Fight Speeding Ticket

Its not always cheap to fight your speeding ticket.  In order to flight your speeding ticket, you have to post bail.  For your routine misdemeanor, your bail could be around $150.00.  The reason I used the word “could” is because even the Judge doesn’t know the correct amount.

Here is how it works.   If you decide to fight your ticket, you have to appear at your arraignment hearing and enter your plead.  You don’t necessary have to attend the hearing.  You can mail a letter to the court and notify them that you intend to plead not guilty and ask for a trial date.  The law states that you are entitled to a trial within 30 days but because of budget limitations, it can’t be provided so you will be asked to waive your rights to the 30 day rule.

Ok lets get back to the arraignment hearing.  At the hearing, the bailot will call you up to talk to the Judge.  The Judge will tell you what you are charge with and ask you how you plead.  If you plead not guilty, he will instruct the clerk to assign you a trial date and set your bail.  The bail amount will always include a number of administrative fees that the Judge will not even know about.  He will give you a estimated amount.

If you can’t afford to pay the entire amount that day, you can ask for a limited extension.  At most the Judge can grant you about 10 days, which isn’t much.  You have to pay the entire amount if you want to go to trial.  If you fail to pay it you can get a warrant out for your arrest.

The Court is going to impose a high bail amount to get you to avoid fighting it.

If you win your case then you get your money back.  If you lose then that amount is applied to your ticket fine.

Traffic School is granted at the discretion of the Judge.  I know many of you have heard that you can only get traffic school once every 18 months.  But there are two types of traffic school.

Generally, if you get a ticket in California, you can go to traffic school for 8 hours and get the ticket dismissed from your record.  This allow you to avoid any points on your driving record towards losing your license.

California Vehicle Code provides that if you ahve attended an eight hour class in the past 12 months you can go back to traffic school for 12 hours at the discretion of the judge.  To get it you have to appear in court and nicely and politely ask the judge if they would grant you the right.  The Vehicle Code gives the judge discretion to do so.

Section 41501 of the California Vehicle Code, specifically states.

41501. The court may order a continuance of a proceeding against a person, who receives a notice to appear in court for a violation of any statute relating to the safe operation of a vehicle, in consideration for attendance at a licensed school for traffic violators, a licensed driving school, or any other court-approved program of driving instruction, and, after that attendance, the court may dismiss the complaint under the following conditions:

(a) If the offense is alleged to have been committed within 12 months of another offense which was dismissed under this section, the court may order the continuance and, after the attendance, dismiss the complaint. The court may order attendance at a licensed school for traffic violators which offers a program of at least 12 hours of instruction.

(b) If the offense is not alleged to have occurred within 12 months of another offense which was dismissed under this section, the court may order the continuance and, after the attendance, dismiss the complaint if the attendance is at any of the types of schools or programs that the court directed pursuant to Section 42005 at the time of ordering the continuance.

Once you have attended your 12 hour class, your record will state that your case was dismissed by traffic school.  (T/S Violation Date).

There is also what is know as Defensive Driving Classes but we will get into that on another occassion.