A recent chat group discussion:
- [18-year-old son] got off his second speeding ticket. Had an attorney. His friend has two tickets and got off neither. He learned a valuable lesson. That the Justice system is best if you have money.
- That lesson does not apply in family court.
Noted.
I doubt that [18-year old son] saved any money by having attorney representation for his speeding ticket
Sure he did – on insurance premiums.
@perplexed, @averros: I lived in New Jersey and had a friend who was, at one time in his young life, a very determined speeder. The State Police in New Jersey are not interested in your good behavior during the stop, nor are they particularly concerned about your insurance premiums and the “points” on your license. If you have an attorney, you might have a better chance at avoiding some of the points, but at one point, insurance coverage for his Ford Mustang cost more than $5,000 a year and he was one more Stop Sign away from losing his license, which then leads to even worse consequences.
His father finally had enough and told him: “One more ticket and I disown you and you can GTFO.” No joke.
@perplexed @averros: It’s interesting because although New Jersey really is a quasi-Police State, everyone there wants to try to break the law when they’re young and think they can win. They can’t. My friend’s next idea was to use the Mustang occasionally, sign the insurance over to his Father and instead roll around in a modified Oldsmobile to mitigate the damage. We spent a weekend with a sawzall and all kinds of audio gear we bought in NYC putting a “booming system” into the deeply-carpeted, plush Oldsmobile. It was a much slower car but it had a great sound and interior lighting system when we were done and his license survived the ordeal. He had it repainted and put some beefy rims on it and made it through College going slow and comfortable, like.
In other words, @averros is correct, at least in the northeast: it’s the insurance premiums and the license points, fines, etc., etc. Sometimes an attorney’s representation discourages the police from showing up to make the case in front of a judge (because they’re busy) and the charges are dropped. But overall there is no escape.
@averros, it is much cheaper to deal with trooper and prosecution to downgrade speeding offense to no-point offense or to analogous harshly worded no pint offense and pay the fee. Even “victory” in traffic court results in paying court fees. No lawyers required, unless it is DUI or failure to stop with police pursuit. I observed lawyers in traffic court. They a) loudly protested constitutional rights (without involving any minutemen of course) and annoyed troopers by their grand-standing b) “forgot” to bring some of defendants into court and were asked to be back 3) were rescheduling court appearances for a latter day. I was wondering how many hours were they billing. By my estimate insurance savings would not compensate for them.
I do not see any reason to involve lawyers into speeding tickets unless it is something extraordinary or someone would worry about his/her social credits when China took over or Democrats became the official Party and as the result middle class speeding became capital crime vs murder that would be then punished with warnings.
@perplexed – this depends on the lawyer, I guess. The traffic lawyer I used when I lived in CA was also a judge in the same court in my home county (different division). Needless to say, every problem magically disappeared with minimal fuss, and he charged the exact amount of ticket so disappeared.
US is just a richer version of any banana republic. Or, as Soviet joke went (about the USSR): “This country is Upper Volta with nukes”.
averros: A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.
@philg: I think you cut through the NJ Gordian Knot as it were. Some people know the lawyer who knows the judge, some don’t.