Deep doo doo

My wife went to court for running a red light. She was following me while I was driving a Uhaul truck and she didn't see the light. We went to court to fight it, but ended up winning by default because the officer didn't show up.
 
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Here in FL, the officer that gave you the ticket has to be present or it's dismissed. Who else can speak for an officer if they weren't there? Then it becomes your word against theirs because you were there and they weren't.

That rule in MA is redundant and contains no justice at all!

Welcome to Massachusetts. So what happens is that the ticket is never dropped at the hearing, and it forces you to attend court. This is a PITA for those of us that work for a living. This way the state makes more money by forcing you to go to court for the smallest offense. A lot of people don't show up. Although now that the whole point system is in place, its now worth it to burn the vacation time.

Back to our regularly scheduled thread.

Adam
 
i don't know how they schedule the hearings, but in maryland, i'm pretty sure the officer who actually wrote the ticket has to be present at the hearing.

i'm still trying to decide if i should hand in the plates or not. if i hand in the plates, i'm sure that would help convince the judge to be lenient. but then i'm stuck if it doesn't sell and i want to get the seats re-covered to make it more sellable.
 
Fight it, not sure how they do it there but in Mo a little money and a good lawyer goes a long way. I got a ticket for C and I on my street bike last April and got it knocked down to a non moving violation, although the fine did cost me about double, $500 is much better than losing your license... I say this from experience.
 
First off, just plan on the cop showing up.

Second, no offense to you Chris, but it really annoys me when people blame having a fast car being problematic when its all about self control. In your case, I do not see it being a self control issue that is why I am exempting you from that aspect. But the idea that you would sell your car because its too fast is pretty ridiculous. A 14 second car is quick and can get you into trouble too. You simply had an incident of wrong place at the wrong time.

Now if you were constantly being a moron and flogging the gears through town and traffic and got 2 or 3 tickets and said I need to get rid of this car I would be the first to say please do, but thats just not the case.

Probably the most annoying thing I hear people say regarding this topic is "I cant get a crotch rocket cause I'll kill myself". Not relating to other people hitting them, but rather their "need for speed". It's about as immature as something I'd expect from a freshman in high school. To me what that translates into is "I am so immature, retarded, and have zero self control that I will drive so crazy and so fast that I kill myself". Amazing.

I say talk to a lawyer.
 
First off, just plan on the cop showing up.

Second, no offense to you Chris, but it really annoys me when people blame having a fast car being problematic when its all about self control. In your case, I do not see it being a self control issue that is why I am exempting you from that aspect. But the idea that you would sell your car because its too fast is pretty ridiculous. A 14 second car is quick and can get you into trouble too. You simply had an incident of wrong place at the wrong time.

Now if you were constantly being a moron and flogging the gears through town and traffic and got 2 or 3 tickets and said I need to get rid of this car I would be the first to say please do, but thats just not the case.

Probably the most annoying thing I hear people say regarding this topic is "I cant get a crotch rocket cause I'll kill myself". Not relating to other people hitting them, but rather their "need for speed". It's about as immature as something I'd expect from a freshman in high school. To me what that translates into is "I am so immature, retarded, and have zero self control that I will drive so crazy and so fast that I kill myself". Amazing.

I say talk to a lawyer.

Hello Mr. Sunshine! First you mock some noob for asking a poorly worded question, now you slam Chris for having a little "speeder's remorse". :D

Hope you have a happier Tuesday!:nice:
 
i agree it is 99% self control, and i admit that i decided to step on it, and i am now paying the price. but the fact that it can go from 70-90 on the highway in a few seconds at 1/2 throttle also makes it almost too easy to go too fast. do you understand what i mean?

the decision to sell it is part that ... i also have a 2 speeding tickets in the minivan in the last 3 years (the lookback time in MD) and an accident that put points on me (also not in the stang), so this is going to put me over the top.

but another big factor is that, and you probably remember this, my wife has wanted me to get rid of it ever since i bought the fairlane. she has put alot of pressure on me over the last year and a half to sell it

and lastly, with college for the kids looming, and the fairlane needing about 4 grand to be finished, selling the stang will help pay those costs as well

so i have more reasons to sell it than i have to keep it
 
I got to be honest, a lot of people are kind of worried about economics right now. I haven't seen cars like that sell for what they are truly worth. People just don't want to spend the money right now. I have a friend who is trying to sell a 52' Biscayne for over a year now. He has dropped the price to $3500. And all this car needs is like 3 new windows, and maybe a paint job.

Kurt
 
i agree it is 99% self control, and i admit that i decided to step on it, and i am now paying the price. but the fact that it can go from 70-90 on the highway in a few seconds at 1/2 throttle also makes it almost too easy to go too fast. do you understand what i mean?

the decision to sell it is part that ... i also have a 2 speeding tickets in the minivan in the last 3 years (the lookback time in MD) and an accident that put points on me (also not in the stang), so this is going to put me over the top.

but another big factor is that, and you probably remember this, my wife has wanted me to get rid of it ever since i bought the fairlane. she has put alot of pressure on me over the last year and a half to sell it

and lastly, with college for the kids looming, and the fairlane needing about 4 grand to be finished, selling the stang will help pay those costs as well

so i have more reasons to sell it than i have to keep it


Yeah I hear ya. Maybe that would be the best route to go. Just make sure the Fairlane is modified to the point you really love it and are cool with just having it and no Mustang.
 
So what happened?
in MD, if you want to go to court to ask for lenience or explain the circumstances, you simply don't pay the fine and you are assigned a court date.

since you (Keith) also live in MD, you probably already know that ... the explanation was more for other non-MD people whose systems may work differently ...

so anyway, i didn't pay the fine and i am going to court this thursday, july 30th.

i figure i will tell the judge that when i bought the car, it had aftermarket gears and the speedo read higher than actual, so i went back to the stock gearing to fix that, but i didn't realize that you need to recalibrate the speedometer by changing the gear at the driveshaft, so the speedo was now reading too low and i did not realize i was going 85.

that is actually more truth than fiction. i mean, i did know i was speeding, but the speedo does read at least 10 mph too low and i really did not know just how fast i was going. at 70 mph, my speedo reads 60.

also, MD has a status called Probation Before Judgement (PBJ), where they put you on probation and hold off judgement for a while and see if you get any more tickets or anything. i am going to respectfully request the judge to consider PBJ for me.
 
I just got out of court. I did not get PBJ, but the judge did reduce it to 11 MPH over the limit, which means I get 2 points instead of the 5 for 30+ over. That is crucial, because now I only have 7 points and I won't have my license suspended.

:)
 
Well, gotta look on the bright side - you still have your license. Glad to hear at least that part worked out the way you hoped. I'm sure court fees cost you $$$$ though.

If you do get a radar detector, I highly recommend the Valentine One. It has saved me from several speeding tickets so far, and is well worth the $400 to me.