The other day I got stopped by the police for going to fast with my car and I didn't even realize that I was going that fast!!! :(
I was driving in Mountain View, on Shoreline Blvd crossing the Central Expressway bridge... and when I stopped in a red light I heard a knock on my window, and there he was, a policeman who made me pull over on the curb.
I was wondering what had I done, but he promptly told me:
Officer: Do you realise that you were going about 52 miles per hour in a 35 zone?
Me: Oh, really! I am sorry, no I did not realize
Officer: Well, that was way too fast, so i am going to have to give you a ticket.
 | |
| Yes officer, I saw the speed limit sign but I didn't see you! |
I didn't complain, I was literally shaking, I was so nervous I hardly could speak, my hands did not leave the steering wheel just in case (well, in America you never know, and you hear all these stories...). To tell the truth the officer was very nice and he seemed truly sorry for giving me the ticket, but he did anyway, in the end, I had broken the law...
And now what? Well, there are several options, but this is what I did.
The officer gives you the ticket but there's nothing you can do until the official notification arrives in your mail, this is likely to happen abouThe t 3 to 4 weeks after the offense is commited. Once you get the notification you have several options:
Option # 1: Pay the fine
In my case, the fine was over 400 dollars, so I decided no to opt for this option and try with option number 2.
Option # 2: Visit the judge, declare yourself not guilty and go to trial
This was also not an option for me because the officer had me on a radar. If you go to trial and your are found guilty you need to pay the whole fine and also the trial expenses. So I decided that this option wasn't for me and decided the try option number 3
Option # 3: Visit the judge, declare yourself guilty and accept whatever the judge says:
So, with my notification in hand, I headed to the Santa Clara County Court to schedule an appointment with the judge.
The day of the appointment I was very anxious, I begged my husband to go with me. We got there 20 minutes ahead of time and there was already a lot of people by the door behind which my judge was supposed to be.
5 minutes before the appointment the bailiff came out and gave us some instructions such as turn off the phones, be silent, he also told us that the judge would call us one at a time and we had to walk to the platform to speak to him. There was also a Spanish interpreter for those who felt more comfortable speaking Spanish.
As my last name starts with a B, I was called about the forth in line, I went to the podium and the judge read the charges against me, and asked me if I was guilty and if so, what would I want to do. I said, "I am guilty and I'd like to go to traffic school, your honor" (the ones before me said so and their fines were reduced a lot). The judge seemed happy with my decision and he reduced my fine from 430 usd to 177 usd and the traffic school promise. So I left the court happy enough, half an hour of my time had saved me almost 300 usd.
If you are wondering what is the traffic school thing, well, the judge seemed to want everybody who had infracted going to traffic school, but ever if he wouldn't ask it, it is recommended to go.
If you are caught comminting an offense against traffic you earn a point in your driving record, this is a negative thing, and according to the officer that stopped me, when you have 2 points your insurance increases dramatically. One way to get rid of the point (or hide it because the point is still there but it's hidden) is going to traffic school.
Traffic school can be done online, once you register you have access to their system where you read the traffic regulation and watch some videos and answer test questions afterwards. It's long and annoying, but it's doable in about 8 hours of your time... yes, that long!
More on points system for California:
http://www.dmv.org/ca-california/point-system.php
The same thing happened to me but luckily I had a great cop that helped me to understand the law. He even told me that if I plead not guilty, he would be at court and try to help me get the points down. I was like you, not realizing I went too fast.I paid the fine and accepted the points.
ReplyDeleteJoanne Krueger @ Kurtz And Blum