If you fought a speeding ticket in court....

[John VN]

Seems kinda silly, at this point, that police stop people for speeding, if it's that easy to get out of it.

IM(very)HO, if I were to get a ticket for speeding and knew I was speeding I would pay the ticket and take my "beating", because I deserve it for breaking the law.

That's just me, tho. YMMV

It appears from most of the responses that the name of the game is to NOT admit one's error and do what ever it takes to NOT take the deserved punishment. Just sounds like a big joke. I would imagine that if the fines were not reduced, the points were applied and additional costs for insurance resulted from the infraction, there would be second thoughts to speeding again.

There are in fact instances where mistakes can happen but if one has broken the law, fess up. Pants on the ground.

Do the crime and pay the fine.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Seems kinda silly, at this point, that police stop people for speeding, if it's that easy to get out of it...

FYI - they do not stop people for speeding to keep the roads safe anymore - they do it for revenue. Same applies for parking tickets - revenue generators. The courts don't care what you plea to, as long as they get the money. If a change in plea increases the fine, all the better. Points make insurance companies richer - not municipalities. In essence, they are "selling" points - which is further proof that they really don't care about road safety.

Think about it - if you wanted to make the roads safer, you would put the police cars in very visible places, not hiding behind hillocks or trees. If you know that there are police in the area, you slow down. If you don't see them, you drive at whatever speed you feel most comfortable.

By spreading the police cars out and making them more visible, you would slow people down and make the roads safer. If that was their real goal, they would go about it very differently, and they would prosecute more strictly...

 

[MM27]

How is reckless driving a zero point violation in NJ? According to the point schedule http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/Violations/penalties_pointSchedule.htm reckless driving is 5 points. It's listed as 39:4-96. I'm just wondering because the cop gave me a break by instead of giving me a ticket for speeding at 15 mph over the limit which would have been 4 points, he downgraded it to careless driving which was 2 points. And reckless driving is a more severe charge than careless.

I think that poster was actually referring to "unsafe driving", not reckless driving. In NJ "unsafe driving" is a no-point offense but carries around a $400 fine. That is usually what a first time speeding offender is offered as a plea bargain.

Edited to add, the whole reason the unsafe driving provision was enacted by the legislature was for people who get a one-time speeding ticket and are going to be hit by insurance points. The fee is statutory and totals about $400, a lot more than the speeding fine, but carries no points. You can only use the unsafe driving plea twice, and it's not allowed for certain offenses or certain classes of drivers (those with provisional licenses I believe.)

Sorry, yes it was unsafe driving not reckless. Like I said, it was my first ever ticket. There must have been about 60 other people in the courtroom that day when I was there and the only ones the judge didn't change were the driving without a license/suspended license and the repeat offenders.

 

[Topper]

go in the largest shirt you have

huh?