$220 for running a stop sign

Vanished · Post by **Vanished** » July 17th, 2005, 5:02 pm

Well yah so I was drivin, didnt' stop at a stop sing all the way, turned left, and waddya know, a coupel police officers sittin at the side of the road a ways down, pulled me over and gave me a ticket for $220 bucks. I was little ticked. So anyway, I could

A) Take it to court
B) Suck it up and pay it
C) Community Service?

Ok, now...I noticed on the ticket it said Toyo Terc...and i was triving a toyota corolla at the time..soo, i was wondering if i can use that in the court case? The liscence is right, but the car was wrong. Now, they had a cop stationed behind the bushes, and then raidioed the cops down the road to pull me over, wich is when they took down the lisence plate. I dunno..i'm just abit pissed tho, cuz they were pulling over dozens and dozens of people. So i dunno what to do, its my first ticket of any kind, what do you guys think?

Ricksmx3 · Post by **Ricksmx3** » July 17th, 2005, 5:05 pm

Either pay it or do community service cause it anit worth the trouble of trying to fight the law especially when you will lose anyway.

mitmaks · Post by **mitmaks** » July 17th, 2005, 5:07 pm

that sucks, id do comm service or possibly try to fight it, its too much

johnnyb · Post by **johnnyb** » July 17th, 2005, 7:19 pm

you may have been in a bad area for people not stopping at stop signs, hence the expensive rate. I dont see you winning this in court however because you only have your testimony to go on. And we all know a judge would take the word of a cop over that of a citizen. Suck it up and pay or do the community service. It all depends on what you value more, your money or your time.

rece · Post by **rece** » July 17th, 2005, 11:28 pm

if the ticket is not accurate in any whay then you have a chance in court. if the ticket said tercel and you were in a corrola then they made a mistake on the ticket and they might throw it out. the other option if this doesnt work you can ask the judge if you can just pay it and state that you want to "plead guilty to the registered owner" and ask if the ticket can be put into a no demerit situation

hope this helps

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 17th, 2005, 11:53 pm

rece wrote:if the ticket is not accurate in any whay then you have a chance in court. if the ticket said tercel and you were in a corrola then they made a mistake on the ticket and they might throw it out. the other option if this doesnt work you can ask the judge if you can just pay it and state that you want to "plead guilty to the registered owner" and ask if the ticket can be put into a no demerit situation
hope this helps

I'm with rece's second part. Contact the prosecuting office (State I'm guessing) and bring this information forward. They (the prosecuting office) may be in aggreeance if your completely honest and up front with them and they may tell you that when it goes to court they will request a lowering of the charges to the judge which makes things real easy for the judge if you previously aggreed to this and he'll just issue the applicable consequence. It costs nothing to contact the prosecutors office.

neutral · Post by **neutral** » July 18th, 2005, 12:05 am

FWIW I used a common "trick" here in the U.S. that maybe could help in your situation. Most cops have their "court days" scheduled so that all the citations they issued since their last scheduled court day are batched together on the court schedule to be heard in court on a single day. If ya don't pay the ticket, once you receive a court date, contact the courthouse immediately and ask for a reschedule on your court appearance date. Use a good reason like business travel etc. DON'T wait til the last minute - or you could hurt your chances of getting a new date.

Around here, they'll give you a new court date - usually it ends up being a future date that doesn't coincide with the officer's scheduled court days so he/she would have to make a special trip to court just for your case. For traffic stuff, most cops don't take the time to appear just for one ticket hearing. And there's the rub in the defendant's favor - the right to face your accuser. If the officer who issued the citation is not present - case dropped and no questions asked or arguments have to be made on your behalf. Not foolproof but like I said, it's a commonly used means of reducing the chance of having the citation/fine/driving points/demerits/whatever it's called in Canada, go on your driving record.

Hoodzy · Post by **Hoodzy** » July 18th, 2005, 12:10 am

yah i got a 287 ticket for a stop sign and nobody around in the middle of the nite except a cop driving down the road, i could tell he was in a very bad mood so i got the max, i was rather ticked. all the ticket's i've gotten hav ebeen scheduled for fridays at 9AM, so i dunno, i'll definately have to try it sometime ahaha

V8KOMX3 · Post by **V8KOMX3** » July 18th, 2005, 1:10 am

I got pulled over for running a stop sign when I stopped all the way then I got taken to jail. They said I was driving under suspension when my license was not suspened and the best part was they were going to let my roomate drive my car home and he had a suspended license figure that crap out. Things like that happen to me all the time, which is why I started FTP Racing.

mitmaks · Post by **mitmaks** » July 18th, 2005, 2:28 am

and if ure lucky enough you can contest the ticket and if cop doesnt show up theyll throw it out

beacbum · Post by **beacbum** » July 18th, 2005, 4:38 am

I'm not exactly sure how it is in your Province, but in Ontario if you have a ticket with any wrong information on it, it will be thrown out automatically. It doesnt matter if it is the date, plate or make/model of car.... you do not have to pay it. Bring it to your local Provincial courthouse where fines are paid or trials are held. Let them know that you do not drive the type of car that is written on the ticket, and they will take care of. It will save you a crap load of money and points on your drivers abstract.

Gro Harlem · Post by **Gro Harlem** » July 18th, 2005, 3:35 pm

D) use your legal right to extend the court date. Extend it again, screwing up their court dates w/the cops available days to show up.

Go to court...whaddya know..cop isn't there (i hope you remember how he looks) and you walk.

Works every time for me

johnnyb · Post by **johnnyb** » July 18th, 2005, 6:31 pm

beacbum wrote:I'm not exactly sure how it is in your Province, but in Ontario if you have a ticket with any wrong information on it, it will be thrown out automatically. It doesnt matter if it is the date, plate or make/model of car.... you do not have to pay it. Bring it to your local Provincial courthouse where fines are paid or trials are held. Let them know that you do not drive the type of car that is written on the ticket, and they will take care of. It will save you a crap load of money and points on your drivers abstract.

thats actually false. If they pull you over and give you a ticket the only thing that needs to be correct is your name. You can go to contest that the license plate is wrong but the prosecutors argument will be "maybe you were driving someone elses car." This is a common myth that people assume and go to fight only to lose. The judge also takes into account that the officer is human and will have errors.

Meep · Post by **Meep** » July 18th, 2005, 11:46 pm

I've only had one experience with running a stop sign and unfortunately the guy who failed to stop at it hit me....
3 ways are the devil when there is only one stop sign and a person who doesn't want to stop at it...

Teal_93 · Post by **Teal_93** » July 19th, 2005, 6:08 pm

Just out of curiosity why is everyone running stop signs???? They are there for a reason. Granted $220 sounds high for running a stop sign, but what is wrong with obeying the law to stop for a sign?