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Here's how it works in CA (archive)
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Posted by ///M on July 09, 2001 at 15:39:18:

In Reply to: Re: I am bit confused now.... posted by ZachS on July 09, 2001 at 14:44:23:

You will get a letter in the mail that says you can pay the fine and go to school automatically or go to court.

Court would take place in 2 stages. The first hearing would be where you enter a plea. The date for this hearing would be on the letter you get in the mail. THIS is the court date where you can usually get your fine knocked down. The judge wants you to plead guilty to speed through a large case log. He will usually offer a lower fine as a way of enticing you to plead guilty. There won't be any DA present or an offer to lower the charges...your ticket was for speeding. You can’t really lower the charge any more than that as far as I know. You will know right away if the judge will knock down fines since you sit and watch other people enter their plea as well. You can even plead you case a bit here. Something like “it was late, the road was clear and I was driving safely” might get him to cut the fine down. Yes, you would plead guilty, but you get to go to traffic school and the ticket never appears on your record.

If you plead not-guilty then they will schedule a second court date at which time the officer will be present. In my experience it is very hard to beat a ticket this way. It is basically his word against yours and the cops usually win! I also know that many judges will deny traffic school if you take it this far. This is just my experience.



The process probably varies by state, and perhaps by county and town. Probably one of two scenarios will occur. There may be a DA there before you actually go into the court room. You can usually (in my experience) negotiate a plea to a lower violation (preferably non-moving) with the DA. Once you agree, your case will come up in the court room. The DA will state the plea agreement, you will accept the plea agreement. Done. Pay your fine. Alternatively, this all may occur in front of the judge, although I have seen this less frequently. Its really not that big of a deal. If you have more specific questions, I would recommend calling the court clerk to find out more details of how that specific court normally functions.




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