failure to signal changing lanes ticket

[ronin_01r1]

Originally Posted by skid vicious

some good advice there. pits especially.
in my numerous dealings with the court, i've plead guilty to lesser offenses 80% of the time. first things first. dress up for court. shave, yada yada. know what you're going to say before hand. be respectful and don't talk like an idiot. show the receipt for the tail light and plead your case. it might even be helpful if you talked to the cop before hand. he might have had a bad day that day and could possibly put in a word to the prosecutor for you. it's a long shot but WTF have you got to lose? don't forget to mention your clean record. thats a must.
next, start looking for a different insurance company. if they are going to screw you over this, then fuck them. it's a bullshit charge and does in no way reflect the kind of safe driver you are. if i had seen this post before i would have told you to leave your ins co out of it. it's not like they look at your driving record every month. they usually only look at it during renewal time. and even then, it's my understanding that they don't pull your record at every renewal. now they might be keeping an eye out to see if they can jack you. $600/yr for 3 yrs is obscene.
i don't think i would get a lawyer for this. they usually charge in the $500 range for shit like this. and even then, there is no guarantee that he can get you off. whether thats worth it or not is up to you.
now, if the cop and prosecutor are dicks and don't want to give you a deal, you can just say that you would like your court date postponed as you will be seeking legal advice.
my last ticket, 95 in a 65, i went to court 5 times stretched over almost 6 months. the prosecutor was threatening me with a possible loss of license for 30 over and didn't want to do anything for me. i got a lawyer($600) and he got it knocked down to to a 78 in a 65, 2pts and $200 roughly in fines. so you might want to delay. you could catch them on a day when their wives gave them anal and their happy and willing to deal.

good luck

THANKS! im going there right after work, which i normally wear a suit. im still with state farm because thier rates on my bike is so damn cheap! otherwise, i would've dropped them long ago. the tip on delaying the case is something i'll use if they don't give me any breaks.

[ronin_01r1]

Originally Posted by PitsVtec

In NJ Statute 39:4-126 Failure to give proper signal is a 2 point ticket, and is also $85.00 + court costs. Go to court and fight it. If you buy a bulb, maybe you can show the court the receipt and say that you fixed it b/c it was out and maybe they will lessen the ticket to Improper auxiliary driving lamps or something similar to that, which is no points and $54.00.

-

you're right, 2 points. i actually used my right signal to move to towards the shoulder when he pulled me over and when i moved back onto the road i used my left signal to merge. kinda hard to argue my light was broken...

[ronin_01r1]

Originally Posted by stealth r6

ok, here you go. for this 2 point moving violation you need to go to court. In the state of new jersey we do have a statute that will allow the prosecutor to drop the ticket to a no pointer. 39:4-97.2 - Unsafe Operation of a Motor Vehicle. There is a good thing and a bad thing about this violation. Obviously the good thing is you will not receive any points. The bad things are, you will pay for this one. 33 court costs, 139 for the violation, and 250 state surcharge for the first offense. Same fees for the second offense except they add 100 for the violation making it 239. The other bad thing is if you get any tickets amended to this for a 3rd time in a 5 year period you are walking out paying a shit load, and 4 points added onto your record. they give you no points for the first 2 times within a 5 year period, but on the 3rd time its automatically 4 points. And as for the court, some go in alphabetical order, some go by what time you get there. Before you speak to the prosecutor, they usually make you check into court so they make you pay something for going there. I say go into court, speak to the prosecutor and try to get him to drop it to something else other than unsafe operation so you dont dont bend you over. If that doesnt work, bend over and take that unsafe driving cause sure you pay more now, but u save it all in insurance premiums. and for you guys wondering how i know all this, ive gotten two unsafe in the past year, and have to stay clean for the next 4 years or im screwed. ive been in court plenty of times and i pay close attention to everything. I drive to fast.

thanks dude. i'll keep the unsafe driving option in mind. overall im really a safe driver. i drive appoximately 53 miles one way to commute to work every day, most of it highway miles. that's 106 miles roundtrip if i don't make any stops at all...which doesn't often happen. IE - gym, eating out, meeting friends, etc. anyways, point is..i drive a lot and have done so for about 2.5 years now...and this is the first time getting pulled over while in the car going to work. (the bike gets excluded from this because im in a totally different mindset )

as high revs says, this is a total crap charge and the cop must've spilled his coffee on himself or something. at least 1/2 the people on the highway do not signal ESPECIALLY when there are no cars around them.

2 weeks until the court date. i'll update you all when the time comes. thanks for everyone's advice. im off to work now. laters.

[ffejtable]

Originally Posted by Cakes

Definitly go for any moving violation...talk to the prosecuter in the am before court, ask to be dropped to a lesser charge...9 time out of 10 they'll drop it to a non moving but you'll have to pay the fine minus the points...the town just want to make money...carefull thought, because although the town will do it, I think at the DMV level, you're only allowed to do this 3 times...after that, you're point won't drop I don't think.

DMV knows nothing about what the court system does as far as lowering points go, all they know is what you were convincted of, not what you were originally pulled over for.

What Cakes might be referrign to is the new Unsafe driving violation which you can only get 2 times in 3(?) years as a 0pt violation. The third time you get the Unsafe it turns into a 4pt moving violation, which sucks.

If you can, try to get the prosecutor to use the 39:4-56 (I think).. its the "Impeding Traffic" violation, which is 0 pts...

Failure to use signal is pretty retarded, especially since I rarely see cops ever use theirs...

[ffejtable]

Originally Posted by ronin_01R1

thanks dude. i'll keep the unsafe driving option in mind. overall im really a safe driver. i drive appoximately 53 miles one way to commute to work every day, most of it highway miles. that's 106 miles roundtrip if i don't make any stops at all...which doesn't often happen. IE - gym, eating out, meeting friends, etc. anyways, point is..i drive a lot and have done so for about 2.5 years now...and this is the first time getting pulled over while in the car going to work. (the bike gets excluded from this because im in a totally different mindset )

as high revs says, this is a total crap charge and the cop must've spilled his coffee on himself or something. at least 1/2 the people on the highway do not signal ESPECIALLY when there are no cars around them.

2 weeks until the court date. i'll update you all when the time comes. thanks for everyone's advice. im off to work now. laters.

One moer thing... Make suer you call in advance and plead not guilty.. Chances are they aer going to reschedule your date, anyway. If you do not call in advance, chances are (99%) that you are going to wate your time by showing up, not being on the calendar, and you will get rescheduled to a later date.

The ticket should actually say it on the back, but it seems most people dont notice it...

[stealth r6]

Originally Posted by ffejtable

What Cakes might be referrign to is the new Unsafe driving violation which you can only get 2 times in 3(?) years as a 0pt violation. The third time you get the Unsafe it turns into a 4pt moving violation, which sucks.

Its actually within a 5 year period.

[skid vicious]

Originally Posted by ffejtable

One moer thing... Make suer you call in advance and plead not guilty.. Chances are they aer going to reschedule your date, anyway. If you do not call in advance, chances are (99%) that you are going to wate your time by showing up, not being on the calendar, and you will get rescheduled to a later date.

The ticket should actually say it on the back, but it seems most people dont notice it...

OH SHIT, how could i have forgotten about that. call the court dude. 98% chance that it'll be re-scheduled and they'll send you anotice in the mail. do this ASAP.
also, try not to use the unsafe driving thing. maybe as a last resort. those fines were increased under mcgreevey. a democrat btw. see if you can't get the ticket thrown out. your gonna have to do some research into NJ statutes but it'll be worth it.
too bad we don't live in MD. my last ticket there got knocked down to probation before judgement. which meant that if i keep my record clean for a yr, it's like it never happened.

[skid vicious]

dude, do what pits said. get the light bulb. do you really think the officer is going to remember you or that you put on your blinker after the stop? they only remember what they write down if the stop/charge is serious, ie-DWI.
he's not going to remember the details of your stop. go for it.
it's better to have a failure to repair ticket. or even better a maintenance of lamps ticket. do a little research and try and BS the prosecutor.

[ronin_01r1]

here's an update...

went to court yesterday. what a pain in the @ss. got there at 5:15 for my 6PM court date time. i called ahead to say i'd plead not guilty. i got there and they tell me the prosecutor is in court for another matter and could not speak to me. the clerk tells me i would have a chance to speak to him in private prior to going before the judge.

a big group of us gets pulled out of the court room and the prosecutor says we're all pleading not guilty and do not have a lawyer. basically he spoke to each of us and amended the charges depending on teh severity. in florence township, amending any charge carries a $250 "surcharge".

he finally gets to me and asks me if i want him to amend it to no points. i ask him if i could speak to the officer and he says he's not there and that if i want to plead guilty, speak to the officer, and contest the ticket, we would have to reschedule for another date. i thought this part was bs since i already said at the time of scheduling yesterday's date that i would plead not guilty. it's teh courts fault for not preparing their case for my ticket...it should have been dismissed in my opinion. anyways. i didn't want to come back to waste more time on this thing. i took the plea bargain.

in the end, my $100 ticket turned into a $389 bill after the amendment, no points on my insurance. (my insurance would have gone up 600 for 3 years.) i wasted 4 hours in that court house last night. what a waste.

the funniest part about the entire night was that the prosecutor during the plea bargain discussion said the 'surcharge' was excessive in his opinion and the defendents are asked if they want to literally buy our points off the ticket. he called it, "gestapo tactics". (however you spell that).

one last thing - the amending of the charge can be done only 2 times per 5 year period.

[njf4i]

Originally Posted by ronin_01R1

here's an update...

went to court yesterday. what a pain in the @ss. got there at 5:15 for my 6PM court date time. i called ahead to say i'd plead not guilty. i got there and they tell me the prosecutor is in court for another matter and could not speak to me. the clerk tells me i would have a chance to speak to him in private prior to going before the judge.

a big group of us gets pulled out of the court room and the prosecutor says we're all pleading not guilty and do not have a lawyer. basically he spoke to each of us and amended the charges depending on teh severity. in florence township, amending any charge carries a $250 "surcharge".

he finally gets to me and asks me if i want him to amend it to no points. i ask him if i could speak to the officer and he says he's not there and that if i want to plead guilty, speak to the officer, and contest the ticket, we would have to reschedule for another date. i thought this part was bs since i already said at the time of scheduling yesterday's date that i would plead not guilty. it's teh courts fault for not preparing their case for my ticket...it should have been dismissed in my opinion. anyways. i didn't want to come back to waste more time on this thing. i took the plea bargain.

in the end, my $100 ticket turned into a $389 bill after the amendment, no points on my insurance. (my insurance would have gone up 600 for 3 years.) i wasted 4 hours in that court house last night. what a waste.

the funniest part about the entire night was that the prosecutor during the plea bargain discussion said the 'surcharge' was excessive in his opinion and the defendents are asked if they want to literally buy our points off the ticket. he called it, "gestapo tactics". (however you spell that).

one last thing - the amending of the charge can be done only 2 times per 5 year period.

Well song oyu got the true tour of our great legal system. But hey you saved a little more money then having your insurance go up, and you have no points.

So hopefully next time you'll remember to signal when making lane changes/turning.

[ffejtable]

If the officer wasnt there I would have pushed to have it ammended to the impeding traffic charge (39:4-56 or 57, i forget) rather than the unsafe driving which sucks... They would have gotten their money either way... The court system (traffic) is really a bunch of BS and simply a revenue generating source for the townships. I have been through it so many times, its sad, but I have been able to plea down the stuff 80% of the time, or more. Some of those have been because I "lived" in VA at the time, and absolutely refused to accept rescheduling as an option.

It does suck that you had to pay anything, but in the end its much cheaper.

[skid vicious]

hmmmph i still think you should have bitched your insurance company out for the increase. in fact, switch right now. like i said before, if they fuck you on this little BS ticket then they are really no good.
should have never told them about it. they probably wouldn't have found out about it anyway.
oh and you can thank mcgreedy for the increase of penalties on the unsafe driving amendment.