I know that this has been covered but I think I may have a new question… I got my first speeding ticket today on my way to work by an Albany Sherrif. He told to plead not guilty and to go to court and he would plead it down but what do I need to do exactly? I know that I will get a court date and have to go, but do I find him beforehand or do I just go into the court room and wait for my name to be called and then just go from there??? It was for a 43 in a 30 btw.
Thanks in advance.
when you get to the court house the cop will call your name
mail in ticket as not guilty, wait for court date, he’ll talk to you in court on your court date. done and done.
ok thats what I figured, but I just wanted to make sure. Now another quick one… anybody know what the surcharge is for the new scotland rd court (i think its considered either normanskill or glen hollow… not sure though)??
Thanks
+1 many times.
probably $85 for moving violations. sucks.
+25364524546 hahaha
the thing with the albany sherrif is that they have to come to your pretrial hearing unlike albany pd, you have a fighting chance that he wont show up then you are dismissed, but first do like benny says and mail in your not guilty plea
Yup fill in the little check box next to not guilty sign and mail. if you dont plea by mail, your have to go to court on the date on the ticket and wait to be called up by the judge. He will verify your who you are and the address is correct. then he will tell you what you did and ask if you understand the offense. then ask you how you plea. If you say Not guilty, he will ask you to come back on another date to meet with the ADA and have a trial. If you pleas guilty you take the fine, points and all associated to the offense.
If it was a standard hand written ticket, also as for the supporting dep by filling in the check box for that. If you do this, the cop will have to fill out a little report and have that mailed to your home. If either A: he is lazy and doesnt want to put “I saw thig guy going this fast here on this date, with this radar device that was calibraited on this date…” there for you dont get it sent to you, or B: he does fill it out, but doesnt reach your house prior to your court date. Your ticket will be dismissed becasue if you request a supporting dep, that is now a piece of evidence in the trial and needs to be present. If you get it, it doesnt really matter at that time, and wont hold anythign against you. your still at the mercy of the ADA. And the cop doesnt talk to you, he talks to the ADA, and you talk to the ADA, then the ADA give a piece of paper to the judge asking that it be reduced.
Also cross your fingers that the officer doesnt show up when you have to go to the court on your trial date. Thats the date you go talk to the ADA. If he doesnt show, the ada cant talk to him to plea you down so your dismissed again.
thats actually not entirely true. if a cop does not show up for court, then most times it is dismissed however if the cop is sick, or he/she was sent away in the service (ie nat’l guard, etc) then another cop can take his/her place. This happened to my dad. he thought for sure he was safe b/c the cop never showed up… but then found out that wasnt the case… lol
The ADA can also legally stand in if the officer is not present. It gan go both ways, I got the shit end of the deal last year with a headlight ticket (they claimed yellow low beams were illegal, but couldnt/wouldnt tell me why.) And basically a group of five offenders or so got dismissed because their cop wasn’t there. Five min later my cop still hadn’t showed up and the ADA prick came in and took over. GRRRRR.
Also, asking for a supporting deposition is an extra annoyance for the cop and they may be less lenient because of it. A saratoga county sheriff said this to me. Basically your objective is to make the cop remember as little about you as possible. If he can’t remember you/your case details well, then basically hell consider it not such a big deal, and away you go.
he told me i could, but to be honest he made it quite clear that he would have no problems sending one. I would rather just show up and not try to piss him off… lol. As it is he is letting me off with a slap on the wrist…
Every court does it differently. Making the officer fill out a supporting deposition is going to piss him off. The govt’s are broke so don’t expect a pass.
Here’s what you should do given it’s a small ticket.
- Find out who is handling the case (i.e. Call the Traffic Court and see if it’s the ADA, the sherrif who issued the ticket, or some random cop)
- Ask to pay fine out of court to avoid wasting the court’s time (Asking them to drop the ticket probably won’t happen). Ask for the following and you get more fucked as you go down the list:
Parking on pavement
1110A (Failure to obey traffic device; non-moving violation)
Reduce on the speeding
You just got fucked
Anyhow, check the not guilty and wait for a court date assigned to you via mail. Show up and wait in line like the other sheep. Some retard handling the case will call you out of the crowd and then discuss some plea where you get no points but give them money.
Basically it seems like youre gonna go to court (after pleading not guilty), theyre gonna plead it down to a parking on pavement ticket (fine and court fee)and you might have to take defensive driving as part of the plea deal. Not bad since its only $40 and saves you money on your insurance for 3 years.
Atleast thats how my last ticket worked. I didnt even say anything and they already had that deal worked out.
that is true, but rarely does that happen, you people take things to literally. Trust me, ive been there, ive done that, cops dont have to show up first off, usually staties, and sherrifs do, most of them show up but there is usually a handful that doesnt and its not for being sick or being in iraq, its usually cuz they just didnt show up, therefore dismissed
with my most recent ticket i got a supporting deposition WITH my ticket. FML
yea, staties have that automatically now. I got the same thing with my tint ticket
do what i did
get big ticket(s), get good lawyer(braccini), go to court(rotterdam), pay money(alot), keep license(plus points)
:shifty
True.
Failure to obey IS a moving violation and is 2 points.
Basically it is all a crap shoot. They are there to make money, and do it fast and efficient. They really dont give a shit about your license or your insurance, they want your $$. I got off on a speeding ticket 87 in a 65 on the thruway and the trooper didn’t show up at Rotterdam, I walked up when the judge called me and he said I was dismissed, along with about 10 other people prior to my name being called. Other times, and there were many, I never saw or talked to a cop, so I assume the ada either stood in his place or already talked to him… who knows. doesn’t really matter the point is the ADA talks to the judge, well actually just hands him a piece of paper with the information.
I also got off on a speeding 45-30 ticket in Scotia because I asked for a supporting dep. Never got it. Went to court talked to the ada, who was a dick and said they wont reduce it to a zero point parking ticket and was real snappy with me. I just smiled and said thats fine I will take care of it myself then. walked up when the judge called me and he asked “do you agree with the plea bargain of failure to obey a traffic device?” I said NO. the ADA looked at me like WTF is he doing. I said if you look on my ticket you will see I asked for a supporting dep be sent to me, I have not received it. The judge looked at the ticket i sent him, looked in his books and saw that the cop didn’t fill it out. He said you are dismissed. didn’t pay shit. The face on the ADA was priceless. haha
I also used the supporting dep thing to get out of a seat belt ticket.
It doesn’t matter if you piss off the cop or not, his job is his job. paper work is paper work, and in reality it only takes 2-3 minutes to do it. The ADA make the decisions and the judge listens to them and makes the final decision.
Also they dont even look at your DMV record, 9 times out of 10. They generally look on their records for that court and see how many times you were there. If your a repeat offender, like I am with amsterdam town or city, the odds are against you. Even though I know the judge personally and the ADA personally, I cant win them all. infact thats where the only 2 points I have came from.
its all a crap shoot.
Fit in like the rest of the people they shuffle out the doors: Plea not guilty, dont ask for the supporting dep talk to the ada and tell them it is your first ticket and be nice. they will more than likely reduce it to a parking ticket.
Or know the minor details and play your cards. what ever works for you.
I meant it’s not SPEEDING VIOLATION which is what a lot of insurance companies use to raise the rates.
Yep. Disgusting isn’t it?
Technically you were right. The judge could and did dismiss it. Good job. I never really thought it was a good idea to do the supporting dep especially if the cop is prosecuting the case.
Sorry, that’s not true. The ADA often doesn’t handle the case especially lately given the financial problems of the state and local gov’t. You piss a cop off and it can easily come back to you.
Like everytime I went to court, they checked it. They even mentioned I am only getting off easy because my record is flawless. But, it depends on the court. They can vary a bit.
The same goes for my fiancee who has a lot of court time and my cousin-in-law who is a former NYPD cop and Orange County detective.