Advice on dufus traffic ticket - F*rt Lee

Last Summer on the way to the Vintage/Challenge race at Limerock I stupidly managed to go late through a light with my Maserati in the lovely borough of F*rt Lee, NJ.
Totally my fault and I admitted same to officer so he said if I showed up at court he would not. It sounded reasonable at the time? In the meantime I got another ticket in my Suburban but in North Bergen. That one finished up in a reasonable amount of time. The notice for this one only arrived last week! Over 6 months!

In North Bergen it does not matter if the cop does not show they just keep rescheduling until he does. So for that one I paid the bribe in exchange for no points.

Now I'm wondering how the courts in F*rt Lee work? Does anyone know? After 6+ months I seriously doubt the cop remembers "our deal" the lying b*stard.

P.S. I now have a long list of solicitations from attorneys all based on the statement of my court date.

Bob S.

 

the ole' "do you know why I stopped you?" question is famous, also the old, "just respect me and admit what you did and I will let you off easy..." all just tricks for the stupid to make an admission and make the cops job ez. you have rights to due process...go and fight in court and you don't need a lawyer unless you are dealing with a DWI or some other serious infraction. contact the DA and try and work out a deal to plead to a lesser no points offense. Also search for technical defenses like errors in the summons. I would expect the officer to show up.

 

Actually I find contrition works most of the time. These are the first tickets I've had in 12 years and both in the same month!

Bob S.

 

Why would he write the ticket if he wasn't planning on showing up????

 

To make sure that I had to at least do something annoying for my infraction. But I have to say, after a 6+ month delay (which I did not know at the time) clearly it was bull**** unless he just never shows. Right ....

 

My wife had something similar in Baltimore.
The Judge dismissed due to lack of a speedy trial.

Good Luck!

 

only jokeing...good luck, be sure and ague to the judge that you have appeared and you have a heavy burden to appear again and the cost of lost time exceeds the penalty , the state had their opportunity to appear etc..blah blah and move to dismiss on grounds that the state defaulted by not apearing. It is your case it is up to you..argue it to the judge.

 

The last thing I would do is show up without a lawyer and start arguing technicalities. If you want to get rid of it, my suggestion is that you hire a lawyer who is a known quantity there, let him or ner negotiate before the case is heard, and do everything to ensure that you don't plead to or get hit with a moving violation. Although I am also a lawyer, I base this on my experience in hiring lawyers to handle these things for me, no matter how stupid, unfair or minor. I'd be particularly careful about either admitting anything in open court or fighting with the powers that be.

 

Precisely right...I've sat in traffic court on a number of occassions and these lawyers are more friends of the court than they are lawyers, meaning everyone knows them and everyone knows the drill, complete with Judges stroking this lawyer and that lawyer...almost sickening, but I saw time and time again, those with lawyers got little or no jail time (in the case of DWI) or fines and those without were brow beaten and fined.

 

Well on last memorable experience of this sort I did observe what you have described except that the fines were the same as mine without the attorney.
The DA approached me and we settled or should I say they fleeced addtiional above and beyond the fine so that I might avoid points. Nice source of revenue for the locals.

I never thought I could beat the rap except if the officer did not show. But that turned out to be false. I'm not sure how F*rt Lee handles it but I'm guessing it's the same.

Bob S.

 

Bob,

As scary as you look, you'd better bring a toothbrush along to court. The Judge is likely to throw you in jail just because. ;-)

NJ has a speedy trial statute that applies to municipal court. If the cop doesn't show up and it's been 6 months, the judge has to dismiss. You need to say the magic words "Your Honor, I move to dismiss for failure to prosecute in a timely manner." If the cop does show up, talk to the prosecutor about reducing the ticket to something like "failure to follow marked course" which is a no-points ticket. Just suggest you'd be willing to plead if he reduces it to a no-points violation. You just pay the fine, no points. If you're nice about it, you can usually work something like that out. Don't go in "loaded for bear" or with an attitude, or they'll kill you. Ft. Lee is a PITA muni. ct. if they want to be because they get all that nonsense from the GWB.

Have fun.

Steve

 

Steve,

I'll buy lunch at the local F*rt Lee diner????

Seriously though, the ticket was issued on 7/09/2006 so haven't they already exceeded the limit for a speedy trial by 3/9/06 or do they get at least one bite at the apple?

Bob S.