If the judge thinks you're lying, the outcome could be a lot worse than doing nothing.

Ken

 

I still think you should excercise your option to contact the DAs office before throwing yourself at the mercy of the court.. according to http://www.oscn.net/applications/OCI...p?CiteID=82331 ; it looks like you could possibly be facing a 5-90 days imprisonment in addition to your fine. Thats a pretty stiff punishment for being stupid and I wouldn't chance it on the judge having a bad day.

Seriously, if I were in your shoes, I'd call the DAs in the morning, get in contact with whoever processes traffic offenses, admit to being stupid and try to get an equipment violation with a fine. Use the fact that you're a "poor student" to your advantage.

Edit: See http://public.findlaw.com/traffic-ti...affic-law.html for the full statute.

 

Heh, got one like that too.. Speeding 60 in a 30, careless driving, failure to stop at a stop sign, squealing tires on start, and the cop said my car should be taken away and crushed. I was going 25mph, stopped at the sign, and didn't squeal tires.

Took it to court, cop didn't show, tickets dismissed.


I would just go to court, if cop doesn't show, then hey, ticket gone! If he does, admit the truth, you'll most likely be rewarded with no points.

 

No, call the district attourney and make an appoitment.

Ask them to drop it to careless driving.

They will say yes.

Depending upon the County case load and uour record, they may even agree to do this over the phone.

 

wow... lots of answers. Thanks a lot guys

 

Good luck my friend. we have said what we know.

 

Oh, except one more. On the court date, show up in something slutty. Always helps tip the scales of justice.

 

I think your beest bet is to say:

"Yes I made a mistake and broke the law but I didn't do it on the street, I didn't put anyone in harms way and I never hit anything close to high speed. It's a dumb and silly thing to do but I did it out of harms way. I made a bad choice but I meant no disrespect for the law, I should have known better and I'm sorry. I am going through some financial hardship right now and I would appreciate it if you could lower my fine and allow me to do driving school."

That would get you a lot further than "Your honor I accidently did a burnout in my sports car in an empty parking lot". My first question would be "Why the hell were you in an empty parking lot? Followed by the statement, if you can't control a car in an empty parking lot enough not to spin it around than you shouldn't be driving.
Be careful, they've heard it all. What's completely retarted is that you actually got a ticket for messing around in an empty parking lot..pretty harmless and far from wreckless but it is what it is...

 

I think the police don't look at it like you were safe and no one could get hurt. They probably look at it like you could lost control of the car in the parking lot and hit some other solid object. Who knows what could have happened until it was all over. Think of it as them giving you a fine for being an idiot and possibly hurting yourself.

Call the DA, if that doesn't work, show up to court, be professional and either get out of it or get a lesser fine. Doing anything else is stupid, childish and will get you into a lot more trouble.

Last thing you want is to spend some time with big George in a 9x9 cell for 90 days.

 

Like it or not court is a business. Telling the truth and being honest will most likely come back to haunt you. Especially if your admitting to wrong doing. GET A LAWYER!!! You're going to pay for it either way so you can either give an attorney your money and get him to resolve it. Or you can pay it to the court and via increased insurance premiums.

I've learned from working with attorneys that as long as no one is hurt, private or public property isn't damaged that you can get off with little or no repercussions. In most instances all the court wants is some money. The worst case scenario would be the attorney will plead it down to a non-moving violation and a small fine and be done with it.