Back in late June a friend and I took his '06 S2000 from New York to his new home in Omaha, NE - taking mostly backroads. I'm in the driver's seat, on one of the few areas we needed to stick to the Interstate, somewhere in western PA not too far from Pittsburgh (Breezewood is the name of the town/area). Anyway, I get a performance award for some unknown speed. I say unknown because the cop only writes me up for a 71 in a 65 to give me a "break". (I don't recall, but I think I was doing 11 or 12 over) Get to Omaha, fly back home to NY, tell the wife I got a ticket, she calls a lawyer local to that area. Lawyer has her read the ticket information. Says on the ticket that the radar in question was last calibrated in February and according to the statute, PA law says radars have to be calibrated every 60 days. Based on this, I'm in the clear - slam dunk case. I ask if I need to show up in court or can the lawyer represent me, "No, you have to show.". Court is 297 miles from my house and my court date was yesterday. Monday afternoon I kiss my wife and kids goodbye, and hit the road for 5 hours. Stayed at a hotel Monday night, show up for court Tuesday morning - expecting my lawyer, Tom. Tom doesn't show, instead he sent lackey assistant who knows nothing about my case. She gingerly sits down next to me and says, "So, we're looking for a points reduction here?" "Um, no, we're looking for dismissal on the grounds that the radar was not calibrated within 60 days." (opens up my file for the first time and start reading) "Oh, yeah - I see that, yeah - you lucked out on that one." She then realizes she needs to check in with the front desk and leaves. Comes back 5 minutes later speaking to the cop that pulled me over. He's explaining to her that since he gave me a break on the road, he's not giving me another one. She says nothing, she just looks at me to see what I want to do. To make a long story short, my original lawyer Tom and this lackey replacement he sent were both wrong - the law on radar calibration was amended on January 15th, 2009 to say that any radar devices calibrated after that date are good for a period of 1 year. In my lawyer's sole "legal" move all day long she asks him to get the amendment/docket number on that change which he goes and does. When he comes back, he explains that he is not going to recommend to the judge that my now 2-point violation gets reduced to a non-moving violation and that I can either change my plea, pay, and leave - or I can have my case heard by the judge. Then he warns me that the judge is not very forgiving of motorists and most likely will not reduce my violation. Wonder-Lawyer next to me doesn't say a word and looks at me with a "What do you want to do?" kinda look. After I let the rage subside and convinced myself that slapping her in the back of the head in front of the police officer would not be beneficial to my case ... I reminded her that she was the lawyer, I'm paying her, and I asked for her recommendation. She then repeats what the cop said, "Well, it doesn't sound like the judge is going to be very forgiving - you should probably change your plea to guilty." Realizing that I'm up shytz creek without a paddle, I throw in the towel and sign the guilty checkbox. Then I get in my car, and drive 297 miles back home. All in all I drove a tick over 600 miles (including some driving around looking for food), stayed a night at a hotel, and left my family for almost 30 hours (leaving the wife with a 3-year old and a 10-month old I might add) because I managed to hire a team of lawyers who don't know the law and were too lazy to verify it. Honestly, I knew the cop gave me a break and my past court experiences have taught me that one break is a gift, two is a fantasy. If they had told me to drive out on the hopes that the prosecutor (in this jurisdiction, the officer is the prosecutor) gives me a break, I would have just sent in a guilt-plea by mail (what is a stamp now, $0.40?) and sucked it up. But based on their complete incompetence and subsequently incorrect information, I'm out over $200 in mileage/gas/wear-tear (based on mileage reimbursement standards of the US Gov), $30 worth of disgusting highway food, $10+ in tolls ($8 alone for the Tappanzee bridge), and an $80 hotel stay. It's not the money, its the principal. These morons got PAID to be completely incompetent and took me away from my family for a day. Leaving the courthouse I felt like kicking that lawyer down the stairs. Sorry, had to rant.
I have gotten more speeding tickets than i care to remember and i have NEVER had to show up in court..was this your first ticket? The ticket "Dr" always sends a notice with the outcome..so..ya got scR*wed more than once, but the worst part was that they thought you had to show up..very curious about that..rip em for that..?!!
....and you typed all of this up in a letter and sent it to the managing partners at the law firm you retained? I think they need to hear all of this as much as we do. You should have had a radar detector. Driving a sports car without one is like playing in the NFL without a helmet. Just sayin'.....
Actually, the letter for the law firm is getting typed up now. The wife and I are in disagreement about what facts/opinions should be in it and whether or not I should bill them for my expenses. The friend who was moving was supposed to be bringing his Valentine 1 on the trip but the moving company he had hired ended up packing the truck in half the time they had thought it was going to take. When it was all said and done, there were quite a few things he had meant to keep to the side but the packing-commandos had gobbled it all up before he could get a grasp on what was going on. So yes, we were supposed to have had one - but we didn't.
Oh god no. I've been to court more times than most people speed. The difference is that I used to represent myself. I'm a bit older, bit wiser, bit better off now, and realized that the $400 it costs to get representation is worth the increased chance of a successful outcome --- well, at least I THOUGHT it was. I have had representation once before, for a Manhattan ticket, and I had to show up for that as well. It actually surprises me that I WOULDN'T have to show up. I know I asked, but I expected the answer I got. Is not needing to be present a common thing?
First most courts are now "kangaroo courts" and your situation proves that. So, it takes an attorney that's greasing the palms of the judge to get any significant results these days. Sounds like your people were just going along for the ride. If you don't get the sense that there's some greasing going on with the guy you higher then they're just taking your money. Also, if you try to defend yourself they see you coming and figure they're going to extract money from you one way or other. It's best to get an idea of success rate from an unbiased person familiar with a given attorney. The radar detectors are not too effective, here anyway. It seems like all it takes is for the cop to think you were speeding and it's you against him. Laser is a tough one to dodge. Obviously it's better to have one then not. Good luck with it.
I apologize that you had a bad experience. We never have clients appear - was your date a trial date? Here, tickets are set for pretrial adjudication sessions where we can work something out without trial... www.ticketninjas.com I think SrfCity is a little too cynical on the bribery angle, but having a positive reputation for telling the truth in court and being known to the court do help. It's always easier to deal with people you're sociable with, even in situations where you disagree and the client is going to get shafted. Did you get a reduction in points or fine in exchange for the plea? It's not up to the cop whether to 'cut a break' at that point but the City Attorney or District Attorney (and ultimately, the judge). Otherwise you should have tried it anyway.
No, as I mentioned earlier my ticket was already "reduced" when it was handed to me. In this middle-of-nowhere community, there was no prosecutor - and as was explained to me by my lawyer when I asked, the officer who wrote my tickets serves as the prosecutor. It was him we were dealing with. No, I got no reduction in points.
Wow, that seems fundamentally unconstitutional to have the witness and the law enforcement be the prosecutor - that would breach basic witness rules. It would seem at trial, if he was to give testimony, there would be no one authorized to direct examine the witness. Even in rural areas here, they have to get lawyers to be the prosecutors (on contract or part-time basis).
You were driving an s2000, you deserved to get pulled over. Buy a valentine 1, some laser veil and a laser jammer if you're feeling really antsy. I the first two have saved my ass more times than I can count. As for the third, ask someone else.
Knock the S2000 all that you want. But in shopping for that car my friend looked at the Boxter, the then brand new Cayman, and the Z4 and the Honda won outright, regardless of price. It is a simply amazing car in almost every sense. Brand snobs look down on it for being a Honda, sports-car guys love it for what it can do.
how much is a ticket that's 6 mph over? Can't be that much... Why go through all the trouble if the cop already gave you a break? Next time he won't...
