Ways to dodge points on your license?

JohnnyDaJackal · 05-30-05, 06:41

As the title says, anyone know how to avoid points on one's license? I'll try to make the story as short as I can. My friend and I were driving home from PA (cousin's property) and lets just say hes a pretty fast driver. Anyway we were on a windy, country highway and got stuck behind someone going below the speed limit. So even though theres no passing signs my friend ends up passing him, while passing, gettting hit into a reduced speed zone from 55 to 35. The cop was shoting radar and pretty much sees the whole thing. Apparently he clocked him at 58 and I guess the cop was being nice, us being out of state and in a pretty small town, he dismissed the illegal passing and wrote on the ticket that he was clocked at 50 in a 35. With that said my friends not sure what to do now. We were looking up the different laws and apparently pretty much all the 50 states have interstate compacts, meaning your offenses carry out back to your state. So my friend is freaking out about the points on his license and his insurance raising. Now I heard of people going to court and plea bargaining to a lesser offense and paying lots more money but no points. Do you think it would be worth it for him to do that? Its a really small town, and the cop was already pretty nice on him, but do you think he can plea bargain to avoid points? I was thinking pleading guilty to failure to obey the signs, and hopefully just getting a big fine and thats it. Thing that sucks is the town is a good 2.5 hours away from us, and hes only got 10 days to figure it out. Any thoughs or suggestions are welcome.
Moral of the story don't speed on holiday weekends

I've never seen so many people pulled over 80 then I did last night.

themightytimmah · 05-30-05, 08:06

It all comes down to the prosecutor in that small town. You MIGHT, and I stress MIGHT, be able to call him up and cut a deal, if you can get a number for the local PD (and don't just call 911

). If you were nice back to the cop, and you basically say "I'm looking to keep the points off my license, I'll take any deal you offer", you might be able to get away with traffic school, non-moving violation, etc. Of course, you could always try to get a court hearing via phone, and hope the cop doesn't show.

Maybe offer to pay a non-moving ticket on both failure to obey sign and 50 in a 35? It'll cost you a few bucks upfront, but trust me, its well worth it. You might want to consider consulting a lawer too, my neighbor is one and he's gotten people out of tickets that I thought were unbeatable.

Best of luck
-Tim

Setec Astronomy · 05-31-05, 02:41

He should be able to plead it down to 14 mph so it's only 2 points instead of 4. As has been said, sometimes you can go to court and work it out with the cop or the prosecutor outside the courtroom before you go before the judge, or you can get a lawyer (a local one is going to be better, he probably knows the judge and the prosecutor) which usually gets you a decent reduction in penalty in exchange for the fee (it is all an old boy's club, after all). Here's one resource you may be interested in: http://www.motorists.org/issues/tick...trategies.html

STBear · 05-31-05, 05:59

If it happened in PA then it had to be a State Trooper because local cops can't use radar. If you go to court it will be before a District Justice. The State Trooper will present the case. No prosecutor involved. The Troopers can and do agree to plea agreemnmts. Make sure you get there early as they usually schedule all the Trooper's cases on the same day. You need to talk to himbefore your case is called. If your friend didn't give the Trooper a hard time then he my be willing to lower the speed to a point where there are no points involved.

tensors22288 · 05-31-05, 12:15

Jhonny where in jersey u from? i in essex county up in montclair. while driving in montclair (i 17) i got caught going 50 in a 25, 4 points, doubled speed limit, bad day. So the cop was cool and took it down to 38 in a 25 so it only 2 points. Im set to go to court on June 8th an im planning on talking to the prosecutor and having the points taken off cause its a first offense and paying him a good amount of money (150-400) possibly, to get them off. this way i save my insurance from doubling and my dad doesnt kill me, hope it works.

JohnnyDaJackal · 05-31-05, 03:35

Tensors, i'm from Belleville and go to Montclair State, so i'm right in your woods. That sucks about double the speed limit, thats why I drive slow. If he got caught around here it would be no problem pleading to a lesser charge because there are so many court cases in this area that prosecutors don't have the time and resources to give full court cases. I know that from police class

. Thats why everyone I know pretty much "buys" a clean record simliar to what your doing.

My friends not sure if it will be that easy in the town he got pulled over in PA. Its such a small town, we are uncertain if he can pay a huge fine and be done with it. He's going to call a cop friend of my cousins and ask him what to do. We also aren't sure if the cop will be willing to make a plea bargain. He already was pretty cool to my friend by disregarding his illegal passing and writing up the ticket as a 50 instead of 58, which he was clocked in at. If my friend goes there and trys making a deal with him, especially since hes a kid from NJ, the cop might think he's pushing his luck, not to mention its a 2.5 hour ride from our house so we'd be really crossing our fingers that he would let him plea bargain.

tensors22288 · 05-31-05, 05:11

ur absolutly right about the PA thing, i didnt even consider that. nothing probably ever happens around there so i dont see why they would give into the charge. But u think if i give my story to the prosecuter and say it was a stupid mistake, i've learned my lesson, and its my first offense, will i get the points dropped? i just not sure how it all works. BTW i play hocky at Floyd hall lol, i go to MKA if u know where that is.

JohnnyDaJackal · 05-31-05, 05:29

Thats cool I know where MKA is and usually go to Floyd Hall a couple times in the winter for the open ice.
I'm not 100% sure how the law works, I know politics and law are a pretty sticky and confusing business, but i'm pretty sure you can go to court and plead to a lesser charge like you said, failure to obey a sign. You'll probably be paying a lot more money upfront in fines, court fees, etc., but at least your license will be entacted and you won't get points. I know my cousin and friend both got moving violations; one was going down a one way the wrong way and the other for illegal passing and they both went to court and plead guilty to a lower crime and kept their licenses entacted.

tensors22288 · 06-01-05, 02:54

alrite thanx alot for the help man, hope your friend can get out of it, sorry i cant help more

Accumulator · 06-01-05, 06:20

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnnyDaJackal
We also aren't sure if the cop will be willing to make a plea bargain. He already was pretty cool to my friend by disregarding his illegal passing and writing up the ticket as a 50 instead of 58, which he was clocked in at. If my friend goes there and trys making a deal with him, especially since hes a kid from NJ, the cop might think he's pushing his luck...

Yeah, this one sounds like it's already turned out as well as it's gonna. Your pal might oughta just take his lumps and be glad it wasn't worse. Throw in the sign and the actual speed, and he'd *really* be getting some points.

VictoryRed · 06-02-05, 04:08

Tell him to go see someone in the DA's office at the "small town" and ask for a "probation before judgement" sometimes called a "Deferment" this means he has to go a year or what ever he can get, sometimes less, without any violations. The citation will be marked "not guilty" he still pays the fine, no points, no insurance hike, everybodys happy. Its worth a shot??? Let us know what happens if he "ASKS".

JohnnyDaJackal · 06-02-05, 06:34

A little update:
He decided to just pay the fine and take the hit to insurance. He talked to one cop and the cop was saying even if you lower the offense, it will still carry as a moving violation. Apparently no matter what the moving violation is, it automatically carries over to your state to 2 points. He also has a full time internship that is kinda hard to take off, so he'd be kinda screwed with court dates and stuff, not to mention how inconvient it would be.

I'm curious if anyone has heard of this trick though. If you do get a ticket like my friend and you mail in a check/MO with a couple extra dollars over the citation, apparently it takes way longer to process because they don't know where the extra money is coming from. I've heard this from two different people and i'm wondering if this is actually true or an old myth?