What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State
A few months ago (I wanna say march) I was driving to work at 4:30am when I came to an intersection and the light turned yellow. I tried to do the smart thing and stop instead of beating the light, but I must have hit a patch of oil or water or something (perhaps just cold tires) because during braking the car lost traction and slid about half way into the intersection. Of course, the car that tripped the light happened to be an officer, I immediately pulled up to the side of the road. He said he was going to write me up for running the red and possibly for reckless driving (said he was "gonna think about it"...a*hole) I was extremely polite, he said hed mail me the ticket. Months go by, figured my kindness got to him, apparently not. Got the ticket about 2 weeks ago, negligent driving 2nd degree. I signed contesting and sent it away. After the fact, I realized I should have made a copy of it, the date on it was written incorrectly and scribbled out, and no corrected date was written. I talked to a lawyer that helped my dad out recently, he said hed charge 500 to go to court for me. Is this necessary? I feel like I completely got screwed here, I mean it was 4:30 am, just going to work, and I tried to do the safe thing and stop...would a judge see it that way? Or am I better off paying the lawyer 500 and hoping he takes care of the 550 dollar ticket?
Thank you for your time.
A few months ago (I wanna say march) I was driving to work at 4:30am when I came to an intersection and the light turned yellow. I tried to do the smart thing and stop instead of beating the light, but I must have hit a patch of oil or water or something (perhaps just cold tires) because during braking the car lost traction and slid about half way into the intersection. Of course, the car that tripped the light happened to be an officer, I immediately pulled up to the side of the road. He said he was going to write me up for running the red and possibly for reckless driving (said he was "gonna think about it"...a*hole) I was extremely polite, he said hed mail me the ticket. Months go by, figured my kindness got to him, apparently not. Got the ticket about 2 weeks ago, negligent driving 2nd degree. I signed contesting and sent it away. After the fact, I realized I should have made a copy of it, the date on it was written incorrectly and scribbled out, and no corrected date was written. I talked to a lawyer that helped my dad out recently, he said hed charge 500 to go to court for me. Is this necessary? I feel like I completely got screwed here, I mean it was 4:30 am, just going to work, and I tried to do the safe thing and stop...would a judge see it that way? Or am I better off paying the lawyer 500 and hoping he takes care of the 550 dollar ticket?
Thank you for your time.