Can't make it to traffic court

cantthinkofone

cantthinkofone

macrumors 65816
So when should i expect to see the police out side my place, or me being paged to the front desk at work?

I got a speeding ticket back in may i think it was for doing 88 in a 70 around mid night on a tuesday night.

Instead of justing paying the fine of like $80 i was worried that my insurance would go way up (21 years old). So i got it amended down to a 74. But i had to do 20 hours of community service, and pay $260. :eek:

Well now due to financial, and work problems i can't make it to court. I have already had my due date set back two times now.

I wrote another letter to the judge explaining why i cannot make it about two weeks ago. Tried calling yesterday(~4:30pm) to see what the deal was but no answer.

I called again about 20 minutes ago and they said they had the letter and it would go in with my file at 9 this morning (~7 min ago).

From the people i talked too, including a former city cop, 20 hours is a lot for a speeding ticket.

My fiancee' and a co worker all got speeding tickets in and around the same place i got mine. Fiancee' was doing 99 in a 70, and co-worker was doing 85 in a 65. Both times the cop wrote them down for doing 15 over. I was written down for doing 18 over. 1-15 over is the first bracket, 16-25 is the next bracket.

I never have good luck with cops. I'm polite, yes sir, no sir. I don't bull sh*t with them. And yet i still get tickets. Although this is my first speeding ticket.
 
cantthinkofone said:
I never have good luck with cops. I'm polite, yes sir, no sir. I don't bull sh*t with them. And yet i still get tickets. Although this is my first speeding ticket.
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I have a feeling that you've been ticketed for breaking the law, not for being rude to a policeman. Being polite might work in your favour, but they're not going to let you off because you asked nicely.
 
I'm confused. You have a court date. Why exactly can't you make it?

You might be polite to the cops, but stringing along the court system doesn't seem like a good idea.

Make time, find a way, and attend your court date.
 
Can't make the date? The date is preset, arrange something and go to court.

You have already rearranged it twice and now want a third time, what exactly are you doing that means you can not make it to court.

If you string them along the are going to get less and less lenient and your chances are going down and down.


What I don't understand is that you didn't pay the fine due to insurance however surely go to court over the matter and getting done for speeding is the same admission from the insurances stand point, i.e. you are a speeder and thus the end point is the same.
 
edesignuk said:
I'm confused. You have a court date. Why exactly can't you make it?

You might be polite to the cops, but stringing along the court system doesn't seem like a good idea.

Make time, find a way, and attend your court date.
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Agreed, what ever is conflicting with the court date is not as important.
 
If you don't make it to court and are not excused, the judge will issue a bench warrant for your arrest for "Failure to Appear". They never come looking for you, it is a traffic citation, after all, not capital murder. Unless you're in Mayberry or something and there's literally nothing else to do.

However, anytime you get stopped for any reason and a wants/warrants check is done (or any other encounter with law enforcement that is cause for a check), you will be sporting new jewelry. Oh, and the traffic cite is typically just an infraction, but the FTA is usually a misdemeanor. That means up to 364 days in the hoosegow in many jurisdictions, if you manage to piss them off enough.

Make. The. Time.
 
edesignuk said:
I'm confused. You have a court date. Why exactly can't you make it?

You might be polite to the cops, but stringing along the court system doesn't seem like a good idea.

Make time, find a way, and attend your court date.
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Court is about 90 miles away, or about a hour and a half.

Money. No vacation time left at work. Very busy at work. One vehicle between my fiancee and i. She has classes during the day. Still trying to recover from having to move unexpectedly back in july. Etc etc.

I have asked for either a payment plan or something like that so i could pay the fine, but they won't answer me.
 
cantthinkofone said:
Money. No vacation time left at work. Very busy at work. One vehicle between my fiancee and i. She has classes during the day. Still trying to recover from having to move unexpectedly back in july. Etc etc.

I have asked for either a payment plan or something like that so i could pay the fine, but they won't answer me.
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Explain the situation to your boss. I'm sure they will allow you to go. Of course you won't get paid for the time you miss, but it is better than the alternative.
 
Are you intending to plead guilty or innocent? At least in the UK I think you can plead guilty by letter in advance of the court date as long as the sentence is going to be non-custodial. In that case I believe you can not attend, although you are more likely to get a larger fine this way I think...
 
ucfgrad93 said:
Explain the situation to your boss. I'm sure they will allow you to go. Of course you won't get paid for the time you miss, but it is better than the alternative.
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My boss wouldn't have a problem with it. It's losing a day of pay that i cannot afford. And the gas to drive from where i live to the court house.
 
xUKHCx said:
You have already rearranged it twice and now want a third time, what exactly are you doing that means you can not make it to court.
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He deals pot. :p

Just go to court man I'm sure the bus goes by it if you can afford gas. Your boss will understand, he has to!
 
cantthinkofone said:
My boss wouldn't have a problem with it. It's losing a day of pay that i cannot afford. And the gas to drive from where i live to the court house.
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Both are cheaper than time in jail when the Judge issues a bench warrant for you, and he won;t be as sympathetic with you then either, plus you get court costs, and you girl friend still has to drive there to pick you up after you do your time, and money lost from work for being in jail. Cheaper by far paying the fine, or going to the court.
 
The longer you string this along, the worse it's going to get. Take the day off work and deal with it. Also, drop your GF off at school (or get her to take public transportation)...at this point, you need the car more than the school's parking lot.

Advice for next time, don't speed.
 
iMac-Knight said:
Both are cheaper than time in jail when the Judge issues a bench warrant for you, and he won;t be as sympathetic with you then either, plus you get court costs, and you girl friend still has to drive there to pick you up after you do your time, and money lost from work for being in jail. Cheaper by far paying the fine, or going to the court.
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They won't put you in jail for not showing up to court for a speeding ticket. That seems pretty excessive for a speeding ticket and they would run out of room pretty quickly. They will just suspend your license and let you deal with it next time you run into a traffic stop. That's what would happen in my country.
 
heehee said:
They won't put you in jail for not showing up to court for a speeding ticket. That seems pretty excessive for a speeding ticket and they would run out of room pretty quickly. They will just suspend your license and let you deal with it next time you run into a traffic stop. That's what would happen in my country.
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I don't know. Failure to attend court could well end up in an arrest. Maybe not jail: you'd probably be arrested and either taken to court or simply bailed to turn up (starting the whole process again). But if you keep doing it, in this country at least, I imagine you would end up in contempt of court in addition to the initial offence...
 
ucfgrad93 said:
Do you think the alternative will be any cheaper?
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My pay check every two weeks is about $835. At the end of the month i have rent($400), insurance (~$115), energy bill (~60 this month, has averaged about $110 other months) then i have two loan payments. One is 189(atv), the other is 110(car). I sold the atv this past weekend (see my trip to milwaukee thread), and my car's timing belt went out on me about two months ago and screwed the head. I also have food(~$50) and gas(~$80) to buy.

That leaves me with about $20 left over at the start of the month.

At the middle of the month i have a loan payment for another vehicle ($247).

The only way i am able to pay for everything is to barrow money against my next pay thru my bank. I have tried to stop this but stuff keeps coming up. Had to take our car into the dealer last month. That cost me $215.

My fiancee is 6 months pregnant so she can't get a job. She quit her last job because of the way they were treating her, and they had started to cut her hours and schedule her only when she had class.

She is doing well in school and will have her RN degree in 2011.

None of my money in the last 4 months has gone to any thing but bills and expenses. I haven't bought anything that i didn't need.

I take that back, we bought a floor lamp for the living room so we didn't have to run the dinning room and stairway light to be able to see in the living room at night. ($67)

I'm not looking for sympathy really. Just an answer.

Yea i could pay the traffic fine of $260. But then how do i pay for everything else?

To many cameras in the local banks.....:p
 
cantthinkofone said:
...

At the middle of the month i have a loan payment for another vehicle ($247).

...

Yea i could pay the traffic fine of $260. But then how do i pay for everything else?
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Sell the other vehicle?

Get another job?

With or without the traffic ticket, how are you going to manage when the child is born?
 
wordmunger said:
Sell the other vehicle?

Get another job?

With or without the traffic ticket, how are you going to manage when the child is born?
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Tried too.

Good question. With the ATV gone there is one less payment, and insurance will go down a little.

Live in the middle. There is no public transportation other than taxis.
 
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