Ok, so I just got my first speeding ticket. The officer cited me for 61 in a 45...I thought it was a 55. blah.

Anyway, he gave me a mandatory court appearance. That seems unusual to me. I figured I would just be able to pay by mail or online or something....is there any specific reason they would give me a mandatory court appearance?

Also, I figure I can probably get a prayer for judgement since it is my first ticket or at least plead down a few miles an hour....what kind of insurance penalty should I be expecting?

2/10/2007 5:47:15 PM

probably mandatory because you were >15 mph over the limit

2/10/2007 5:54:40 PM

You are 15+ AND you're going over 55mph hence no fine and its mandatory.

2/10/2007 5:58:38 PM

so if I get my prayer for judgement, I will still have to pay a fine and court costs, likely....

how much am I looking at here?

2/10/2007 6:02:58 PM

When I got a ticket for going 87 in a 65 zone, the cop told me that I have to show up for court, but I think you can get a lawyer to represent you and you don't have to be there. That's what I did because the court hearing was in greensboro.

2/10/2007 6:04:53 PM

Although it says "mandatory court appearance" I'm pretty confident that means a lawyer can show up for you instead.

I would suggest getting a lawyer. They will go for you and you should end up with it being reduced to "Faulty Equipment" or some BS like that. Basically you pay a lawyer fee and court fee and nothing goes on your record. It's the unofficial speeders tax.

2/10/2007 6:08:11 PM

Anyone know a good lawyer to call? Any lawyers in the audience :-D

2/10/2007 6:14:28 PM

Quote :

"so if I get my prayer for judgement, I will still have to pay a fine and court costs, likely.... "

PFJ means just court costs, no fine


...and wasting your whole day standing in line, swearing you'll never go over the speed limit ever again

2/10/2007 6:15:37 PM

^thats fine with me.

2/10/2007 6:17:33 PM

where did you get pulled? and were you actually going 61 or faster?


just curious

[Edited on February 10, 2007 at 8:33 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2007 8:32:38 PM

I got pulled on Briar Creek Parkway and I was doing around that, yea.

2/10/2007 8:38:39 PM

Got a 71 in a 45 - just get a lawyer to show up for you. It's easier.

2/10/2007 8:55:49 PM

I prefer the reverse approach.

Get your lawyer to speed.

Then show up for him instead.

2/10/2007 9:20:41 PM

james crouch ftw...

2/10/2007 9:54:55 PM

wake county has no faulty equipment thing and dont waste your PJC on this. just plead to 54 in a 45 and you should be golden.

2/10/2007 11:07:58 PM

no, get a lawyer and have it dropped completely. there's no reason you should even take the 9 over for a first offense.

save your pjc and 9 over reduction for when you might really need it.

i'm telling you, call james crouch. you'll pay 200-250 bucks, you don't have to waste your time going to court, and it'll be dropped or at least reduced to the point that you aquire no license points.

2/11/2007 12:03:55 AM

I wrote him an email....we'll see what happens.

2/12/2007 2:43:46 PM

just call him... he's a busy dude, if he even responds it'll probably be a while. you might not ever talk to him in fact, most of the time his paralegals field the calls and arrange things. he always takes care if it in person in court though.

2/12/2007 3:05:59 PM

well i have heard through the office of james crouch specifically cause he did my first speeding ticket

and unless i was fed some line of BS for the shitty job done by him of getting my ticket reduced, if your speeding ticket is in wake county there is no way to get it reduced to something other than a speeding ticket, no more non moving violations or whatever

it is because insruance companies came in and complained that wake county lets too many speeders off with non moving violations and they are losing money... and wake county agreed not to do it

this is what i was told by someone from that law office

and i have also heard this from a couple other lawyers offices as well

there are ways around it i have found, but most lawyers arent willing to put in that kind of time to get it done...

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 3:17 PM. Reason : ]

2/12/2007 3:10:08 PM

odd. he's handled probably 20-25 things for me over the years and i've had nothing but excellent results.

except for a few major offenses, he's always gotten my speeding stuff dropped or reduced to the point that it carries no license or insurance points (5 over or less).

the same goes for alot of other people on this site also.

reducing something to improper equipment is not allowed in wake county, maybe that's what you're speaking of.

2/12/2007 3:18:28 PM

well from my understanding this was something very recent like within the past year and half or so maybe 2 years

I had never had a ticket or any violation before and got one for 70 (or about that, maybe 73) in a 55 and he was only able to get it reduced to a 64 in a 55

when i called about it the paralegals said that that was the best he could do, couldnt get it reduced more

i am not crying, he did his job for a reasonable price, but i remembenr specifically mentioning to him that i didnt want a speeding ticket of any kind on my record and he said he would do what he can and couldnt pull it off

2/12/2007 3:24:10 PM

that's actually a pretty tough ticket to get reduced any further. you would have really been taking your chances if you tried to fight for a reduction yourself.

it could be something else has changed recently, but i haven't heard about it. i lost my license for a few months about 1.5 years ago and haven't had anything since i got it back, so no first hand experience lately.

2/12/2007 3:32:06 PM

def would not have tried to fight it myself, dont have enough exp with the courts. Like I said i asked around about this and had some consensus about it, there may have been a mix up in word use and the communications got crossed and 2 completely different things were referenced...

Just pointing out my exp with it and that something may have changed since some people last had a run in with the law and speeding tickets

the current lawyer i have for another speeding ticket, after the first one hit my record, said he would not have any problem getting it thrown out, then again i paid triple the fee to him (not including court costs) to have it take care of

Crouch did his job and had a very good price, and i would use him again but for something more minor than a ticket

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ]

2/12/2007 3:39:03 PM

get a lawyer and get it reduced derek. dont waste your pfj on that.

both of my tickets in that range got reduced to 9 over. wont get insurance points

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 3:40 PM. Reason : .]

2/12/2007 3:39:47 PM

^ yea ive only heard back from 1 lawyer and he wanted 375 bucks. fuck that. ill just get a PJC if i have to pay more than 200.

2/12/2007 4:07:21 PM

Quote :

" i'm telling you, call james crouch. you'll pay 200-250 bucks"

i got quoted 270.

got pulled for 54 in a 45 (was really doing 70 in a 55), got james crouch on it. dunno what'll happen until court march 13, i think.

hopefully he can get it to some sort of code violation. if not, i'll be unhappy, b/c otherwise I would have just paid the shit and taken the license points.

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 11:14 PM. Reason : eh]

2/12/2007 11:14:14 PM

I just got a 78/65, oh noes the horror

2/13/2007 12:22:14 PM

did you happen to miss the 3450845034850345834098 other speeding ticket threads

2/13/2007 1:39:28 PM

Piggybacking on this guy's thread.

I got out of a ticket with Careless and reckless without any points or changes in my insurance based on what my lawyer told me. I am going to have to get a new policy though pretty soon with getting married and getting off of my parents policy. How much of an effect will this have on my rates if any at all when I get my new policy in a new months and does that mean it shows up on my record just without costing me any points or what??

the original ticket was for 90 in a 55....the old post was too old to bring back up....

2/19/2007 5:52:21 PM

I just got a ticket for 70 in a 45 in wake. I called Monday and Crouch never called me, so I called back today and got passed on to one of his associates. If for some reason, I don't hear back from his associate, has anyone gotten out of a similar ticket in Wake? What lawyer did you use?

2/21/2007 12:17:23 PM

If you really don't wanna drop the cash for a lawyer get it reduced to 9 over, shouldn't be a problem. If the DA won't do that for you ask to get it continued to ask for legal advice.

You can use 1 PJC every 3 years per household. If you are on your parents insurance make sure they haven't or you siblings haven't used it.

I've had two tickets in the past 3 years, first was a speeding ticket reduced to 9 over. Pretty soon that will expire (3 years since incident) and then I ended up using a PJC for my second offense because if I got it reduced I would recieve an insurance increase for both of them.

Anyway from people I've talked to if you don't want to get a lawyer, reduce first and at last resort use PJC. You can always talk to the free student legal services at state also.

2/21/2007 3:21:13 PM