Jump to content
HybridZ

Went to court to fight a ticket


SleeperZ

Recommended Posts

I got ticketed last summer in the Colorado mountains, going 80 down the back side of the Eisenhower tunnel. The penalty was $116 fine and 6 points off the license (we are allowed 12 per year and 18 in two years.) So I made the decision to make the appearance of fighting it - at least delay the huge hit in my insurance rate.

 

So I was crusing up out of Georgetown (7-8% grade, 9000'+ elevation) and a cute little midnight blue Prelude wanted to get by me. It's two lanes, I was following someone slow in the left lane, and someone slightly slower was to the right. This Prelude passes all of us on the right at a high rate of speed, where the entrance lane was ending. I wait for the car in front to pull right after passing and punch it in 4th. I was just running 13psi boost as I had some old 91 octane in the tank and didn't want to push it. This Prelude must have had a turbo - no Honda goes faster than 70 up this hill without forced induction; I catch up and pass him pretty quick, and keep going, hit 5th, and look at the speedo. 130MPH!! :shock: Keep in mind I have never been faster than 120 in this car. Guy is bus-lengths behind, so I pull it back to 80 in the 65 (I am going to court for what? hmmm...) Of course he catchs up, and makes an attempt to pass me, and I give it another burst, and let him pass finally. I thought, no matter how the day goes, I had one bright point.

 

Anyway, get to court 10 minutes early, just the judge and the prosecutor present. Waited until 5 minutes past the appointment time,

 

 

 

 

THE COP DOESN'T SHOW UP, AND THE TICKET IS DISMISSED!!!

 

Can't beat that with a stick, and I had zero defense besides the obvious "Constitutional" one. A good day mad even better. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest BigWhyteDude

though i have never gotten a ticket my brother has, 55 in a 35 schoolzone :shock: . Big oops, We were only 17 at the time too. thankfuly we live in a relatively small town and we knew the officer so a couple of days later he knocked it down to a warning b/c my bro talked to him about it. It would have been a $600 dollar ticket and probly my bros lisence would have been suspended. Lucky him huh?

 

Andrew

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Definetly fight tickets. But, here is one of a few that I couldn't get out of. About 6 years ago, my cousin was having a party, and when the word "party" is said, the family is present in a flash (we LOVE to party, trust me on this one, a few of you on here personally know this :D ) Well, the party gets going in an apartment complex. The neighbors didn't get all pissy or nothing when a whole lot of people where there. Come 12 AM, the family has left and all the where left were freinds of my cousins (all underage) and myself. We were being quite loud and drinking heavily. Things got a little out of hand betwen a few guys and the neighbors called the cops. Cops show up and bust a few guys for possession and underage drinking. Luckily, the only thing that happend to me was, they put me in charge of calling all the kids parents and have them picked up. The cops told me to stay there untill all the kids were picked up and gone. I said sure, whatever you like (yeah, right) and as soon as they left, we all partied again, but kept it a little quiter. The next morning, I go out to my car to find a fu(king pink slip on my windshield! The fricken bastards had the nerve to ticket my car as they were leaving for some stupid parking violation! The violation was time sensitive.

 

Alright, so these cops put me in charge of all these kids and tell me to stay there. If I stay there, then my car stays there, where they that naive? This seriously pissed me off. I don't put up with this crap, and I kind of have a problem with authority figures.

 

I decide to see the bastard that gave me the ticket by going to fight it. Some time passes by and I end up in court. It turns out that I have no idea who the heck it was that gave me the ticket, because it's hard to see their name tags. While I'm sitting there waiting with the 100 or so people fighting tickets, a peice of paper gets flung at my head. I turn around and a buddy of mine is in court fiighting a drunken dissorderly ticket. We had a few words untill some wanabe cop made me shut up.

 

It came time for me to stand in front of this rather nice judge. I've heard him with other people before me with worse cases and gave them next to nothing, so I figured he would hear me out and have sympathy for me. So I stand before him telling him that I was innocent and the ticket should be dropped, because the police officers TOLD me to stay, therefore I could not leave and move my vehicle. The judge was an ass towards me, so I was a smart ass towards him. He did not like this. I worded it out in plain english and I also turned around to the many people in the seats behind me and told them what had happened to which I started to get a few claps and some people booing the judge. I had the baliffs (sp?) esscort me out of the court room with one of them very quitely telling me "good show, you really pissed him off".

 

A few weeks later, I ran into the buddy that I saw at the courtroom. He said the judge was a "total dick" to everyone after me. I guess I hit a nerve.

 

The ticket still stood, I payed the money, my insurance didn't go up (thank goodness) and I lost a lot of respect for the legal system. Moral of the story? I have no idea, you tell me?

 

!M!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes fight the ticket IF and only IF you think you were screwed over by the officer that wrote it. If you were guilty be a man and face the consequences. And by all means never argue your case to the officer writing the ticket on the side of the road. Big mistake made by most people.

 

Remember life is a game so if you choose to play be ready to pay if and when you get caught. That is one thing that is wrong with this country already, everybody wants to blame someone else for their problems instead of stepping up and taking the blame themselves.

 

I'm no angel myself but I do accept my own self created problems and then drive on from there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got a ticket for "exhibition of acceleration" in my car. It's funny for several reasons. :)

 

Mainly, I DIDN"T DO IT. Ugh... So I had a method of defense that was fine. When the cop walked up to my car, the FIRST thing he said was "can you turn off your car so I can hear please". Done deal, I was going to make a point that he was going based on listening, and with my legal car (as stated by inspection), he said he couldn't hear. :-D

 

Come to find out, as of Sept. 1, that's no longer a law....literally.

 

Here's what the law was (that I was ticketed under, see part 5):

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/tr/tr0054500.html#tr090.545.420

 

The law was too vague, so it was changed. NOW read it:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/78R/billtext/HB01326F.HTM

 

Those nice underlined letters in front of section 5 just threw out my ticket. 8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...