Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Rushing home from Wilson yesterday to get my sick kid from school, I was pulled over on I-540W by Raleigh police for doing 80 in a 65 mile per hour. Normally I am very cognizant of the speed limit on each leg of my journey, but I guess I got thrown off by the fact that kid was sick and I had to get to her as soon as possible. Needless to say that this ruined my entire evening and now entire week because in all my years of driving I have never been pulled over for speeding or anything else for that matter .. there goes my perfect driving record .
Now my dilemma is what to do? I have never been down this road before and would very much like to avoid receiving any points off my drivers license. I have had a squeaky clean record until yesterday ... is there a way for me to avoid a hit on my license?
1). Is it advisable to get a lawyer for this?
2). Is there a way of settling this without appearing in court?
3). If I have to appear in court, is there a way of arranging an earlier court date than that given to me my the officer that issued the ticket?
You'll be getting a lot of letters in the mail shortly for attorneys to handle the offense. Depending on how fast you were going, I would get one of the attorneys that send you a letter to take care of it. You don't have to show up and they will have the sentence reduced as they do it all the time. I think the fee is not much if I remember (could have changed).. maybe around 100-$150.00.
What you don't want to do is pay it and think that will be the end of it.
The lawyer is well worth the price if you have a clean record. You will have to either pay the fine or the lawyer so you might as well make the best of it lol
The lawyer can at least plead it down to a lesser offense or plead "improper equipment", implying a faulty speedometer, etc. The lesser the offense, the less your insurance will go up. Insurance companies are data linked to pick up all traffic offenses & they will know about it shortly after conviction.
Get the attorney & let him/her chart the best course. As someone else said, use 1 of those who send you letters. Traffic offenses are their bread & butter. They will work for less than most any other attorney you seek out.
The above advice about getting an attorney is sound. You've now been invited to play in the legal system sandbox and you need someone who knows the rules.
You might already know this - but getting cited for going 15 MPH over the speed limit is a biggie. You've got to get it plead down to avoid an automatic suspension of license.
You might already know this - but getting cited for going 15 MPH over the speed limit is a biggie. You've got to get it plead down to avoid an automatic suspension of license.
Will "Prayer for Judgment" work for me in this case?
Last edited by Jamerican; 02-04-2011 at 07:02 AM..
Reason: spelling error
Will "Prayer for Judgment" work for me in this case?
It would. But you'd rather avoid that if you can. A decent attorney (and a willing ADA) will hopefully be able to get this down to less than 10 MPH over, or even better a non-moving violation. If they can't do that, they'll get you the PJC. The problem with those is that (a) you only get one every so often, and (b) you have to stay clean - get another ticket during the period of the PJC (3 years?) and the original ticket comes back too.
So, as an NC newbie who hasn't had (fortunately) a ticket in over 5 years, back when I was a little younger, and little more reckless, when I did get a ticket, the SOP was to go to the courthouse on the date listed on the ticket, plead not guilty, get a new date, go back and have the DA agree to reduce it to something along the lines of 2 parking tickets plus a rather inconvenient court processing fee, then sit in the courtroom til it's my turn, then go up, pay my fee and be on my merry way. Is this not how it is done here? I know it's done that way to keep the fines coming into the town the ticket was issued, and not the state. I'm hoping to keep my good streak going, but I'm curious to know, just in case.
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