Oct
17
First Ticket, I Have No Idea If I Should Pay Online Or Go To Court To Pay It?
ByOkay so, 4 days ago I got pulled over because I didnt stop at the right light before i turned right. The cop was being “nice” by saying he wasn’t going to give me the ticket I was supposed to get which would’ve cost me $400..so he gave me a lesser version of it, but I won’t know the actual price of the ticket till 3 weeks from now.
He said I had the option to pay the ticket online and do traffic school online as well. But some are saying I should just go to court, pay the fine and ask if I can take traffic school to take it off my record because I might not be able to do traffic school if its not eligible.
So what should I do? And how the court process work anyways? I’m terribly confused since it’s my first time and all.
2 Comments
October 17th, 2009 at 7:23 am
your eligable for traffic school dont worry. they should notify you how much it will cost for the ticket. either way its no big deal. going to court can be time consuming your choice. if your going to fight the ticket then you have to go to court.
October 17th, 2009 at 8:03 am
You will receive a Courtesy Notice letter, and it will have instructions for traffic school and fine. Here is an example for CA state:http://www.mothercopper.com/cases/Case00…
Notice that there are two amounts: one for the fine itself, and the higher one is the fine + admin fee for traffic school.
You will need to pay the higher one or the one that is for traffic school.
There is a court appearance date on your ticket, if you don’t get your Courtesy Notice by the court date, you must appear at the court by the court date or earlier.
If you are NOT going to conest your ticket, you should just pay online if there are options for traffic school. If not, pay by mail.
You don’t really need to visit the courthouse.
Besides, I was able to beat seven (7) California tickets in the past 2 years. All by the method of Trial By Written Declaration (TBWD). You just need to call the court, and ask to contest your ticket by TBWD. You will need to download a form TR-205 and mail out the bail (ticket payment), and explain your reason in TR-205. With TBWD, you don’t have to show up at the courthouse. Make sure you mail TR-205 about 2 weeks before your ticket due date.
If you were found guilty, you still have one more chance to appeal which is called Trial de Novo (TDN).
At TDN, you have to show up in court , and if the Officer did not show up, you win. If he show up, do this:
1) Ask the Judge for his TBWD since he is to turn in his TBWD within one month.
2) Use your reasonings from TBWD, and attack/corss examine the Officer.
For more details and examples, visit the website below: http://www.mothercopper.com/