slumpbuster

Yeah, when it comes to traffic related offenses, the "innocent until proven guilty" moniker is probably the farthest thing from the truth that there ever was. IF you go to court to challenge it, you have to either prove yourself innocent, or have the police officer not show up at the hearing to get off of the charges. If you try to decrease the charges, you have to basically tell them how good of a kid you are...and with a handle like "sexy420", i'm going with "you've been in some sort of trouble before." Outside of that, its your word vs. the officer's word, and unless that officer has a bad reputation (doesn't normally happen in larger communities), you're pretty much screwed.

sexy420

I figured I would go ahead and update this for anybody who may care and or be in a similar situation. I went to court with the ticket and, at least in minnesota, for these things you do not get a lawyer, you do not get a jury trial and you only get to say guilty or not. I went with guilty since I really had no other choice (its not like I was gonna say that the radar gun was off by 15+ MPH). I then got to tell a little bit of my side and then the judge took over. He read off all of the officer's notes from the day and asked me to confirm them as true. This is an important point for everyone to know, officers write down everything you say and the judges actually read them, so be careful what you say in court and to the officer. Any way I had a clean record and so he put it on a one year continious for dismissal along with a fine of $200. So in other words I put up $200 dollars but as long as I dont do speed, well at least not get caught, it is as if nothing ever happened.

dmu789

Sounds like a good deal in the end.... Just try to be a good guy for a year and your in the clear... Hopefully that works out for you

CWB

sounds like you did the right thing ... and didn't get the book thrown at you ... good deal !
did the judge mention what would happen if you got caught speeding during the "probationary" period ?

sexy420

The judge did not specifically address what happens if you get caught during the 1 year period, but it sounds like if I do get caught then both tickets are most likely going to go on your record and tou are goning to get hit with a hefty fine. One thing to keep in mind though is that, at least in MN, most moving violations are not escalatbale (maybe? I am certian that is the word they used or even a word but it was something like that) which means that they can not increase the penalty of the fine if you continue to get tickets. However the insurence companies can do what ever the hell they want to do.

Barði

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Does MN have a driver's ed course you can take to get the ticket off of your record?

Texas has it, and you can use it once every six months. And the real sneaky part of that strategy is that your insurance rates actually go down for taking the course (even though 100% of the people taking are trying to get out of a ticket)!

Anyways, that is what I used to get out the annual speeding tickets I would get once a year.

sexy420

Im not sure if we have that in MN but I have heard of similar things like that in other states before. It probably would have been a good idea for me to have checked out before court but like I said it is off my record so I am allright with dropping the $200