In your state, do you have to actually go to court for minor traffic citations?

When I got my drivers license in Pa when I was 16, I bought a sorta-Hot Rod about 8 months after getting my license, and I started getting tickets for speeding, display of speed(burn outs, etc), as well as driving a motorcycle without a motorcycle license. On a side note, I've now owned 2 motorcycles, and put about 25,000 miles on motorcycles, yet never gotten the motorcycle license in either state I lived in at the time, even though I always had a regular drivers license! I dont have a good reason(excuse) so dont ask...(LOL) Anyway, getting pulled over for these types of minor traffic offenses didnt happen too often, I havent been pulled over for any of those things in over 10 years, and I never got enough points to lose my license or anything, but when I did get pulled over for this type of thing in Pa, they would just give you a citation and/or a fine, which you would simply send in the mail, or go to some gov't office to pay if you wanted.

But then I move to De, and when you get pulled over for even the littlest, most insignificant offense, you are forced to go to court! You literally have to stand in front of a judge and either pay for a lawyer(for a speeding ticket or jaywalking) or represent yourself, and the judge will "preside" over your case and decide your guilt or innocence! Doesnt that seem like a complete waste of taxpayer money to have to pay the salaries of a WHOLE bunch of justice of the peace or common pleas court judges to oversee EVERY dumb traffic offense? Why not just do what states like Pa do, and have the police officer give you a citation, then give you the CHOICE to pay the fine, OR go to court if you disagree with the citation?


What about your state?

It's a thread about minor citations, so I'll keep in minor so that it doesn't get moved Underground -

You've recently had success in moving away from a particular vice that was designed to siphon money from a specific tax bracket, you should continue that lifestyle change and apply the same logic here too; be concerned about financial aid procedure for your college class, be concerned about how the chairpersons conduct the public community meeting, be concerned about what equipment your local police aren't getting funding for..

StarHalo said:

It's a thread about minor citations, so I'll keep in minor so that it doesn't get moved Underground -

You've recently had success in moving away from a particular vice that was designed to siphon money from a specific tax bracket, you should continue that lifestyle change and apply the same logic here too; be concerned about financial aid procedure for your college class, be concerned about how the chairpersons conduct the public community meeting, be concerned about what equipment your local police aren't getting funding for..

Click to expand...

I'm not really following your whole point here, and I'm not sure if you are stereotyping me, my tax bracket, or how you'd know my tax bracket(?) and I'm not sure how minor traffic offenses apply to college classes but doesnt logic dictate that if we didnt have to pay for a whole bunch of extra judges to preside over minor traffic stuff that we'd then have more money to spend to better equip police? Common sense is it not? Seems to work out fine for many other states..... Why pay 6 figure salaries, pensions, vacations, health care coverage for life for dozens of extra judges when that money could be used for more pressing issues?

Thats kinda the point of the thread that its a bit of a waste.

I visited the Brandywine River museum today to enjoy works of art by NC, Andrew and Jamie Wyeth this afternoon, and on the way back we passed one of the largest Du Pont mansions around this area, where an apparent occupant of that house pulled out of the 1/2 mile long driveway in an AMG Mercedes with a cigarette in her hand...

I'm saying you've already escaped a system specifically designed to fleece the poor, so you should try to get away from the one involving tickets too.

StarHalo said:

I'm saying you've already escaped a system specifically designed to fleece the poor, so you should try to get away from the one involving tickets too.

Click to expand...

I havent been issued a traffic ticket, aside from a failure to wear a seat belt in over 10 years. The seat belt instance was 5 years ago. In the OP, I was talking about minor traffic offenses that happened to me mainly back in the mid-late 80's. But I can tell you that traffic tickets have gone way up from what they used to be! A $35 ticket is now a $135 ticket.

In some places out of state drivers are often' served to appear' because they often don't pay their fines when they cross state lines. Where I live a ticket can be paid 'on-line' after you sign 'guilty' on the back of the ticket, or show up at the court-house which have automated payment machines.

I'm hearing more and more about local justice depts offering a greatly increased ticket fine for not reporting the traffic offense to insurance companies. Now that's a racket.

Never had a speeding ticket.

$135.00? I have a friend that just got his picture taken going through a "red" light (ever notice how short the yellow light is?) and the fine was just under $400.00. Everyone is being fleeced by the system. I see traffic violations in front of police regularly, but only a few are "lucky" enough to get a ticket! What would that be?

HotWire said:

$135.00? I have a friend that just got his picture taken going through a "red" light (ever notice how short the yellow light is?) and the fine was just under $400.00. Everyone is being fleeced by the system. I see traffic violations in front of police regularly, but only a few are "lucky" enough to get a ticket! What would that be?

Click to expand...

I see that too! Police often choose to pull people over for traffic offenses when its convenient. If they have a speed trap set up, and you are speeding when they have an available car to pull you over, then you are sunk! But I see people breaking traffic laws while cops are right behind them and they dont get pulled over! Another thing is when its an unmarked police car with a detective or anyone other than a uniformed police officer, traffic law breakers arent likely to get pulled over unless they start a shootout or something major...

I say "go with the flow". Thats when on a crowded highway by the way......

I had to go to court in 1999 for a sidewalk cycling ticket (which was bs because it was at 10 PM on an empty sidewalk, and there were no signs posting that I couldn't ride there). To add insult to injury, even though the officer didn't show, I was told I would have to reappear several more times (and hope he didn't show again) before the ticket would be dismissed. I therefore changed my plea to guilty, which pissed off the judge, and he fined me $75. I think they had been fining $25 if you plead guilty. Now thanks to a city council with way too much time to make inane laws, the fine for the same thing is $100 minimum for the first offense, rising to up to $1000 and 15 days in jail for subsequent offenses. Frankly, it shouldn't even be against the law to cycle on sidewalks unless you ride recklessly.

Of course, the more draconian penalties have done nothing to deter the legions of delivermen speeding on crowded Manhattan sidewalks, but that's another story.

HighlanderNorth said:

Anyway, getting pulled over for these types of minor traffic offenses didnt happen too often,

Click to expand...

Is it a minor offence over there ? If you are in the U.K. and you don't have a licence it would mean you also don't have insurance as you would have had to lie to your insurance company making any insurance invalid. If you were then involved in an accident where someone got hurt they would throw the book at you. You may do time in prison, perhaps years if the person was hurt seriously, as well as a huge fine ( thousands, tens of thousands..) and had your driving licence revoked for a year or more. If you ever tried to get motor insurance again it would cost you ten times what it would cost others. Oh, and you'd have a criminal record of course.

I'm not saying people here don't do it you understand but if you have an accident, God help you !

Jay R said:

Is it a minor offence over there ? If you are in the U.K. and you don't have a licence it would mean you also don't have insurance as you would have had to lie to your insurance company making any insurance invalid. If you were then involved in an accident where someone got hurt they would throw the book at you. You may do time in prison, perhaps years if the person was hurt seriously, as well as a huge fine ( thousands, tens of thousands..) and had your driving licence revoked for a year or more. If you ever tried to get motor insurance again it would cost you ten times what it would cost others. Oh, and you'd have a criminal record of course.

I'm not saying people here don't do it you understand but if you have an accident, God help you !

Click to expand...

Yeah, I had a standard drivers license, I just didnt have the motorcycle stamp for it, which is a minor offense of driving without the proper class of license, which used to be a $25 fine and no loss of driving privileges on your regular license.

But getting caught with a suspended license, or a revoked license can get you in a lot of trouble, especially if you do it more than once. But we have probably 25 million illegal immigrants in America now(at least), and millions of them drive illegally without A. Drivers license, B. Auto insurance, C. Auto Registration D. Proper tags/inspection F. without ever passing a driver's exam

Problem is, in our area we have politicians who are more concerned with pandering to this community than ensuring public safety, so laws have been changed that make it easier for them to actually continue to drive illegally! That, of course, puts everyone at risk....

When illegal drivers get into accidents, they usually leave the scene, and even if someone gets the license plate number and the police go to the address where the car was registered, it often turns out that the person who the car was actually registered to sold the car weeks or months earlier, and the person they sold it to gave them a false name using a fake ID, so they often cannot find the actual driver of the car who caused the accident! Some times the previous owner might even get falsely charged with causing the accident since the car is still registered in their name!

After the accident, they will often either dump the car somewhere and leave it there, or keep the car, but toss the license plate and replace it with plates from another car.

^Bottom line, the victims of these accidents are screwed because their own insurance now has to pay for everything, since the driver who caused the accident could never be found, and never had insurance in the first place!

HighlanderNorth said:

What about your state?

Click to expand...

In FL, it appears to be like PA. If you choose to pay the fine (and declare a guilty plea) you can do so either on line, or mail in your check. Same for contesting, you have to appear before the county/city court. I have not had a ticket in ten-plus years. The last one I received, I did contest it, and the issuing officer did NOT show the day of court.

In NYC if you want to fight the traffic ticket you received, regardless of offense, yes; court appearance to argue your case. If you plead guilty, they'll happily take your payment and not force you to appear in person when paying the fine. I'm willing to bet that with minor citations, quite a few folks opt to pay the fine so as not to miss a day's pay at work.

In Western Australia you just have to pay the fine.
if you want to contest the ticket you have to go to court.

Most of my speeding tickets have been from "multanova" cameras - which are a portable roadside speed camera.
they are now putting them facing the rear of the car, so you can't tell who is driving by the photo - I'm pretty sure the number of tickets tht are being argued have gone up since they started