Speeding ticket -help!!!!

[carbonM3]

Hi Guys,

I am not proud of myself for this :( ...but would like to know if anyone should tell me what to do about a speeding ticket I got last night. He clocked me a lot faster than I thought I was going, plus he was focused on getting me but that's another story...it was late, I was not racing, I was on the 407 etc...Should I go to X Copper or something like that? Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

carbon

[audiophilia]

carbon...sorry about that. We talked about the 407. Man, I hate the Draconian road rulz in this country...

Yes, fight it. I have not had a tkt for years, and got one in the summer -- 101 in a 70 -- bullsht, I was doing 90. It was a trap, with a huge lineup of suckas getting tkts, so I knew I couldn't sweet talk myself out of it. The cop said I was polite when I said I would have to fight it (a first for me), and said that he would send a note down to the court, blah blah, and get it dropped to 15 over, no points if I pleaded that way to the DA...it worked.

When I was down at the court, I was disgusted to see it resembled a tax office, rather than a court!

Depending on the circumstances, I would definitely fight it. X Copper and others have had real success. The cleaner your record, the better the chances.

You can do X copper, or you can go down, ask for a first appearance, and ask the DA to drop it to 15 over, or you can hope the cop doesn't show and the case gets kicked. The Miss court, however, now pays cops to show, so the last option may not be viable.

Best of luck to you.

Let Chris or me know if we can be of any more help...

[carbonM3]

Thanks Ant,

It sucks how it went down...I saw hom, slowed to 110 or so and kept that speed for 5 km with him....then he pulls over to the right and stops at the side of the road, so I continue on my way....with the flow of traffic and a few minutes later he pulls up beside me ( i am in the midde lane, not the passing lane) and he says he has me at XXX speed. Given that BMW manufactures their cars so that the speedometer reads 5-10% faster than you are actually going, that would mean that I should have been seeing a ridiculous speed on my speedo....which was not the case....he did not even ask if I was going to fight it!!! So I guess I am going to go to X Copper!!!

Plus my wife was with me, and I embarassed her by all of this.

:mad: Carbon

[bmwboy88]

Hey, Don't worry. Speeding tickets are easy to get off. Xcopper and other services are great but somewhat pricy up front.

If you feel that the cop was purposely targeting you and gave you a speeding ticket based on biased judgement, I strongly suggest you fight it.

Good luck.

This might be a help to you.....

http://www.magma.ca/~fyst/caught.htm

[carbonM3]

Hey, Don't worry. Speeding tickets are easy to get off. Xcopper and other services are great but somewhat pricy up front.

If you feel that the cop was purposely targeting you and gave you a speeding ticket based on biased judgement, I strongly suggest you fight it.

Good luck.

This might be a help to you.....

http://www.magma.ca/~fyst/caught.htm

thanks a lot my friend! I will check it out!

[audiophilia]

No. 3 is the choice, I would think.

You may get it reduced at your 'First Appearance' -- my DA was very pleasant, and reduced it on the spot. I was in her office for 20 seconds...

[BlueSky]

don't plead guilty. get a court date first.
if your ticket is not "reduced", u have a better chance to get out of it completely, if your ticket is "reduced", don't bother and pay the fine...

get a ticket fighter, they know what kind of evidence to get, if u are not radar, then it all depends on the cop.
if he doesn't show up, u win. If he showed up and u know the evidence are not in favour for u, plead guilty and ask for a reduced fine

[STALKER]

quick note, you should have asked to seen when and what he clocked you with, second, if you make a court appearance, always cancel your first one, because they try to get all the court dates for that one officer at one time, so when you cancel the first, you have a better chance of him not showing up.

[carbonM3]

quick note, you should have asked to seen when and what he clocked you with, second, if you make a court appearance, always cancel your first one, because they try to get all the court dates for that one officer at one time, so when you cancel the first, you have a better chance of him not showing up.

thanks pej....I will give it a try...i'm sure he got me on radar or something...sorry if i was rude re. wheels...as you can imagine my mind is elsewhere this morning as this is my first and hopefully last blemish!

[audiophilia]

Don't feel so guilty. The Canadian rulz are ridiculous...we need German or Montana rulz...

It's a tax, it's not to make the highways safer. If that were so, they'd make every Torontonian take BMW Advanced Driving School...when 90% fail, we get faster roads and much less traffic...:)

[STALKER]

Every body gets a ticket every now and then, don't let it get you down man. I got one doing 160km in a 100km zone, so things could be worse. I got that bad boy reduced real nice though.

[M007]

Sean, fight it for sure. I think I have enough experience on this. :p I'll pm you.

[audiophilia]

I say we have a 'meet' at the courthouse -- drive up together and support our e46 bro...

ninja edit -- hey Ed, you might be able to 'represent'...luv e46, doctors, lawyers, teachers, musicians, pornstars...not too many punks:D

[Aisuda]

Carbon, sorry to hear this but there is a way out.

1. The myth of over paying your ticket does not work, not that anyone has mentioned this but they might. :thumbsdow

2. Go to the court house and pleas guilty to a lesser charge (done this about a million of times) :Qboy:

3. Once you get a court date, show up talk to DA and ask for 15 over. Play a little dumb the guy does not know what car you drive nor does he care, make sure to dress nice.

This way you won't get points on your diver's liscence and a lesser fine.

As too Xcopper, well it's a different kind of Highway robbery, they all know each other but surely enough if you get lucky the cop won't show up or loose his little black book that all you will ever loose is time not money.

TONS of experience on my side. Not proud of it but still reality.

Cheers

[laziemofo]

damn... gd luck bro! i had my fair share of tickets hope everything works out for u!!

[Chopper]

Speed traps are defintiely not safety issues but revenue generating exercises. IF you do not have the time to attend court, etc., go to one of the ticket fighting agencies like Pointts or X-Copper. They are ususally pretty good at getting it reduced to an accptable level without points. I think they charge something like $300 for their services.

I would also make a note of all avaialble defences that you intend to raise before you start forgetting them, etc. Adjourning the court date is also a good idea as you will find that a lot of the victims of the speed traps end up on the same day for the convenience of the prosecutor so adjournments increase the chances of the officer not showing up.

DONT let the prosecutor bluff you into pleading guilty into somehting you are not comfortable with if their witness is not there. Always ask for full disclosure too.

Last bit of advice, if you are pulled over dont ever say how fast you think you were going unless you say it was lower then the limit. If you ae going 150km/h and the cop asks "how fast do you think you were going"?, DONT say uh...125? He then has a confession to a crime on you. Always respond with "How fast was I going, officer". and shut up.

Good luck.

[thebookie]

Hey brother, fight that ticket. Go to x copper or any of the others, you will still pay but most likely tou won't loose points. Love that M3.

[audiophilia]

welcome, thebookie....

[thebookie]

How was your ride yesterday?

[M007]

2. Go to the court house and pleas guilty to a lesser charge (done this about a million of times) :Qboy:

This is one of my strategie.

[bmwboy88]

I would not plea guilt! I would just go to Xcopper or any ticket fighters and pay some $$ upfront and let them deal with it.

If you don't have any previous charges, you will be let off.

[M333ee]

Hey Sean,

Sorry to hear about the bad news....
I was all pumped after the M3 drive and now reading this I feel sad again.

Those banzai runs that we do going to NF and the twisties to NotL....Someday one or all of us are going to get tagged :crying:

It looks like you have gotten good advise on the board so far so all I can give is a "good luck"

[carbonM3]

thanks for all the advice boys....i am going to x copper tomorrow, i prefer the pay the money and let soemone else worry about it strategy...but i am still pretty pissed because i was specifically targeted...oh well at least i told him that i didn't believe him when he said how fast i was going, plus i rejected his offer to look at the whatever reading he had.

again, thanks lads! :thumbsup:

[Chopper]

Good luck...also keep in touch with your X-Copper agent. They tend to use the same route for most of these things so they may not know of any specific defences/explanations you may have for your alleged violation. :rolleyes:

[M007]

They just jealous because you have a nicer car then them. :)

[SmoothMoka]

Sorry to hear that Sean. Hope everything works out!
Thanks by the way for the test drive last Saturday...Just Sick!