Casper wrote:Always, always, ALWAYS fight a speeding ticket - even if you committed the infraction. I work as a clerk in a courtroom in Pierce County, and almost (im talking about 80% here) of people who contest their tickets get them reduced, if not dismissed, just for showing up. The cost of showing up to fight your ticket (unless you hire an attorney) will never be more than the amount written on your infraction.
And you get a deferral every 7 years in Washington. You get one for a moving violation and one for a non moving violation - a fact many don't know.
That was always my understanding, but I haven't had a ticket in over 25 years, so I was reading this thread thinking my experience was obsolete. Nice to see it validated.
A lot of times, it seems that people can get reductions in fines, or warnings instead of citations, simply by not being an ass. I have seen it, but never understood it, where a cop's decision to write a ticket is made for him by the guy being a smartass or just plain stupid.
Hey Casper, it used to be in Washington that you could plead not guilty, guilty, or guilty-but-I-want-to-explain (I forgot what the real name was for it.) Is that still the case?