruiser is comfortable and fun, but it was never meant to corner like my old rocket.


Please excuse me if I don't have time to revise my draft. :twofinger :laughing

[rwcfrank]

Since you were cited for the 22348 section I am certain you were paced. As with tickets written by non-traffic cops, pacing requires skill and expertise along with fastidious note taking. Most non traffic cops scratch the cite, make a few notes on the back and move on. Well, it becomes very important where you were first picked up by the citing officer, how long he paced you and where you were stopped. If you were travelling at over 100 mph you were moving and just under 150 feet per second. I find when reviewing cites that the officer's notes read first observed location, violation location and stop location (that's if they are good notes) If you measure the distance from the first observed location to the violation location you can sometimes easily prove that it was not possible to pace someone at 100 mph in such a short distance (if the distance is short, say 1/2 mile). Since your moving at 150 feet per second you would cover a mile quite quickly. Personally I would subpoena the officers notes, calibration records on his vehicle and go from there. Again, you need to prove you were under a hundred not that you were going 65 or less. Hope this makes sense...

[motorman4life]

Originally posted by tiptoezoomzoom
Alright, I made a mistake and got caught for speeding and written down for +100mph on 280. I probably would have kept the speed limit but ya'll know bikes are fast, and mine is a liter at that. Mine got over a +100mph so fast that I didn't even realize it.

Have you seen this thread?
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110207

[tiptoezoomzoom]

Originally posted by motorman4life
Have you seen this thread?
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110207

Thanks, forgot all about it. I'm just gonna start praying for a cool judge for my court date meanwhile I'll be riding my cruiser for a while:angel