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02-11-2007, 04:48 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2
| | | Negligent Driving on DC Beltway in MD
What is the name of your state? Maryland
Hi, my girlfriend recently received a Negligent Driving ticket for an accident she was involved in on I-495/DC Beltway. Apparently the officer cited the other driver with Negligent driving also. There was a witness who said that the accident was my girlfriend's fault.
I was not with her at the time, but my girlfriend claims that she was in lane 3 and the other driver was in lane 4 and tried to merge into lane 3 in front of my girlfriends car. The collision caused damage to the front driver-side corner of my girlfriends car and to the rear passenger side of the other drivers car. My girlfriend claims that contact was initiated by the other driver and that it was NOT a case of her rear-ending the other car. However, the witness must have said otherwise.
At any rate, my girlfriend has not yet paid the fine for negligent driving. I know that for speeding tickets it is advisable to go to traffic court for (at least) two reasons:
#1. The cop might not show up - in which case a not guilty plea solves everthing
#2. Even if the cop shows up the judge often reduces your sentence, even if you plead guilty.
Assuming the cop does show up, I was wondering if the judge is likely to give my girlfriend any kind of break? She does have 2 points on her license for a speeding ticket she received a few months ago. She had a clean driving record before that. Any other advice that could be given would be appreciated. I'm also wondering what the deal is with both parties getting ticketed - can this be used to help support my girlfriend's argument at all.
Thanks!  |
02-11-2007, 05:15 PM
| | Senior Member | | Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: South Cackalacky
Posts: 14,793
| | | I don't see how both getting tickets could help her, except for the fact that the officer didn't witness the accident. Why didn't she slow down when the other person attempted to move into her lane?
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02-11-2007, 11:27 PM
| | Junior Member | | Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2
| | | I think because she didn't know the other person was trying to merge. It happened very fast. Anyway, let's assume that she actually was negligent. My question would be should she just pay the fine, or should she go to court and plead guilty and hope for lenience from the judge or hope that the cop doesn't show up?
The reason I think that possibly the cop giving tickets to both parties could help is that it supports the argument that the cop just writes neg driving citations whenever there is an accident regardless of the specific details of the accident. It gives creedance to the idea that these tickets are just cash cows for the state or county and really have very little do with whether or not either driver was negligent. Like I said, there was a witness that said my girlfriend was at fault, but there was no witness saying the other driver was at fault, yet the other driver also got a neg driving ticket - so the ticket is obviously not based just on what the witness said.
One last question, what are the repercussions if she pleads "not guilty" but is found guilty. Is it any worse than if she just pleads guilty from the start? I think that you are right about the fact that since the cop wasn't actually there to witness the accident that might help her if she decides to plead not guilty. |
02-12-2007, 01:29 AM
| | Member | | Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: MD, WV - formerly WA, UT, AL, MS and OR
Posts: 563
| | | In MD district court the judge will typically dismiss the charge if no witnesses show up and the officer didn't witness the event personally.
Beyond that reasonably doubt is not hard to get on the vague and over broad charges like negligent driving - all you whould have to show the judge is an unusual situation ie the imporoper lane change by the other driver...
Of course it changes a little on a judge by judge basis but in generally hse has an excellent chance of just showing up and getting the dismissal - I don't know if she will even have to plea.
You can go to one of the district court sessions if you want to see how the whole thing works.
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02-12-2007, 01:30 AM
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| | Quote:
Originally Posted by spankingwanker  One last question, what are the repercussions if she pleads "not guilty" but is found guilty. Is it any worse than if she just pleads guilty from the start? I think that you are right about the fact that since the cop wasn't actually there to witness the accident that might help her if she decides to plead not guilty. | Yes it probably be worse, because you probably aggravate the judge with the waste of his time so he probably be much more harsh.
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