Stupidity Strikes Again

yyerrrggg......

on my way home form iowa. i was going north on 35. of course at 10 am the road is EMPTY. so what do i do????? you got it speed.


any way got my first speeding ticket: clocked at 88 in a 70. in Rice county. dont know if i want to drive down there to get it put on continuace or if i should just mail a check.

stupidity already admited so no flaming!

 

ive done worse ^_^

not to say ive ever been caught *knock on wood*

 

do it. It's not like you have to drive to Des Moines or something. Always worth it to keep it off your record.

 

dont i have to pay more to have it put on continuance? whats the dif between probation and continuance?

 

If its in another state, just pay it and dont worry about it. It wont' go on your MN record...only for that state its in your record.

 

to bad it was in rice county which is in southern minnesota.

 

I bet is just 50 bucks ticket in Iowa

 

Be Warned. Prosecutors and judges in Rice County = not friendly.
i just tried to fight a ticket down there, wouldn't even settle on a continuance. judge told me to stick it in my ear and pull out my wallet.

 

Check this out: http://www.beattraffictickets.com/

I haven't had to do it yet (knock on wood). The first thing stated is to ask for or change your court date (a day ahead or after what's scheduled). Make sure you show up, chances are the procecuting officer will not... case closed, you don't pay. And more importantly insurance doesn't find out. Innocent until proven guilty.

 

Iowa recently raised the interstate speed limit to 70mph and they are nazis when it comes to speeding. I grew up in Iowa, I know how many troopers are typically are out and it is a lot. When I go home to visit relatives and I hit the Iowa border as I head south, I set the cruise to 75mph and that's it. You WILL get tagged in Iowa

I also heard they raised the fine amount for speeding but I can't confirm that.

 

probation and continuance are essentially the same thing. If you don't get another ticket in that county within a year, it doesn't go on your record. So it is especially worth it to fight it if you don't spend much time in that county.

The cost vares by county. Usually you end up paying the ticket amount + an extra $20-$40 in "court fees." Though sometimes they will reduce it. Still much better off than having your insurance get ahold of it.

yeah, it does. Most states have reciprocity now, so it will show up. You might get lucky and have it slip through the system, but that isn't relevant in this case anyway since he got the ticket in MN.

for the initial hearing the officer is not there. You will likely just meet with a district attorney, maybe a judge. If you choose to plead not guilty they will set a court date, where the officer would appear. Since you are just asking for a continuance the court date does not happen.

Granted this whole thing is more of a "given" in the metro area where the courts are too busy to care about a speeding ticket. But the principle still works out-state. Rice county isn't exactly that far out, but who knows, maybe they like nothing better than to nail speeders from 35W. You still having nothing to lose by trying.

 

interesting. so to get on probation (since i have only been to iowa a couple times, and have no upcoming plans to down that far on 35). what must i do.

the officer told me to call the court house by the court date. and they would tell me what i can do.

i take it i need to go down there to the rice county court house and meet with some one about getting put on probation. however will this cost more? and will the ticket go onto insurance and or my record if it is probated?

if i choose not to go on probation/continuace what will 1 speeding ticket do to insurance? will this be less since i am under my parents insurance?

on another note one of my friends got a ticket not to long ago and he was required to speak w/ a paroll officer before he could talk w/ the officer that pulled him over. is this a new minnesota thing?

thanks for all the help. i had no clue about alot of this stuff.

 

call them, they will give you a date/time to appear. You wait around for awhile while they go through all the speeding tickets and other minor violations scheduled at that time. They call your name, you tell the attorney, maybe the judge, that you don't want it to go on your record. (if you act remorseful it might help.) They will offer you the continuance unless they are real d*cks. The county gets its money from you either way, so they don't really care in that respect.

Note that this assumes you have a pretty clean record to start with. If you have prior violations, they may not be sympathetic.

maybe $20-$40 more. But maybe not. Depends on the county.

no. that is the whole point, to keep it off your record. If you go a year without getting another ticket in that county, it just disappears. And if it doesn't make it to your record the insurance company does not find out about it.

probably not much. But it is not really about this ticket - you are protecting yourself against the next one. If you do the continuance, say two years from now you get another ticket. Your record is clean, which makes you look better when you go in to ask for a continuance on the new ticket.

Now if you just pay the ticket and let it go on your record, and two years from now you get another one, you ask for a continuance and you are much less likely to get it since you are showing a history of speeding. So now you have two tickets on your record, at which point the insurance company may start to get interested.

yep, the initial meeting is not with the officer, it is only with a county attorney and maybe a judge. If you want to actually plead not guilty, then it goes to trial and they set a new date where the officer would appear.

With the continuance you are not actually pleading guilty or not guilty. Really it is just a legalized bribe to sweep the whole thing under the rug. But it works.

 

tommorow morning i am going to call. will they be able to tell me wha tthe ticket should cost and what continuance would cost over the phone?

 

i caled this morning. the ticket came out to be $137. i asked aout continuance and hte lady said that i could ony get it if i was going 65 in a 55. i am nto sure if it was these exact speed or i it just means 10 over. she also mentioned something about hte fact that iwas on teh interstate affecting it.

 

If the ticket is for less than 10 over it doesn't go on to your record anyway. Maybe that is what she was refrring to.

Do you know if it was a state trooper or city/county police that pulled you over? There may be some jurisdiction issues there; at any rate I still think you have nothing to lose by getting a date and giving it a shot.

 

so any ticket for less then 10 over doesnt go on teh records?

it was a trooper i tihnk. the car was brown. i guess it could have been county, but dont think so.

 

I thought it was 9 over and no record.

 

$137 you got off easy...i'd take that...i got a ticket for 99 in a 55 last monday and its gonna cost me $377 plus i go on risk insurance now and being under 25...its really going to add up i think...oh yeah - radar detectors for the record dont work when your going that fast

 

your lucky you werent going 100, since apperntly at 100 and up you lose your liscence on the spot for 3 or 6 months.

radar detector is not relevant at those speeds. since once they see you going that fast they are going to pull you over anyway and probably clock you right as they catch up to you.

this is what happened to me. he didnt shoot me w/ the radar tell he had caught up to me.