To Protect and to Serve II

#6,503
#6,503
I put this in the recruiting forum since I spend most of my time there but I know the lawyers spend time over here mostly so @ClearwaterVol and @lawgator1 I'm curious if yall have any experience with traffic court.

I'll be in arraignment for a moving violation. Got in the left lane too early (despite the entire town doing it daily) and a bored cop got me passing over the gore (painted area). Had a clean record before this so I'm marching my petty ass into the court. If any of you have experience representing yourself in traffic court, I'd appreciate any piece of advice.

I'm going to go in a little early and see if I can plea down to a charge without points. Perhaps the solicitor will want to cross me off his or her file since he or she has more important things to worry about. Nothing technical that can get me out of it. Atlanta is a place I've had to adapt or get run off the road. I've seen a cop get run off the road and do nothing about it. It's a weird town.
 
#6,504
#6,504
utvols88 said:
I put this in the recruiting forum since I spend most of my time there but I know the lawyers spend time over here mostly so @ClearwaterVol and @lawgator1 I'm curious if yall have any experience with traffic court.

I'll be in arraignment for a moving violation. Got in the left lane too early (despite the entire town doing it daily) and a bored cop got me passing over the gore (painted area). Had a clean record before this so I'm marching my petty ass into the court. If any of you have experience representing yourself in traffic court, I'd appreciate any piece of advice.

I'm going to go in a little early and see if I can plea down to a charge without points. Perhaps the solicitor will want to cross me off his or her file since he or she has more important things to worry about. Nothing technical that can get me out of it. Atlanta is a place I've had to adapt or get run off the road. I've seen a cop get run off the road and do nothing about it. It's a weird town.
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Guilty
 
#6,508
#6,508
utvols88 said:
I put this in the recruiting forum since I spend most of my time there but I know the lawyers spend time over here mostly so @ClearwaterVol and @lawgator1 I'm curious if yall have any experience with traffic court.

I'll be in arraignment for a moving violation. Got in the left lane too early (despite the entire town doing it daily) and a bored cop got me passing over the gore (painted area). Had a clean record before this so I'm marching my petty ass into the court. If any of you have experience representing yourself in traffic court, I'd appreciate any piece of advice.

I'm going to go in a little early and see if I can plea down to a charge without points. Perhaps the solicitor will want to cross me off his or her file since he or she has more important things to worry about. Nothing technical that can get me out of it. Atlanta is a place I've had to adapt or get run off the road. I've seen a cop get run off the road and do nothing about it. It's a weird town.
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Hey, sorry, not something I'm familiar with. But I do think overall going in and talking to them and taking responsibility in an instance like this may work in your favor as the prosecutor has a lot of discretion. But don't insult the cop as being bored. JMO.

Let us know what happens.
 
#6,510
#6,510
lawgator1 said:
Hey, sorry, not something I'm familiar with. But I do think overall going in and talking to them and taking responsibility in an instance like this may work in your favor as the prosecutor has a lot of discretion. But don't insult the cop as being bored. JMO.

Let us know what happens.
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I'll keep it bland of course. Try to use my clean record to see if he or she is willing to easily take it off the docket. I also wont use the "everyone does it" part but harp on my clean record. I'll let you know how it goes. Other than that I'll plea no contest and try to get the points off with the judge
 
#6,511
#6,511
utvols88 said:
I'll keep it bland of course. Try to use my clean record to see if he or she is willing to easily take it off the docket. I also wont use the "everyone does it" part but harp on my clean record. I'll let you know how it goes. Other than that I'll plea no contest and try to get the points off with the judge
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Bon chance
 
#6,514
#6,514
lawgator1 said:
Well that's a pretty solid result, I'd say. No points?
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3. DMV handles the driver record portion and the courts don't touch it. I'll have to call and see if I can get them off. would have been 6 points without the dropped charge

got 3 points off and 160ish off the fine for an hour of my time. not a bad result.
 
#6,516
#6,516
utvols88 said:
I put this in the recruiting forum since I spend most of my time there but I know the lawyers spend time over here mostly so @ClearwaterVol and @lawgator1 I'm curious if yall have any experience with traffic court.

I'll be in arraignment for a moving violation. Got in the left lane too early (despite the entire town doing it daily) and a bored cop got me passing over the gore (painted area). Had a clean record before this so I'm marching my petty ass into the court. If any of you have experience representing yourself in traffic court, I'd appreciate any piece of advice.

I'm going to go in a little early and see if I can plea down to a charge without points. Perhaps the solicitor will want to cross me off his or her file since he or she has more important things to worry about. Nothing technical that can get me out of it. Atlanta is a place I've had to adapt or get run off the road. I've seen a cop get run off the road and do nothing about it. It's a weird town.
Click to expand...

What county is this?*
 
#6,518
#6,518
utvols88 said:
Gwinnett in GA.
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Don’t practice in GA but my experience is that big cities are usually more willing to dismiss or reduce. The time spent on a petty ticket usually isn’t worth the price of the ticket.

Pay attention to what people are saying who go ahead of you and kind of read the room, so to speak.

If your officer isn’t there, you can plead not guilty and some judges will dismiss it. Other judges will pass the case for the officer to be there, which usually works out worse for you. So it’s a calculated risk, mostly just read the room, be polite/professional. You’d be shocked at how far wearing slacks and a collared shirt will get you in some low-level courts.
 
#6,519
#6,519
RockyTop85 said:
Don’t practice in GA but my experience is that big cities are usually more willing to dismiss or reduce. The time spent on a petty ticket usually isn’t worth the price of the ticket.

Pay attention to what people are saying who go ahead of you and kind of read the room, so to speak.

If your officer isn’t there, you can plead not guilty and some judges will dismiss it. Other judges will pass the case for the officer to be there, which usually works out worse for you. So it’s a calculated risk, mostly just read the room, be polite/professional. You’d be shocked at how far wearing slacks and a collared shirt will get you in some low-level courts.
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if it interests you, I've gone in already. the results are

Solicitor didnt talk to a soul. cold bastard. but plead no contest and got one dropped. fine went from 200 to 40

had two infractions for $110 and 3 points each infraction at the beginning and it came out to $40 and 3 pts.

thanks for the advice and thank you @lawgator1 as well.
 
#6,520
#6,520
utvols88 said:
I put this in the recruiting forum since I spend most of my time there but I know the lawyers spend time over here mostly so @ClearwaterVol and @lawgator1 I'm curious if yall have any experience with traffic court.

I'll be in arraignment for a moving violation. Got in the left lane too early (despite the entire town doing it daily) and a bored cop got me passing over the gore (painted area). Had a clean record before this so I'm marching my petty ass into the court. If any of you have experience representing yourself in traffic court, I'd appreciate any piece of advice.

I'm going to go in a little early and see if I can plea down to a charge without points. Perhaps the solicitor will want to cross me off his or her file since he or she has more important things to worry about. Nothing technical that can get me out of it. Atlanta is a place I've had to adapt or get run off the road. I've seen a cop get run off the road and do nothing about it. It's a weird town.
Click to expand...

I don't know much about Georgia tickets. In Florida, if the cop doesn't show you simply ask the judge to dismiss. The ticket will be dismissed. Another option here is to change your plea to no contest and the judge will withhold adjudication on the offense. You pay the fine, but no points and no guilty for your insurance company to used against you for rates. The judge may have you do a driving class, as well depending on your driving record.

Most states have a deal where you can do a class in exchange for a reduction on the ticket.
 
#6,525
#6,525
utvols88 said:
if it interests you, I've gone in already. the results are

Solicitor didnt talk to a soul. cold bastard. but plead no contest and got one dropped. fine went from 200 to 40

had two infractions for $110 and 3 points each infraction at the beginning and it came out to $40 and 3 pts.

thanks for the advice and thank you @lawgator1 as well.
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Just read about what happened to you. Doubt I could have helped. I'm not much of a "gore enforcer", but the law is no more than 300 feet from where the left turn occurs (OCGA 40-6-126). Is it a problem? Maybe, in high traffic congested areas.

Maybe a bored cop; maybe his/her pet peeve; maybe just looking to improve traffic stats. Gwinnett has it's own traffic unit, so who knows? Sorry you got caught in the net. Personally, I've never written that ticket. You'd have to go a long ways in the center turn lane (i.e. - bypassing other traffic waiting to get over) before I'd make that stop.

Traffic court in metropolitan areas tends to be a machine. The solicitor (where they have them) likely has hundreds of citations in their file, and of course everyone of them is "I wasn't speeding / drunk / on my cell phone / whatever." So they tend to be tone deaf to the good folks who come in with a legitimate gripe. Again, sorry you got caught up in that.

The best bet in a case like that is to retain an attorney who specializes in traffic cases. But again, you end up paying a fee that in almost all cases far exceeds what the fine would be upon conviction. It only pays off when the fine / jail time / loss of license / increased insurance rates comes in to play. Again...it's a machine, and you got caught in the gears.

Assuming your license was clean prior to this, those 3 points aren't going to hurt you much, if at all. But next time, if there is a next time, bite the bullet and call an attorney. That's your best shot at getting the bench to listen to you.

R/
 
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