How do they handle the court appearance down there? Some places if you plead not guilty and the officer is not there, the ticket is dismissed. Since you say she "strongly suggested" that you go to court, is it possible she was running up her count, proving that she's on the job, but if you fight it she will not be there to back it up? In other words giving you a break?

 

A pace clock is nothing more than an officer following you and maintaining an equal distance at an equal speed. Even though speedometers in most squad cars are "calibrated", I've seen them off as much as 2-3 mph. We have what they call "supervision" for some traffic citations here in Illinois. In essence you plead guilty and pay a fine, but the ticket doesn't go on your driving record unless you receive another moving violation within a specified time. I guess if you go to court you may be fortunate enough not to have the officer show up.

 

I fyou know you were right talk to the judge.

 

I don't know about FL, but you say you haven't gotten a speed ticket in 20 years. If you have a pretty clean record, I'd say dispute the ticket and get two copies of driving record and bring it to the judge. Dispute your case, give the judge a copy of your record. He/She may be in a good mood to let it go. On top of that, the officer may have been trying to make her quota, or singling you out, if what you say is true.

my 2 cents.

 

Hey hardtop,
I live in Tampa. heads up there is a lot of street racing over that bridge, mostly at night. Out of state, You can get a lawyer if you want to, maybe it will work maybe it will not. My 2cents, take an on line course, pay the discounted fine and call it a day. Most of the time when you get pulled over by a state cop, the ticket will stick. There is also a chance that they may let you off with a warning, but in your case that did not happen??
PS I got my first speeding ticket in 36 years, downtown Tampa, 46MPH in a 35 zone. Tampa cop with a real bad attitude. In the end,, I was speeding even though others were going faster than me.

 

Fight it and get a better deal from the da.

 

Take the course. It will guarantee not having points against you. If you fight it, no guarantee.

 

Yes, the speedometers in the patrol cars are calibrated on a regular basis. The Auto Club comes to the department about once a month and does all of our patrol cars and police motorcycles. Yes, the speedometers in most of our patrol cars are off by a few mph’s one way or the other. When the speedometers are calibrated, nothing is physically is done to the car. The calibration machine prints out a small card that is clipped to the driver’s side visor. The card gives the vehicle’s speedometer reading and the vehicle’s actual speed listed side by side. When doing a pace, the LEO looks up at the card on the visor and takes the speed deviation into account when doing the pace. In fact, in court the LEO will testify as to the calibrated speed vs. the actual speed of the police car and that he/she took the deviation into account during the pace.

Don't count on the officer not showing up for court!!! We get dinged in our personnel file if we miss a court subpoena.

 

I have had a Ga State Trooper strongly urge me to to go court on a speeding ticket. 91 in a 55(7 years ago). The trooper did not show to the first hearing, judge sent me to 6hrs of DD School(best thing that I could have ever spent $60 on) and to show back up to court in 30days. At that time, the ticket was dismissed because the trooper wasn't present. No points, no insurance hikes, and a LOT of lessons learned about that skinny pedal on the right!

 

Wow! That sounds like a lot of mental work. I guess that's why I never liked to write pace clock tickets. I'm glad I'm retired.

 

Since time is money, do a calculation of what it will cost you personally to file for judgement date, take off work, go to the court, lose the case, end up taking the course, etc. etc.

What I'm getting at is this is not a huge miscarriage of justice. It's not a 90 in a 35 zone. I'm guessing you won't be even close to losing your license. Pick and chose the best time and situation to go to war. This is probably not one of them.

Heh, in Texas..........you get a discount with your insurance carrier when you take the driving course. How about there?

 

thats sucks, just drive 60 from now on, that way you'll be driving 70, and if you speedometer is correct, you'll still be in the clear.....lol

Or just drive a vw bug, probably never get pulled over.


Most around here just get in the mood to pull someone over. So if they're in the mood, look out. They'll make up something.

 

Ok, from what I understand, you were a little over the limit according to your cruise control. Most judges realize that the average motorist is going to breach the limit upwards of 5mph and will overlook that. Is there a possibility that before you set your cruise control that you did reach 80mph? Say, merging into traffic, passing slower traffic, etc? If so, this could be what the Trooper was describing. However, for that to be the case, she would have had to have been following you for some distance AT THAT SPEED (our judges require at least 1/2 mile pace for admission in Sarasota and Charlotte counties) and it's unclear if that happened. Chances are if you took it to court the judge will split the difference and take off the points leaving you with whatever fine was assesed which I'm guessing would be around $220. With the recent fine changes I may be a little off. If you opt for the school option, your fine is only reduced by a few dollars. In reality it will cost you more to take the class because there will be a fee for that, too! I'm not sure I helped any, but wanted to get a bit more info out to you to help you decide a better option for your case. I'm a firm believer that if you feel you were not in violation as described, then you should contest it. LEO's are human, too, and we can and do make mistakes. We are held to a higher degree of accuracy than you are in the judge's eye. If we are less than perfect, then judges do tend to rule against us, here. Whatever you choose, I wish you the best.

 

was she hot?

 

HAH1 The voice of experience!

 

I used my radar to confirm the pace speed not my speedometer in my unit. Our cars never got calibrated but our radars did.

 

As a habitual offender I advise to forget the advice to go to court and "hope" for the best. True IF the law doesn't show up you get off. True if you plead your case you MIGHT get a break. However the gavel swings both ways. You could get nailed with the max fine, points, defensive driving, and excessive court costs. No way would I ever "hope" for the bast.

I wouldn't plead guilty, or nolo and pay a fine. Higher insurance will follow for 3 years.

Two choices. The first one is the best. Take the 4 hour online course. You have up to 60 days to complete it. I do it while I surf the net over a 3 or 4 day period. You can also rent a DVD at Blockbuster and get credit. You can't take the course for a ticket AND get an insurance discount. You have to take the course separate. Over here in my county we got a small discount on the fine but recently the legislature took that away in addition to jacking up all traffic fines. So you will have to pay a large fine and then about $20. for the school.

Option 2 is the ambulance chasing lawyers. Yes they work. But all they do is plead you to school and you still pay a fine and court costs. You're allowed the school once a year and this is where the lawyer comes in handy. I did a California stop in my jeep in July, I had an improper lane change ticket in December and took the school for it so I was ineligible for school again. The shyster hit me for $135. it took 60 days for him to go to court, I didn't have to appear. He got me off with a fine and court costs that ran $160. and I had to go to school again. Altogether I was out about $450. over a 5 month period but I still have no points so it was worth it.

Anyways since this is your first ticket in years take the school option and pay the money. Remember though this kinda luck runs in 3's. Be careful.

 

okay they are not above the law! Your word is just as good as their's! Not to be a d**k but when ever someone told me it was my word against their's I have always wanted to tell them to go f**k them selves cause I KNOW my word is true. There are so many factors that can come into play with this whole thing. If you need credability I have been issued over twenty speeding tickets in my time and have only been convicted of 6! One was for 152 mph in a 65, reduced to 85 in a 65 (in court). With effort you can get out of this ticket no problem. If you need help let me know. Im from NY so not sure exactly how things are run in your state.

Edit: If your close enough go to court, meet the judge in person etc etc if you need to talk to the DA, talk to the DA. In NY to hire a lawyer is just stupid and a waste of money, alls they will do is talk to either the judge or the DA for a plea. Something you could do yourself. To be honest if this was me, in NY, this ticket would be thrown out, I gurantee it. Oh, and trust me I'm well deserving of it! every night I pray to my passport X50 god! lol

 

You're a sick man!

 

Finally, we get to the real question!