Well, it finally happened - got my first speeding ticket this morning on the way in to work.

Stopped by an HPD motorcycle office - AKA Evel Knievel.

45 in a 35 - he said he wrote it for less than what my speed was.

I think I am going to fight - so long as the worse case is that I lose, and I pay the fine that is on the ticket - ?

In other words, if I lose, they aren't gonna try to tack on court costs ,are they ? $'s


My logic is that where he wrote me up for speeding, I don't believe I was - well, maybe 5 over, but I have never been busted for that before. Now, on the freeway exit and some on the feeder beforehand, which I think he saw-

At any rate, it was Northbound on Mangum, close to the 290 feeder. That intersection (290 feeder to Mangum )has a sharp right turn, and 2 lanes turn right.

My Camaro handles OK, but I don't think it is capable of taking a sharp corner at 45 MPH while maintaining the right hand turn lane !

Anyone been to a HPD traffic court ?

One thing about this officer - he was super polite, which I approve of , and ballsy - he had 2 of us pulled over at the same time.

Never nervous, never had his hand on his gun, and was totally professional - I have to give him props even if I don't like the fact he was writing me a ticket.

Any thoughts/tips.tricks are appreciated - thanks !


Britt

 

sounds like a normal hpd cop. but where is the court at? cuz at some courts you can hire one of those mexican lawyers or watever and they will give you a new court date than you go to that one and if the officer doesn't show up the ticket will likely be dismissed. i had done this bout 3 times and all 3 times it has worked for me. if you have to go downtown its a lil harder but it may work.

 

City of Houston Courts - 1400 Lubbock

8:00 P.M. - dayum - I thought I was gonna have to take a day off !


You are not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling , though .....


Britt

 

WHY in the world would you even fight a ticket in Texas? Take the DD class, get the ticket erased from your record and forget the whole thing ever happened. I wouldn't even take the chance of fighting it in court. You guys get 1 free pass a year, use it!

 

for real use it, and if your lucky some cities like DeSoto(my hometown) will let you take DD even if you have taken it within a year. no need to fight it. its not worth it.

 

dont listen to these out-of-towners who dont have a clue! HPD does not dispute 'not guilty' pleas. Tell the judge you are not guilty and would like a trial by jury. The HPD officer will not show up to the scheduled court date and the ticket will be dropped without you even having to speak a word in front of the judge or jury. Save the defensive driving free pass for something more serious!

Ive been to the 1400 Lubbock court house plenty of times. It feels like my home away from home. I have not had to pay for a ticket since 2001.

 

How 'bout trial by judge ? Would that work as well ?

And, is the court date on the ticket the actual trial date, or an arraignment date (docket date ) to set a trial if requested ?

Been a looooooooooooooong time since I got a ticket, and that one I wound up paying 'cuz I missed the court date while out of town in scholl ( forgot about it ! ), had to post bail to keep from getting arrested, then on the new trial date it was a docket date, and I gave up & paid.

I have more free time now, & live in Houston giving me more options.

Thanks !

 

The courtdate on the ticket is just the 'docket date' unless you plan to plead guilty and pay. If you enter a not guily plea they will schedule another court date. Ask for a trial by jury. Heres another tip that i forgot to mention, before you do anything, call the courthouse a few weeks before your scheduled date and reschedule your original courtdate. You can reschedule for work/family/health related reasons. That will ensure that the officer will not be able to appear.

 

You want to take on a judge at 8pm... how many cases has he heard before you, take the free pay and the driver safety course, HPD is such a large city do you people not think that they just have 1 day where they go to court a week... like Officer G has court cases on monday and works the streets his other 4 shifts or something to that effect, if you try and fight this and the officer is in the court room your done, take the free pass the the DD course dont listen to this fight it nonsense its only a class C anyway

 

That is not how it works within the city of Houston. The officer never shows up dude. Ive lived here 27 years out of my 28 year life. I have been pulled over 4 times in the past 7 years and have had all of those tickets dismissed. It is really not that hard. Call ahead of time and reschedule your court date. There is no way your rescheduled court date will fall on one of the officers scheduled court dates. But dont listen to me. Listen to the people who's location does not say HOUSTON, TX.

 

have to agree with both here. the driver safety class IS a free pass..take it and be done with it....
HOWEVER..i reallyyyy wish more people would fight their tickets..if MORE people faught their tickets the courts would be over run with "minor" things like speeding tickets and cops would HAVE to cut down and speeding tickets.............but we all know this isnt going to happen but i applaud mark for doing it !!
in the end.. i have to take the side of the guy that LIVES in the area and has had SUCCESS fighting tickets..way to go mark!!!

 

lies... lol call ahead and change the court date, it doesnt work like that and if you think it does you are dead wrong your not getting the court date changed and neither could your attorney the court system isnt there to meet your needs you meet theirs thats in every state/city/county, and 27 years out of a 28 year life, deduct at least 16 of those years and your left with 11 and 12 that you have been driving lol
i can see how that phone call would go
you: i cant make my day in court
court clerk: y
you: its not a good day for me i have to work
court clerk: no probelm thats fine we will send a constable to pick you up after you miss your court date :-) (warrant)

 

yeah okay my mysteriously clean driving record just happened on its own then u go ahead and bend over for the man if thats ur thing. its not mine.

 

mark is right.
its called a "continuence"
you can ask for it IN court or on the phone...you simply call and tell them you cant make it on the scheduled court date and you would like the next available court date please.
ive done it myself. ... i also found a FULL PROOF way of getting out of tickets on the spot
i used to get tickets like every month. which is how i learned to fight and get out of them( hence my clean record) but since i figured out how to get out of it while the officer has me pulled over ive never gotten a speeding ticket in the past year or so pulled over about 8 times ( have the warnings to prove it hahahaha)

 

What is the secret?

 

You sure will get court costs... whether you win or lose.

 

continuances are not granted over the phone and they are not given out freely, its not a good day for me will not be a valid excuse, valid excuse will be needed and will have to be proved, please don’t listen to these people, take the free pass and just stop speeding and the problem wont continue, your driving record may be clean but it isn’t because of a continuance being granted for no reason, I have yet to hear a full proof way to get out of a ticket while the officer is still right there, please enlighten us on this, I haven’t been in the game long but I have heard my fair share of excuses and threats

 

obviously banta, you have never paid a visit to 1400 lubbock. I've done everything discussed here: take DD, hire the lazy mexican lawyer (and I'm mexican, and I say they are REALLY FREAKIN' LAZY), mark's idea. I've done it all. Hell I even missed a court date, thought I would get a bond, and was retardedly convinced by my parents to just pay the whole fine (700 bucks, including the missed court date).

I can't say there's a best solution here cause they end having you go down to 1400 Lubbock, and that's an all day affair in and of itself. I can tell you though from experience, the penalty for taking the guilty plea, or losing at trial, is more severe than people think. If you lose, depending on whether it's your first offense or not, your insurance will go up, and that's never a good thing. You will also lose points off your license (yes...Texas uses the point system), and a loss of enough points can mean suspension of your license or denial of your vehicle registration upon renewal. Just thought I'd let you know.

Personally, I liked the DD choice, cause at least that way, you can go to a comedy club and get free tickets for you troubles.

 

well im not gonna argue with you, if you dont wanna believe me thats fine. just saying, i have PERSONALLY gotten a continuence by asking for one. and my method for getting out of a ticket on site DOES work, and i have the pile of warning tickets to prove it, no it doesnt involve excuses or threats and NO im not posting it on a national forum just so every dick and tom can go out and use it, then i would lose my only "get out of jail card". i have even been pulled over for street racing, didnt even get a warning on that one..dont believe me? ask anyone from centex

 

You were street racing and after a 1/4 mile you still were not over 60mph thats why you didnt get a ticket

 

lawlz at redline. Scott, it's not that I don't believe you, it's just that i really hate 1400 lubbock, and I've always enjoyed sitting through a lame ass comedy routine than 5 hours of "sir, you can't read that book while court is in session...". I mean, they go out of their way to make you as miserable as humanly possible. If i had the patience (which under normal circumstances I'm all for it), I'd fight the system, but not when it's THIS pedantic.

 

Close, as the lawyer I used - I have prepaid legal at work, and I figured why not use it ? scheduled the court date for this past Friday, 06/04. Court was at 8 AM , and I was done by ~ 11:00. Officer no show = case dismissed.

Ironically, it might have been faster w/o a lawyer as according to her the judge's rules were that if an attorney was present, she would not talk directly to the client. I had to wait for the attorney to be able to speak w/ her to get the paperwork done.

Nothing like cooling your heels in a wooden bench in a courtroom were you cannot read, and have to sign out for ten minute breaks ...

Oh, well - it worked out.

One thing I am still puzzled by - both the court information & the dismissal form say the State of Texas vs. lil' ol' me - WTH ?

It was an HPD officer, and I was in a municipal court. Yeah, we are in the state, but how is that the state vs. me ?

Lata !

Britt

 

I got my first ticket in years a while back. I'm disputing it. He showed up, so it got pushed several months and I'm needing to show up to this next one.

BTW... 290/Mangum? You're not that far.

 

You know you dont need a lawyer to do this.....

Pre-trial diversion



Just ask for a new court date and hope hes a no show.

 

Interesting - I assumed that on the court date, you would go to trial - that day.

Ironically, I had municipal jury duty the 24th ! It was a traffic case.

No idea why they did not pick my sorry butt - I was hell bound to let the guy off it all possible.

But, never got the chance .

I work at TC Jester and Pinemont, and live on the SW side, so my everday AM work commute is 59 - 610 - 290 - exit Mangum/Dacoma.

Funny how you start seeing some of the same cars - 2 days now I have seen a '05ish Cadillac CTS-V that exits the same place & turns left at Dacoma.

I test drove a used one at Texas Direct Auto - luxo rocket ship - very nice.

That's kinda how I got into the Sedan - I wanted a stick, 4 doors, and some decent oomph. I got all that, plus 30 on the highway - woo hoo !