hackdss

I got my first ever speeding ticket going 68km/h in a 40km zone any ideas how to fight this. Like has anyone else here got a speeding ticket and got their points dropped?

Thanks Let me know

neXib

Fight it? If you are speeding you may get a ticket, live with it, and praise your cheap speeding tickets. You'd lose your license for that here.

TheWulf

iTrader: (4)

You can go to court and talk to the prosecutor; he'll probably knock it down to 15 over unless you were an *** to the cop. You won't get rid of it completely though.

That's crazy about Norway... remind me never to speed when I go over there lol...

PaQuiN

Go to make a court date and they will ask you if you want to speak to a Prosecutor. Say yes, if he doesn't knock it down enough for you take the court date (this is risky). Go to court date, if you were a dick to the cop he will show up. In most cases they don't show up for a simple ticket, but that's a risk you take. Make up some BS about wanting to see the radar printout, wasn't going that fast, he painted the car passing me and thought it was me, leniency because of no past history....that kind of stuff. But speak to a prosecutor first. Get it knocked down to where you get no points and take it.

Thumper3322

+1 Yup they alwasy knock it down. 15 over is like $60 no points. I had 6 on my record at one time and all tickets were over 20+ over.

rotarygreg

this is what i did with my ticket a few years back. but note that your insurance will increase when it renews next time for ANY traffic violation conviction at all. its not only about points for you insurance company. the differnce in premium it made for me was 20 bucks a month. that was a minor speeding violation with no points. I know the difference was 20/month because when i switched companies when i got my rx8, i had the company quote me as if i had no violations on my record (because i thought that no points meant it wouldnt show up for them) but when i actually started it was 20 dollars more because they saw the ticket when they finalized everything.

hackdss

Ah ok thanks for the quick reply guys. So I would select the 4th option and make an appointment to speak to the prosecutor and ask for the points to be dropped correct?

REV-illusions

iTrader: (3)

... depends on your insurance company.. I've had acouple minor tickets with no bumps in premies...

hackdss

Rev who are you with Im with TD auto insurance

mar10

Points from my experience are only for your licence , if you collect enough of them they will suspend it , and they will call you in for an interview why you should keep your licence , tickets stay on your record for three years and points clear after two.
Usually ins. will go up and it wont matter if u got any points with your ticket or not .
So best bet is fight the ticket , get it cleared , sometimes its worth payin the lawyer to get rid of it , in long run ull save money .

Thumper3322

You are correct. I had 6 tickets all 15 over (dropped) insurance went up huge, took my car off for 4 months, one ticket dropped off I could afford to drive again.

YES!! They will do most of the talking, and tell you they will drop it down to blah blah blah (15 over) if you plead guilty. And you want SPEED dropped and in turn points. Take it and run, not worth taking more time off work etc for it. Go early in the morning as well, in hopes you can get the whole thing settled in one day.

Cheers! GL!

REV-illusions

iTrader: (3)

Belair...

In terms of rates going up... you'll usually run into problems when you have more then two.. and you'll actually have trouble renewing your insurance after 3 (again.. all depends on the company)

Wargoose

You should always fight your speeding tickets - there are a great many ways in which the officer could be wrong. I'm not going to argue the rights and wrongs of speeding other than to say that most motorists travel at the speed they feel is safe for the road and condition, and that limits should be set to the 85th percentile of those vehicles. On the 400 series highways, this would likely be around 120 km/h. I would also say, however, that most 40 limits are in school zones or built-up neighbourhoods and they're kind of foolish places to be speeding. Anyway...

Insurance companies don't care about demerit points, they care about the number of minor and major convictions you have on record at any given time. A minor would fall into the category of speeding up to 49 km/h over the limit. Once you hit that magic 50 mark, it's a major conviction (not to mention having your vehicle impounded and your license suspended for one week).

Most insurance companies will forgive you one minor ticket - some might even forgive two. Once you go over that you are certainly open for an increase in rates, the amount of which can vary from company to company.

So having a ticket knocked down to below the 15-over mark takes you down from 3 points to 0 points and saves you about $80 in fines, but still leaves a minor conviction on your record which is possibly going to be held against you by the insurance company. The points on your record are only used by the Ministry to determine when you're going to get called in for an interview (or potenially suspend your license).

If you're going to contest the ticket, find a paralegal firm that knows how to fight them in court. Most of those X-Copper and POINTTS places consider a "win" to be a reduction in the points, which anyone could do themselves by meeting with the prosecution either pre-trial or even on the day of the trial before you get called up. The only one of those companies that I know does a respectable job in this regard is Redline Legal Services (and no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way).

If you're going to fight it yourself, always ask for disclosure (which will consist of the officer's notes) when you go in to set your trial date. If more than one officer was involved (i.e. one running a radar/laser and the other actually writing the ticket), than they both need to provide disclosure and they both need to show up for your court date. There are a number of websites devoted to fighting tickets - this one has some good information for Ontario: http://www.magma.ca/~fyst/

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

^^ very true!!

Insurance rates will go up whether you get your demerit points or not. Insurance companies don't care about the points you've accumulated, it's about how many convictions go through, so if you don't want an insurance increase you've got to select the trial option and get a full disclosure and fight your case until the prosecutor takes back their conviction.

You can sometimes do this just by yourself, but if you're not too sure of the regulations and all that stuff, it might be more safe to hire a paralegal, they should be around $200-$350 or so, but in the end it's worth it cuz ur insurance won't increase at all...

Good Luck!!

hackdss

Who a good paralegal to go with. Let me know if any has had one of there tickets dropped by one of these guys.

Thanks

Wargoose

As recommended in my earlier post, these are one of the few who are capable of fighting a ticket well, though of course there are never any guarantees...

http://www.charged.ca/

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

Has anyone heard of something called Valentine 1? the radar/laser detector? Is it legal in Canada/Toronto?

I hear this thing is really effective against speed traps and what not

prospectjtaz

iTrader: (1)

Illegal! You can still use them, just dont get caught.

Thumper3322

Illegal!!

Maffu313

iTrader: (2)

ohh, okay. guess we'll just have to watch out for our speed then xD

hackdss

FYI

I placed a call to charged and they want 400 to fight it. Also they said that the 3 options you have on your ticket that you got to choose before 15 days is B.S its actually 43 days he said.

speedeamon

its a small ticket so you could just try to fight it yourself, but if you dont want to waste your time doin it, i only use Traffic Ticket Solutions Law Firm. they have helped me out BIG TIME. most tickets they have gotten eliminated and some reduced. heres some information: http://www.trafficticketsolutions.ca/speeding.php

g'luck.

millchan

speeding ticket? no, don't pay even you are guilty, cause your insurance would go up, find yourself a good ticket fighter, or if you are good in presenting, go do it yourself and save yourself some money. Coz even the judge convicted you to a set of fine, if you got it dropped with 0 points, which this speeding ticket would classify as a minor ticket. for my insurance company 3 minors a year or 1 major a year they raise my insurance.
My friend experienced in a drink and drive ticket, he was booked a small amount of fines for the ticket, so he paid to the court and didn't get it fight, coz he said the ticket fighters coz way more than the fines.
And this is his turnout, he paid less fine, and save few hundreds, but his insurance is up high +$2xx a month and he got declined by many other insurance company and now he needs a broker was insurance. (you need to have like 2yrs clean driving record to drop your tickets record, which means my friend has to pay at least 24 months more for that +$2xx money, if he is lucky enough.)

I would fight it and never be anymore stupid, if I were you.

abs016

Get a court date.
Go to the court yourself (IMO, no need to get professional services yet)
If the cop does not show up, you win.
If the cop does show up, the public prosecutor will ask you guilty or not guilty. If you plead guilty, they will lower the fine to 14 over, which means a $45-ish fine and NO points. You pay and you are done. (atleast thats what happened in my case)

If you sit in any of the hearings, you can figure out what to do and how to do it. Not overly complicated, esp here in the west end.

all the best!

jennahJ

I would suggest that you go to court on the date listed on the ticket and talk to the prosecutor, it's your first offense, they'll probably drop at least 2 of the points, if not all 4.