Speed racer is in the house! I got a speeding ticket for going 35 mph in a 25 mph zone the other day and I'm pretty ticked. This post will discuss whether I should go to court and fight my speeding ticket. It should help you decide whether you should go to court and fight your speeding ticket as well.
When it comes to driving, please slow down. Speed is what causes the most accidents. Further, there are more high tech traffic cameras on the road today. They take pictures of your front and back and face.
Getting A Speeding Ticket
The cop pulled me over after I sped up in the middle of a yellow light and asked me whether I knew why he pulled me over. I innocently responded, “Because I went through a yellow light?“
He looked at me a little funny and said, “No. Do you know what the speed limit is here on Masonic Avenue?”
“I'm not sure officer. 35 mph?” I responded.
“No, it's 25 mph and I got you on the gun going 45 mph,” said the officer.
First I was shocked that a five lane artery (2 lanes going south, 3 lanes going north) would have a speed limit of only 25 mph. I wasn't blowing by anybody at all. Second, I was super surprised the officer said he clocked me at 45 mph!
Couldn't Believe I Got A Speeding Ticket
Moose is slow as molasses as a 14 year old Land Rover Discovery II. There is NO WAY Moose could reach 45mph in two blocks. His 0 – 60 mph time is 11.4 seconds new and surely he's lost a step over the years. 45 mph = 66 feet / second. Average city block is around 400 feet. I would have to be putting my pedal to the metal to get to 45 mph, which I wasn't because that action guzzles more gas.
I looked at the officer when he told me I was going 45 mph and said, “You mean this car? I don't think so. I haven't had a speeding ticket in 8 years since my car is so slow and old.“
He kinda laughed and asked me for my license and registration.
When he came back three minutes later, he handed me a ticket and said, “I'm not going to write you up for 20 mph over the speed limit because that's not good for your insurance and I don't want to hammer you. I'll just do 35 mph in a 25 mph instead.“
Gee thanks. What a nice guy! I was actually hoping he'd let me off with a warning as two other cops did in the past six years when I was driving Moose. Who gives a speeding ticket for 35 mph in a 25 mph zone when everybody is driving 35 mph?
Should I Go To Court And Fight My Speeding Ticket?
When the cop gave me a ticket for 10 mph over the speed limit, I was kind of thankful because that's only one point on my record, which can be expunged if I go to traffic school (4 hours online, 8 hours in person). Then I started getting suspicious.
I'm pretty sure I was NOT going 45 mph, which is why he wrote 35 mph instead. I might have been going 35 mph, but I'm not sure of that either because I wasn't passing any cars.
I was originally thinking about paying the $234 speeding ticket and maybe paying $50 to not have the point on my driving record, but now I'm thinking I should fight the ticket. Below is the latest speeding ticket chart for California. Compare the Base Fine vs. the TOTAL at the end to see how ludicrous the system is for allowing everybody to take their cut.
Reasons To Go To Court To Fight The Speeding Ticket
* There's a good chance the cop is lying about me going 35 mph based on our dialogue and him saying I was going 45 mph and then giving me a ticket for 35 mph. Maybe he really is trying to be nice, but when he gave me the options of paying the ticket or fighting it, he seemed a little concerned I'd consider fighting it.
* The cop might not show up. When I playfully asked him whether he'll show up if I fight the ticket, he wouldn't give me a straight answer. He just gave a generic answer, “It's my job,” but that was it. I talked to one fella who has been getting a moving violation ticket once every two years for the past 10 years, and he said that cops only show up to court around 30%-40% of the time. If they don't show up, the defendant wins. But who knows for sure. Some people say cops get overtime for showing up in court.
* No evidence. The cop didn't produce evidence of me speeding by showing me the radar gun clock. There wasn't a camera either. Imagine if I show up and he does have evidence of me going 45 mph. Wouldn't that be embarrassing to the judge and his superiors if he only wrote me up for 35 mph? If the cop shows up, it's essentially my word against his. I guess the judge will probably side with the cop instead of me, but I'll bring pictures of where I was pulled over, speed performance data for my 2000 SUV, and argue in a respectful way that I was not going over the speed limit.
* Reduced fine chance. I've heard and read that if you take the time to go to court they reduce the ticket cost. For example, one person I know went several times to court for multiple violations and they reduced pretty much every ticket to a non-moving violation fine e.g. “not wearing seatbelt” or “failure to yield” for $50. As an underemployed long-time citizen of San Francisco, perhaps they'll take mercy on me given I can only find work two days a week based on my consulting contract.
* Keep insurance from going up. A ticket may cost $250, but another point on your driving record could potentially cost more a year, for years depending on your driving record. Given I have a clean record, my insurance hit isn't going to be too big. Maybe 10-20% at the most on my annual $570 premium. But if you're a male teenager to 20-something year old, then you're going to be paying more. Check AllState for some of the lowest car insurance rates online.
* You are highly certain you'd didn't break the law. If you know your car starts shuddering at 60 mph on the highway, and it wasn't shuddering when the cop pulled you over and cited you for going 80 mph in a 65 mph, then fight like hell. You can easily produce documentation of trying to fix your shuddering, or a video showing the shuddering. Maybe you are a target of discrimination, laziness, or the quota system. Always fight if you strongly believe you are innocent.
* Info gathering for a great post. I love to make lemonade out of sour situations (like writing this 1,800 word post). If I go through the entire court process, I'll take notes and write an awesome follow-up post about my experience in court and lessons learned. The 3-5 hours of time is essentially my real-life research time and everything associated with the process becomes a business expense. I'm curious to know what to expect, and I'm sure there are thousands of other people who are wondering what to expect and any strategies they should employ to win in court. The post could go viral and make me rich and famous!
Reasons Not To Go To Court To Fight The Ticket
* Waste of time. There's a chance I have to go to court twice. The first time is to schedule a court hearing date and request the officer's presence (1 hour). The second time is to go to court and argue my case as my own lawyer (1-3 hours). Time is money, and 2-4 hours of my time is worth more than $250. The good thing is I'll bring my laptop and either write a post like I'm doing now, or kill time with my iPhone if I go.
* Might lose. If I lose, I'll not only have to pay the fine, I might be barred from going to traffic school to remove the point from my record. The court might even fine me more! Losing in court is like paying big bucks to see your favorite professional sports team lose. This is one of the reasons why I like to watch my favorite sports teams on TV versus going to the stadium.
Keep Fighting For Your Money!
Every time something bad happens, I curse my luck. Thankfully, I'm over it after a couple hours. For those of you who are unfortunate enough to get a speeding ticket, ask yourself the following questions before you decide to fight your ticket in court:
* Do they have evidence of me violating the law?
* Was I violating the law in a highly egregious way?
* How much is your time worth?
* Will you be able to go to traffic school if you pay the fine?
* How much will your car insurance go up?
* What is your traffic ticket history?
* How many points do you have now?
* How much liquid cash do you have?
* Do you have flexible work hours?
* What did your friends experience?
Here's the real kick in the pants for me. I didn't have to rush to my meeting because the people I was supposed to meet never showed up! The one guy I was coordinating with to play doubles failed to mention that the other guys couldn't make it! Not only did I get a $234 speeding ticket, I ended up wasting an hour of my time driving back and forth.
I'll Fight My Speeding Ticket
I'm leaning towards fighting my speeding ticket because: 1) I plan to write a post about the experience, 2) I'm only in the office Mondays and Wednesdays, 3) I don't think the cop has proof I was going 35 mph, 4) I think there's a 50% chance he doesn't show up, 5) I've never been to court for a traffic violation and I'm curious to know what it's like, 6) I might get to meet some cool characters who can share their crazy traffic stories, which I can share with you, and 7) I believe that I've got over a 70% chance of winning based on the photographs, spec sheet of my slow car, and the chance the cop doesn't show up.
My luck has run out with Moose. I was keeping him around for so long partly because he hasn't given me a ticket in so long. The 35 mph speeding ticket is a sign that after 10 years, it's time to say goodbye.
Update: I got the official notice in the mail and went to court to set an arraignment date. They said the officer will not be at the arraignment, but a judge. The judge will look at my record and present me options, like a settlement out of court. They might give me a lower penalty if I agree to plead guilty, for example.
If I plead not guilty, I will set a court date and the police officer will get subpoenaed to appear. If he does not appear, I win. If he does appear, I argue my case. They said I will not have to pay a bigger fine if I lose, so that's good.
Furthermore, given the officer already submitted me going 35 mph in a 25 mph zone, he can't then say I was going faster according to his radar gun. Setting up the arraignment date took 5 minutes. I think I will just agree a lower penalty. Will provide an update!
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For more nuanced personal finance content, join 100,000 others and sign up for the free Financial Samurai newsletter. I've been writing about personal finance since 2009. Should I Go To Court To Fight My Speeding ticket is a FS original post.
I never took into account the fact that fighting a traffic ticket could help to avoid insurance rates to increase. One of my brothers got a speeding ticket a few days ago. I will advise him to find a lawyer that will help him get rid of the charge.
So what was the results?
Great post!
A sibling whose 18 was driving a vehicle in nj who has a ny license and the officer clocked him at 70 in a 55 zone.
And gave a ticket for $180 for not having the registration, which he found a minute later.
(aside for the registration he had an x on his ny license which which the DMV issued, it’s a 100% good license but didn’t have time to call the DMV to see what’s happening with the X on the picture.
So now to fight the registration which is ticketed as missing the REG and or the DL, I would claim I had a valid license but the officer didn’t like the x which the DMV had acccidently placed on his picture and now I can’t drive because the DMV mistakenly placed an x. Or if the officer has notes I can say I tried to show the officer the registration but was too late as he already issued the ticket.
Now he doesn’t plan on driving in the next year to 2 so don’t plan on having him on insurance for a family vehicle so don’t care for insurance, now there’s 4 points on the speeding ticket, which I would fight and say he was going 69 and have the ticket down to 2 points.
Also why is it not good to fight the ticket to 0? As then the cop would automatically assume your full of lies?
Anyways what do you guys suggest? Waste a day in court or hire a lawyer or pay the small 180-105?
Thanks guys.
I got a ticket the other day saying I was going 68 in a 55. I know that to be false because I was on cruise control and where I actually pulled over was a 65. And I stopped for gas so my progressive snapshot shows me getting pulled over 15 minutes after I left the gas station and the speed hits 65 after 8 minutes of travel according to google maps and my phones stopwatch. There were also other vehicles out and it was past 10 pm. I was just the only one to pull over when I saw the lights.
I speeded 103 in a 65 mph freeway in cali , I didn’t go to jail , but il have to appear in court , how much will it be ? will I go to jail , what will happen ?
The officer will have no problem telling the court that you were driving 45mph and he gave you only a 35mph. It’s very commonly done.
What happened in court?
My son who doesn’t even live with me was pulled over last night for a speeding offence. Somehow the ticket was made out to me with my address etc…
I imagine this is because the vehicle is registered in my name.
Honestly do I have to seriously take time from work to go to the courthouse to see the judge to fight this and still have to pay the 50 dollar court fee for their clerical mistake?
[…] first thing I did when I got home after receiving a speeding ticket was call my car insurance company to find out how much my car insurance premiums would go up. […]
It doesn’t matter if you do anything wrong at all or not, you’ll pay either way, here are some reasons why you will open your wallet! 1. In California cops are paid overtime to go to court, so he’ll be there for sure. 2. He may have also wrote on the back of his copy of your ticket you were going 45, and he gave you a break, and you still fought it wouldn’t sit well with a judge. 3. Since the economy crash every municipality is hurting for money. In Cali. quotas are illegal, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t under pressure to write more tickets. 4. The judge is under the same pressure to bring in those fines, they are all working together and it’s a scam you can’t do anything about. 5. You can’t prove that your car was too slow or anything else at the time of the ticket. Anyone can do things to make their car perform poorly after the fact. Unless you had a camera on and it recorded what happened as well as your speedometer, and you had that speedometer calibrated very recently. 6. Even if the heavens open up and cause some reason for the cop not to show up, or the judge finds your evidence somehow compelling enough to dismiss the case, you’ll still be charged a $25 filing fee! Can you believe that! Even if it is found that someone took a day off work, losing $, and proved that they did nothing wrong to get a ticket to begin with, they still have to pay!!!
I live in the S.F. Bay Area too and myself as well as many others i know were given tickets for things that never happened and the cop lied in court and we lost! I dad a cop pull me over, said I didn’t come to a complete stop at the 4 way intersection and then that I was going 85 in a 40 when he was behind me “trying to catch up”! Here is the break the nice cop gave me… he said he would only write me up for failure to stop, but if I fight it in court, he will tell the judge I was also doing 85! That is strait up extortion no matter how you look at it!!!
I guess you were thinking you live in a country where you have freedom and justice. I don’t care if it’s only traffic court, if I’m accused of something it should still have to be proven to a jury of my peers!!!
Good luck!
[…] Should I Go To Court To Fight My Speeding Ticket? […]
I’ve had a lot of tickets that I’ve wanted to fight but I’ve never actually gotten around to it. It’s always frustrating when you feel like you really haven’t done anything wrong but still happen to get a ticket. Fees can be pretty expensive and never seem to come at a convenient time. The chart of fines is pretty interesting to look at. I wasn’t aware that there are so many fees additional to the base fine. Thanks for sharing this!
[…] reason why I got my first speeding ticket going 35 mph in a 25 mph zone was not due to racial profiling, car profiling, or any other type of […]
Financial Samurai:
Oh my, I am in big trouble and I am not a speeder (well I guess I am, I do set my cruise at 5 mph over speed limit) but I was not going to go one mph over on 301 in FL. I am not sure what I should do now. Drive 550 miles and defend myself in Bradford Court, the seat of Lawtey, FL, the speed trap zone of the US?
1:30 PM on 11/7/2014, driving back from Tampa I got nailed bad on 301 and I was doing the speed limit……so I thought. I keep finding myself getting choked up just thinking about it. Citation for 45 mph in a 20 mph school zone. Double the fine. $441.00 and points. For miles and miles I made sure to watch for every speed sign posted in what I already knew was the speed trap town of Lawtey, FL. 10 years ago, I traveled 301 through Lawtey and got a speeding ticket for 10 miles over when I missed a speed sign. You must stay very aware of each posted sign that are in close proximity of the other. 55, 45, 35, 45, 55, 65. REPEAT. If you miss one sign, you will get a ticket for going 10 mph over soon after you pass the sign you missed.
I had it, I did not miss a sign. I hit the 45 mph signage and traveled through an intersection. I was trailing a semi, that had moved to the left lane. I got pulled over about a 1/2 mile after intersection. I see the police car lights behind me and I thought what the hell. I know I am going the speed limit. Officer gets out of vehicle, walks slowly up to my car, looks in my back seat and then says to me “I clocked you at 45 miles per hour in a school zone”. I say, “A school zone, I did not see a school zone sign.” ETC, ETC, my apology did not get me anywhere. I gave him my DL and registration, he goes back to his car and writes citation. He then pulls out to go back toward intersection. I want to see what I missed so I follow him back. I drove real slow so I could collect how I could miss a school zone sign and I look to my right and he is hiding in the gas station ready for his next citation. The school zone is about 50 feet long, with a marking on the road surface prior to intersection that the semi obstructed.
How can you do the school zone speed limit when they cleverly hide it knowing the semi’s will obstruct view? Let’s see, we’ll put 45 speed limit signs on the side of the road before and after the intersection then put in a fifty foot wide school zone right between two 45 mph speed limit signs on each side, throw in yellow flashing light for which I mistook for traffic signal (proceed with caution).
I head back north to NC, stop at a rest stop to look at my ticket, which was handed to me in a envelope. School zone is 20 mph, officer wrote 25 mph. He wrote my car is tan, not even close, it is clearly silver. Doesn’t matter, I know I was going 45 mph, I just had no idea it was a school zone.
I am getting choked up again.
This video I found is traveling north to south. I was traveling south to north which has a completely different take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXNOjEcUnkA
I believe because you admitted you thought the speed limit was 35 you will be seen as at fault. I received a ticked in CA many years ago and know I was not doing 20 over the speed limit; I had the car on cruise 3-5mph above the speed limit and the cop stopped 2 of us. The real speeder was the car in the left lane who blew past me, however I am sure the cop couldn’t tell and just cited us both. The reason I lost the case was I admitted to have been speeding in saying that I had my cruise control set just above the speed limit. Because I admitted to breaking the law by being a few miles over the limit the judge argued that I had broken the law regardless and upheld the 20+ violation. In your situation if you thought and told the officer you were in a 35 MPH zone, you would then have to argue you were going well below what you thought the speed limit was, which seems unlikely. Although not the same exact circumstances, I don’t feel judges are out to cut you a break, instead they are looking for a reason to collect the money. Good luck!
Please let me know how it goes for you! I just got my first ticket going 41 in a 25 and it is $419.00. No idea why it is so high, and I am wondering if I should contest. The officer said he let people off the hook if they were going 40 mph. Since I was 1 mph over…I would be cited. It was a four lane road, great visibility, no schools, construction etc. Oh the frustration! Any updates are greatly appreciated, or advice!
I would fight it. We’ve had last three tickets over the last decade between my wife and the kids and we went to court and the officer did not show up for any of them. As others have said even when the officer does show up you can generally get your amount reduced or avoid a point on the license. There is often no physical backup of the data the officer uses other than the written record or ticket, so it is highly unlikely he’ll state you were doing 45 and he cut you slack to 35. If push comes to shove you can point out that you feel you weren’t really speeding and point out some evidence like the beast being slow and lumbering, etc., but don’t get all technical or go on for more than a minute or two to make your point because the judge will likely think you’re being a smarta$$. Best of luck.
This may have already been stated but I skipped down to the bottom. You should fight it and go trial by jury. I have vowed to never say guilty to a speeding ticket if picked for a jury. Speeding tickets are nothing more than revenue generators. Why are the “Cops” (also the name of a TV show about them) rarely seen at a messed up traffic light with traffic backed up for miles? Because they are out writing tickets to meet quotas and make money because most people don’t fight it.
Hey Sam,
I went to court for the first time this year for a ticket. I was hit by a car while riding my bike to work and the police gave the driver and me a ticket. I was confused about it, but I figured out that the police must have misunderstood where the accident happened. I know I had the right of way.
The thing that makes it all very interesting is that it happened on federal property, so I had to go to district court. The cool thing about district court is that you get to meet with counsel representing the US (in this case it was an air force captain) and talk through whether or not they have enough information to go to a hearing. I just came prepared with google image pictures of where the accident happened and the sequence of events, and the captain dismissed the case without a hearing with a judge.
The moral of the story is that if you are going to district court, you have a very low risk chance to fight the ticket even if you have a weak case.
As a current police officer on the east coast. I would first like to say I take no offense to the word cop. I would fight the ticket there is a chance the officer might not show up. He might be sick, away on vacation or have other obligations (training, family,etc). If he does show up, ask when the radar gun was last certified, and did he calibrate it prior to using it. Most radar guns self calibrate and then you check it using a tuning fork. Radar guns not lidar pick up the biggest object on the road ask if it could have been the truck or SUV he clocked mistakenly Also the reason for the two officer car could be a field training officer riding with a rookie.
Thank you Officer John for your advice! I appreciate it a lot. The other officer sure looked like a training. I saw him fidgeting with the radar gun and kept pointing it at me when I was already stationary.
Officer John. Does the certification point apply to the LIDAR gun as well. I received the same ticket, however, there was a car beside me that also blew by.
while i previously said that you should simply pay up i have to agree that its unlikely you were doing anything dangerous. its very frustrating that punishments don’t match up to degree of recklessness. heck, unless you’re you’re being outrageously dangerous cops would rather let you go because of the small but real risk that a routine stop becomes dangerous.
…which is why i’m for FAIR camera enforcement. cops don’t need to be writing tickets for speeding or running red lights when robots can do it.
suck it up and pay. despite all the back and forth it sounds like you were speeding.
So I had a ticket that was reduced to 10 over and the judge made a comment that most of the time when it is exactly 10 over the cops have already reduced it from your actual speed so the court will uphold the ticket. It reinforced the idea that if you stay under 10 over you will be fine. I blow by speed traps all the time staying at 8 or 9 over the limit.
You have to work hard to get a speeding ticket in the SF Bay Area. Lose the ego and slow down. You were wrong. The police officer was right. Pay the fine and get in line.
Don’t let people walk all over you Steve! If you were going 25 mph in a 25 mph zone and they cite you for speeding, fight like crazy.
Was this you, Sam? On the GG Bridge? Really? For shame!
LINK:
You caught me.
The tip to say “I don’t know.” may have unintended consequences. Anything you say to the police can be used against you when you go to fight the ticket later. Not knowing how fast you are going makes your position weak. The correct answer to “do you know how fast you were going?” is “yes.” This is not an admission of guilt, just a statement that you are aware of the speed at which you were traveling, legal or otherwise.
IANAL
Could be good. But “yes” also could be lying, as who knows how fast you were going at an exact moment in time?
Fight it.
1. Gain valuable court experience
2. Chance you may get it reduced or even win
3. Only time that you hold power questioning every act of the police officer; being able to pretend you are Harvey Spector is pretty fun.