Got a ticket on bike, what to do? ... updated 12/14/09

[alanmcorcoran]

Re the lawyers: I don't have specific experience with North Carolina (although I did get a speeding in Georgia [guy had a cash register in his cruiser, another strange story for another time]) but be careful about lawyer promises. There is no doubt that a lawyer can help you avoid making mistakes - they have a ton of experience and you have practically none. That being said, it doesn't mean that they can guarantee they will get you off. I strongly recommend good legal representation when you have serious trouble, like a DUI or an accident with injuries or significant property damage.

I'm not sure you really want to go that route for what seems like a routine speeding ticket.

Also, sometimes lawyering up can backfire. I had some minor work permit trouble with Canadian Customs a few years back and tried to get it resolved with a high powered attorney at the firm I was going to do the work at, and, I guess the guy was a little heavy handed, pissed off the Customs people, and I was nearly deported and banned from Canada for life. (I ate some shit, and paid a $200 "fee" and they "made an exception" for me.) I don't know how often this happens in traffic court, but small town judges can range from Andy Griffith to Deliverance (you never know what you're gonna get.) If you have the traffic school option, I'd just pay it, go to school and move on.

The one time I did lawyer up for a (somewhat serious) traffic problem, I had a nice judge and an excellent lawyer (former DA) who got all of the charges dropped in court BUT THE DMV STILL suspended my license, fined me and put the incident and points on my driving record. (This was in the seventies in New York where the Department of Motor Vehicles and the local county court system are/were apparently two separate systems and my lawyer told me he could not help me with the DMV.) I don't think this situation would ever apply to a simple traffic citation, but if you have a DUI or driving with no insurance or vehicular manslaughter or something like that, there may be criminal, civil and DMV actions that have to each be deal with separately.

BTW, one of my California tickets was for not stopping for a stop sign I *had* stopped for. I had stopped before the guy was looking. It was two blocks from my driveway and adjacent to a high school and had bad visibility because of parked cars. I ALWAYS stopped at it because of the kids and the visibility. What he saw was my tentative rollout/takeoff AFTER I had stopped. But the LEO was adamant, wouldn't admit he might have made a mistake, and it seemed clear he was going to write as many tickets as he could on his shift. I didn't think he'd be any less sure of himself when he was in court.

I'm no angel when it comes to speeding on 4 lane roads out in the middle of nowhere (which I've gotten plenty of tickets for), but a good portion of my citations have been arbitrary, erroneous or just flat out fund raisers. Many jurisdictions in California do not see the inherent conflict of interest in evaluating officers based on the number of citations written and the resultant preying upon undermines any respect the public might have had. I am very much in favor of keeping reckless and drunk drivers off the road and you will never catch me speeding in a residential area. I don't see the value to society in parking an expensive cruiser with an expensive officer in it in the middle of the night out in the middle of the desert behind an overpass to nowhere where they can pull over virtually everyone for doing 85 in a 70. Oh wait, I do see the value: it's about $300 bucks.