My first ticket

[flubyu]

My only concern at this moment is the points. Insurance on the car is hard enough as it is now and for it to go up may end up forcing me to either take it off the road for a while or even worse sell the car. My only real options are to try to get the ticket reduced or pay it off immediately and take a safe driving course that would result in 2 points being removed. The issue that I have is that any speeding violation between 1-14mph is considered a 2 point offense. The fact that he wrote me the ticket for exactly 15 over put me in range for the 4 point offense. Any measure I can take to reduce my points on this one is going to have to be taken. I can't let the insurance get out of hand otherwise I won't be able to afford the car anymore

 

[1987Rock]

You might be surprised as far as the points go. I was in the same situation when I was 16, kid in an IROC Camaro....When I was 16, I got caught (in Ga) doing 31 over (71 in a 40 on a deserted back road and the cop was hidden outta sight, but it was his word to mine). Got $700 fine , mandatory driving class, 6 months suspension (cuz it was like 8 points for 1 ticket). But my insurance never went up. 4 points shouldn't be that big of a deal.
Then I got another for 24 over cuz my speedo was wrong in my Camaro and got 4 points, but I was 18 and had just changed from a class D to class C so I just had to pay $400 and got 4 points.

If Jersey's laws are similar, you shouldn't have an insurance jump since you're 18. Have you switched you're license?

But my parents have been with State Farm for almost 30 years and I'm under their policy...

Try calling your insurance and just ask them "theoretically" if you got X points on a ticket, would it go up?
And for future reference, I would call the traffic court or go online to find out how many points it takes to lose your license. I'm in college now and NEVER go over 5 over cuz I can't afford the ticket

 

[yukisho]

Bottom line your best bet is to just pay the fine, accept guilt and hope your insurance doesn't go up. I have had my time when I was younger with driving problems. But be glad as you get older your foot gets lighter. But as someone already said, contact your insurance company. Say your someone else looking to get insured and you have a question about their policy when it comes to points. They will tell you. Then you need to get the repairs done on your car. You don't want to risk another ticket like that. And like we all said, invest in a radar detector. I don't know how many times I have been pulled over without my radar going off and the cop saying I was speeding when I was or wasn't but he had no proof to show for it. It's a good investment and will pay itself off the first time you get pulled over.

 

[Danman765432]

I can tell you from my own experience...I got a ticket in NJ and it was bull**** but its hard to fight. The cop couldnt even see this but some other people in the back of the parking lot were doing stupid **** in their cars. A cop came a long and pulled me over when I turned onto the next street. Said I was doing donuts and even wrote it on the ticket. Would not even let me get a word in to plead my case as soon as he saw where I was from. Our towns have rivalries and obviously he still wasnt over it from high school. He wound up giving me a careless. So that is like a $50 dollar fine and 2 points. I brought it to court and I talked to the prosecutor and we worked out the deal that the points would be dropped but I would have to pay a $440 fine for the ticket.

My one other friend was speeding and he got 4 points dropped by going to court once and had to pay something in the $500 dollar range.

 

[JrzyBullitt]

Sounds like there might be a speeding problem by your school that's in the process of being addressed. Damn stupid cops! How dare they do their jobs.

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

Damn stupid cops! How dare they do their jobs.

That's kinda what I was thinking.

 

[revhead347]

I got my first ticket when I was 16 in FL. 112 in a 65. Paid a lawyer. I had to pay court fees but I didn't get any points. I got 5 more speeding tickets before I turned 18. Paid a lawyer every time, and never got any points. One of the judges made me do the driver improvement course, but I never got any points. All of those were in FL. But you do slow down with age. I got my first ticket in 7 years back in October. I didn't notice the school zone lights flashing, got 39 in the 25 school zone. My mistake. Fortunately, here in GA you don't get any points for anything less than 15 over the speed limit.

Kurt

 

[94-302-vert]

Go to courtf, be polite, own up to it and it will probably get reduced... I did that with my last big ticket. Got it dropped from 21 over to 10 over (state minimum fine). It was reduced because I was polite at the side of the road and then in the courtroom....

 

[BurninRubb3r]

Is there any way to obtain information from a radar log? I would be incredibly interested to know how fast I was actually going. Also, does anyone out there know if New Jersey has such a thing in place? I've tried to research it and I haven't come up with any information regarding radar logs thus far.

Nope, no logs on the radars.

Go to courtf, be polite, own up to it and it will probably get reduced... I did that with my last big ticket. Got it dropped from 21 over to 10 over (state minimum fine). It was reduced because I was polite at the side of the road and then in the courtroom....

And wear a shirt and tie, look respectable, the judge will like that.

 

[02 281 GT]

And wear a shirt and tie, look respectable, the judge will like that.

And be sure not to refer to the officer as a "cop." Some judges may not like that, as my older brother found out.