Going to Court for Speeding - New York State

[guest11111]

What is the name of your state? Ny

So, i'm about to appear in court and have researched everything there is to fighting a speeding ticket. What i'm a little confused about is how does the bargain plea really work? I want to go after a traffic school plea, but was wondering if i agree to it before hand and find out that the officer did not show, am i still liable to go to traffic school? Is there a way to find out if the officer showed up or not? And when do you get a chance to ask for a bargain plea?

[racer72]

From my experience, someone from the DA's or prosecutor's office will be outside the courtroom prior to the start of the court session. This person will seek out those there for court and at that time may make an offer or negotiate a reduced charge in exchange for a guilty plea. Once the court session begins, all negotiations are over. It might be worth your while to go sit in on a court session prior to yours and see how the process actually works.

[guest11111]

What if i make a deal before my session and the officer never shows up. Do i still have to own up to the plea bargain or is it completely thrown out the window?

[The Occultist]

You can try. The DA will request a continuance and the judge will most likely grant it. If you make a deal, do the honorable thing and stick to it instead of potentially screwing yourself over to make things worse.

[blahze9]

I have been through this about 15 times in NY. As long as you dont have to drive clear across the state to the court, plead NOT GUILTY. Every time my charge was dropped to a non moving violation (failure to obey a traffic control device)

The courts especially in upstate NY run traffic violations as a business. They depend on a lot of this money for state and town use so they basically want to get you in and out as fast as possible.

It will work one of two ways. The first and most common that I have experienced is after pleading not guilty and showing up on the appropriate date, the judge will call you up to the desk and the DA will offer you a reduced plea right then and there. If he does not right away (rarely happens) I have successfully asked the DA if it would be OK for me to just plead guilty to a reduced ticket.

The second way I have experienced (which made me laugh) is the DA talking to everyone before the court is in session, and saying "everyone who has a ticket who wants to plead guilty to a reduced ticket move over here" He then would split the group up further into groups depending on how much over the speedlimit you were traveling. He then offered plea bargains based off of that.

The goal should be to get it knocked down to a non moving violation, so that your insurance wont find out about it. Often times they will increase the fine once they knock it down, but in the end it is much better then having your insurance affected.

Thats my 2 cents speaking from way too much experience.

[You Are Guilty]

Originally Posted by blahze9

I have been through this about 15 times in NY. As long as you dont have to drive clear across the state to the court, plead NOT GUILTY. Every time my charge was dropped to a non moving violation (failure to obey a traffic control device)

The courts especially in upstate NY run traffic violations as a business. They depend on a lot of this money for state and town use so they basically want to get you in and out as fast as possible.

It will work one of two ways. The first and most common that I have experienced is after pleading not guilty and showing up on the appropriate date, the judge will call you up to the desk and the DA will offer you a reduced plea right then and there. If he does not right away (rarely happens) I have successfully asked the DA if it would be OK for me to just plead guilty to a reduced ticket.

The second way I have experienced (which made me laugh) is the DA talking to everyone before the court is in session, and saying "everyone who has a ticket who wants to plead guilty to a reduced ticket move over here" He then would split the group up further into groups depending on how much over the speedlimit you were traveling. He then offered plea bargains based off of that.

The goal should be to get it knocked down to a non moving violation, so that your insurance wont find out about it. Often times they will increase the fine once they knock it down, but in the end it is much better then having your insurance affected.

Thats my 2 cents speaking from way too much experience.

Sad, but true. Failure to obey traffic control device is the lowest point-carrying moving violation offered in NY (2pts) which is why it's so popular. 'Failure to yield' is another favorite. But it never hurts to request a plea to a non-moving violation in exchange for paying the same fine as you would on the moving violation. Money usually does talk.