What's the Advantage of Going to Court

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California


Hello about three weeks ago I received a moving violation. Officer was following me and stated I was going 77 MPH.

I just received my courtesy notice:

Either 1) I Pay the ticket $244.00 2) Request Optional court appearance (arraignment or court trial) and 3) Traffic School -$286.00


If I request a court appearance what can I expect? Can I ask the judge to reduce the fine? (Will this raise my insurance)? DO I still have the option to go to traffic school? Will the cop show up? Can I request to appear in court, then request to delay?

I know I have so many questions, but this is my 1st speeding ticket. Thank you.

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Quoting peggypwr1

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My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California


Hello about three weeks ago I received a moving violation. Officer was following me and stated I was going 77 MPH.

I just received my courtesy notice:

Either 1) I Pay the ticket $244.00 2) Request Optional court appearance (arraignment or court trial) and 3) Traffic School -$286.00


If I request a court appearance what can I expect? Can I ask the judge to reduce the fine? (Will this raise my insurance)? DO I still have the option to go to traffic school? Will the cop show up? Can I request to appear in court, then request to delay?

I know I have so many questions, but this is my 1st speeding ticket. Thank you.

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While the court is authorized to collect the full bail amount as indicated on the courtesy notice, if you schedule an arraignment and appear in court you may find that the judicial officer is already reducing fines or, if not, you may ask for a fine reduction. This will not affect you eligibility for traffic school nor will it impact your insurance premium any differently that paying the full fine. The officer will not appear at the arraignment; only if you plead not guilty and request a trial will the officer receive a subpoena to appear at your trial. By the way, most courts will require that you post bail in the full amount of the fine if you plead not guilty and request a trial.

I am curious as to which County this is in only because your $244 bail/fine amount is slightly higher than the $234 listed in the bail schedule (which is not abnormal, unlawful or incorrect); Penal Code section 1463.28 does allow some counties to exceed the "total bail" amount shown in the bail schedule... Just curious which one you're in! Although it should be also noted that your amount due including traffic school shows that YOUR traffic school fees to be ($286 - $244 =) $42 which is lower than the ~ $59 amount authorized by VC 42007.1. So you're actually coming out ahead by approximately $7... :D

Hi was caught in Milpitas CA on Interstate 680 North

My plan is to plead guilty and ask the judge to reduce the fine. ANy tips on this? DO they offer online traffic school.

Yea ...

"I'm Guilty' please don't charge me the full boat amount ...:o bwaaahahaa

^One^ of our forum Jesters... His only function us to bring cheer to those who might need it (in spite of him failing miserably at it).

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Quoting peggypwr1

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Hi was caught in Milpitas CA on Interstate 680 North

My plan is to plead guilty and ask the judge to reduce the fine. ANy tips on this? DO they offer online traffic school.

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Approving online schools is a function of the DMV, not the court so I am sure they do have a few online schools approved without any location restriction; and you will be provided with a list of schools that you can sign up with once your fees are paid. Or you can check the list ahead of time here: DMV Occupational License website

The Santa Clara Superior Court website.

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Quoting That Guy

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The Santa Clara Superior Court website.

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I'm not sure if this is still the practice of the SC Superior court, but when I took traffic school for a red-light violation in 2003, they reduced my fine at arraignment just by virtue that I showed up in person. This was the Palo Alto courthouse. They may do it differently at other locations.

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Quoting That Guy

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^One^ of our forum Jesters...

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And just to clarify... those arrows did in fact point to someone else's post which was just recently deleted for being useless! So no, I am not pointing to you and calling you a forum Jester!

In all fairness, I'm not sure how useful my post will end up being to the OP, and I do have my silly moments. Perhaps you're still right after all. ;)

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Quoting themadnorwegian

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In all fairness, I'm not sure how useful my post will end up being to the OP, and I do have my silly moments. Perhaps you're still right after all. ;)

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TMN... You are not paying attention, are you???

My comment about arrows and jesters had NOTHING to do with you or your post...

If you scroll up to the top, you will see the OP's original post, followed by my first post wherein I stated

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While the court is authorized to collect the full bail amount...

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That is then followed by the OP's post stating:

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"Hi was caught in Milpitas CA on Interstate 680 North

My plan is to plead guilty and ask the judge to reduce the fine. ANy tips on this? DO they offer online traffic school."

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At which time, some idiot ("J. Alfred Braun" I am sure you've come across a post or two of his) decided to post an idiotic comment that went:

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Yea ...

"I'm Guilty' please don't charge me the full boat amount ...:o bwaaahahaa

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(Little does he know it happens thousands of times every day)!!!

Well, (I reported the post to the Mods as "useless" -you would not see that though-) and then made the following comment:

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^One^ of our forum Jesters... His only function us to bring cheer to those who might need it (in spite of him failing miserably at it).


AND REPLIED TO THE OP's INQUIRY ABOUT ONLINE TRAFFIC SCHOOLS

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And, in my attempt to tell the OP to disregard the idiot's comments, I posted the "^arrows^" you see up there (around "^One^ of our forum Jesters") which were actually pointed to the post by J. Alfred Braun at the time...

However, later on in the day, a kind, wonderful and helpful Moderator decided to rid this world of that court jester, so s/he fired (banned) him and "poof" his posts disappeared along with him...

Which then left my post, with the arrows, pointing to the post above mine (which now happened to be the OP's post) saying "^One^ of our forum jesters", so considering the fact that it was now past the time limit during which I was able to edit my post, and since it will likely stay like that forever, I felt the need to clarify that I was not referring to the OP by that comment... and hence I posted:

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And just to clarify... those arrows did in fact point to someone else's post which was just recently deleted for being useless! So no, I am not pointing to you and calling you a forum Jester!

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Well, I didn't realize at the time that you had posted anything, the comment I made appeared -TO YOU (because you're not paying attention)- as if it was directed at you when in reality, it was directed to the OP...

Got it?

In fact, your comment about you receiving a reduced fine is in confirmation of what I suggested to the OP and what she is hoping for! :victorious:





And my last and final comment is:

(YEAH, the Ban-Hammer is pretty cool when it works. Maybe now that it's been taken out oiled and was put to use, maybe it will strike again soon against some useless dweeb who's name rhymes with lost-his-mind).