Welp today being Halloween it seemed perfect for a court date. This one was my 45+ in a 35zone, where the cop says on ticket that I was going 50+ really, and that I had retained a lawyer for this case.

Well I told the lawyer I didn't require his services after my first court outting to fight (and beat) my other ticket. Perhaps it woulda been worth it if he did came along, and perhaps not.

First of all this judge she was WAY more strict and harsh that the other one. The other one was basically shuffling people in and out, dismissing cases left and right, as long as you had a clean record and a reasonable "excuse". He didn't even ask you if you're pleading guilty or not.

This one, right off the bat, said straight out that today are "contesting" hearings, not "litigations", meaning if you were thinking of telling a sob story to get the sentence reduced or anything, you should go and get a new court date. She said that contested hearings are "win or lose", and if you plan on defending yourself you have to swear an oath, and say you're "not guilty". Having only my other court appearence as experience, I was really taken aback, and rethought my action of dismissing my counsel so hasteily. There was one lawyer who was defending like 6 or 7 traffic cases in that afternoon, one after another. She was batting a thousand getting cases dismissed left and right. Anyhow when it came to my turn, luckily the cop didn't show, so I just told the judge I don't believe I committed the infraction that day, and that I was just passing slow traffic and it may have looked like I was speeding. She said that since my record is clean, she'll give me this one chance to keep it that way, and gave me a deferrment judgement or something, which basically is me not committing another infraction for a year, doing 10hrs of community service, and paying a $50 paperwork shuffling fee, and it stays off my record. But if I fail to do the community service or if I get another ticket in the year, the guilty judgement will become effective and I'll have to pay the original fine and it'll get on my record.

So not a victory per se, but it's off my record, and this is the last ticket I have to fight. Woo woo! free at last! No more speeding for this bright Imola Baby...:P

 

What you got was defered adjudication, which means that it wont be on your record as long as you dont get any more tickets for 90 days. Without the cop, the city has no case. There is no way i would have accepted anything but a dismissal.

 

this being the second time I've been to court for anything, and the first time I've actually had to say more than 1 sentence, I really didn't wanna screw up and end up with a mark on my record. Lots of people were there for many types of traffic violations, and no cops in sight, and plenty of them got a guilty verdict.

 

10 hours of community service!??!?!!? THAT SUCKS!

 

well, was the cop there or not?

 

if he was not, the ticket should have been dismissed if you pled not guilty.

 

I've had two times when I was in traffic court and the citations weren't dropped even though the cop didn't show. If the cop calls ahead and says he's currently engaged with offical business all you can do is ask for a new trial date, wait till he shows, or ask for a reduced sentence. Both times all the judge would give me was five over, I avoided points but still had a fine. Sometimes things just don't work out as you hope they will.

 

Do downpipe installs count as community service??

 

... I believe when you do that and the officer doesn't show (they reschedule the court date around his schedule ususally!) it's off free.

As the judge said when this happened to me (after I spent the whole session with the procecutor making excuses for my officer not being present.. "just 5 more minutes" ... "he's on the way"...): "if this young man had not showed up for this hearing I'd be issuing a warrant for his arrest ... case dismissed."

...Jason

 

Doesn't sound like you beat it, Insurance might still pick that one up!