So I was driving 30 mph on a a road that is a main throughfare that is typicall 35 mph, but apparently I passed through a school zone which required 25mph… It’s kinda bs, cuz I was on the inside lane away from the street or a crossing, and it’s a goddamn threee way road with heavy traffic, why the fuck would you build a school there anyway?..
Anywways, I recently moved to a new city, and in my old city. I got probably 10 photo stop light and speeding tickets, and never paid. They sent all this hard talk in the mall about putting a hit on my credit and putting a warrant out. But then, when I looked into it, nothing ever happened. No hit on the credit, and I was pulled over or trailed at least 5x after all those tickets, and never was I confronted, harassed or arrested about the thing.
Anyways, this ticket is a ‘civil infraction,’ and from what I understand, you cannot be arrested, forced to pay, nor imprisoned if you are the loser of a civil infraction case. So, am I cool to just blow this off?
I am going to write an affidavit saying it wasn’t me.
If that doesn’t work, I just wonder if when they give a court date, if they can arrest me if I weren’t to show up.
According to the the website, it is a civil infraction, no points can be assessed for it, you will be given a court date if you do not pay, and they cannot contact your insurance about it.
Once you miss the court date either a warrant will be issued or your license will be suspended. Since you’ve been pulled over or trailed 5x since then I’ll go on to assume you suck at driving, and will be pulled over eventually and then arrested.
And feel free to think that the school might have been there before the 6 lane road you non-driving idiot.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
Once you miss the court date either a warrant will be issued or your license will be suspended. Since you’ve been pulled over or trailed 5x since then I’ll go on to assume you suck at driving, and will be pulled over eventually and then arrested.
And feel free to think that the school might have been there before the 6 lane road you non-driving idiot.
[/quote]
If you haven’t been trailed 5x in 2 years, then you don’t drive much.
I haven’t gotten a ticket for a year and a half, this is the first one.
[quote]Rohnyn wrote:
[
If you haven’t been trailed 5x in 2 years, then you don’t drive much.
I haven’t gotten a ticket for a year and a half, this is the first one.[/quote]
That’s a dumb statement. I drive 70 miles to work each day in NJ (where you see a cop every 5 minutes) and I haven’t got “trailed” 5 times in the last 2 years. What are you like 17? Once you get older and stop driving like a douchebag, you’ll stop getting pulled over and purposely followed so often.
They sent you a ticket in the mail, these are often called citations. If you do not show up to court they will issue something called a bench warrant on you, these warrants are active, however they do not actively try and find you. Once you get pulled over for something (it will happen) they will run a background check on your license, find out you have a bench warrant out for your arrest and take you to jail. Once you are in jail those five times you have skipped out on tickets will come back to haunt you.
Now I am only in law school, so I might be slightly incorrect over the procedure in every state in the US, but I am pretty sure this is how most states work. Any bar approved attorneys or law enforcement agents feel free to correct me.
Pay your ticket or eventually go to jail, your call.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
Once you miss the court date either a warrant will be issued or your license will be suspended. Since you’ve been pulled over or trailed 5x since then I’ll go on to assume you suck at driving, and will be pulled over eventually and then arrested.
And feel free to think that the school might have been there before the 6 lane road you non-driving idiot.
[/quote]
If you haven’t been trailed 5x in 2 years, then you don’t drive much.
I haven’t gotten a ticket for a year and a half, this is the first one.[/quote]
You’re original post states you’ve gotten 10 tickets you’ve blown off. That might explain the assumption you suck at driving. I admit I drive like an asshole lunatic but I haven’t been trailed in years, my last and only ticket was back in 98. Don’t tell people that not getting trailed means they don’t drive much. Some of us just know how to not draw attention to ourselves.
I think you are already screwed.I would show up and fight the ticket… you might get off easy with the other tickets. Ive been driving for a year. Ive gotten one ticket because I was stupid, never been pulled over or anything since.
Red light tickets in Houston do not come with a court date. They come with a deadline to pay. They threaten that if you don’t pay you may not be able to register your car with the County. The City of Houston just recently made this big deal stating the did not agree to this. Why would they want to lose out on the registration money?
In Houston, it is a third party that is collecting the money (3M upaid last I heard), and they don’t seem to have any real conquences.
All speeding tickets are civil infractions, no matter where you are from. Unpaid civil traffic infractions are entered onto a master record called an abstract driving record. Your local ordinance for speeding includes a default conviction in the event of a non-response. Not only would you likely not be able to renew your license, but you wouldn’t be able to obtain one in another state. The part about your insurance is a complete myth.
The fine print on your insurance policy includes a pre-signed waiver for examination of your abstract driving record at the discretion of the insurer. Insurance companies will drop you for non-disclosure. The photo systems in some states are designed to capture faces as well as license plates. These systems don’t carry authority, they just provide evidence. A commissioned officer is required to view the data and verify that reasonable suspicion of the infraction and the identity of the offender are provided. He then writes the ticket and includes the photo data with a boiler plate affidavit. You can go down to the agency and examine the data prior to answering to the ticket. You are only half right about the meaning of a civil infraction. You can’t be imprisoned for any civil infraction. But you can certainly be forced to pay. Eventually your license will be suspended, and if caught driving at that point you can be imprisoned since this is a criminal charge.
Millions of people who don’t want to face the consequences of their actions sat down with their attorneys and thought this all through years ago. There is no cold fusion in traffic law.
I don’t drive bad, try not to draw attention to myself, and I get trailed almost every day. Do you think since I work for the police that they might be following me for some reason? Or am I just paranoid? Don’t pay the tickets, don’t even worry about them. It’ll all go away after a while. (Here’s your sign…)
I got pulled over today with a bench warrant. Got a warning since it was only one ticket and I played nice. Did get my pockets and my car searched pretty good though.
If you get pulled over with one of these on, you deserve to have your license pulled since you were probably doing some pretty fucked up shit.
(at least, I was never pulled over with one of those puppies back when I delivered pizzas… and I was known to bend a traffic rule or two in the name of getting better tips)