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Ticketed for Speeding, 100 MPH

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  • 10-29-2012, 12:58 PM
    Pandemic
    Ticketed for Speeding, 100 MPH
    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California

    Hi all,
    I know I'm not going to beat this ticket, but I'm curious about the penalty. When the officer pulled me over (going 100), he told me I was lucky I wasn't going 1mph faster since I would face license suspension. He also said I could just pay by mail and wouldn't have to appear. Today I called the court, and they said that, although the ticket hasn't been fully processed, they thought I would have to come in since I was going over 25 mph over the speed limit. They also said license suspension was a possibility. Who is correct in this situation?

    The ticket is a 22356(b) and the court is in Shafter, CA. I've read that going over 100mph is a different offence than going exactly 100. It will be very difficult for me to make the court date because I am a student who lives about 3 hours away from Shafter, and I can't miss class.

    Thanks for your help!
  • 10-29-2012, 02:58 PM
    flyingron
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    22348 VC, speeding in excess of 100 MPH, is a MANDATORY 30 day suspension. 22356(b) penalty is at the discretion of the court. If they give you a fine, without an appearance, you'll not get a suspension.
  • 10-29-2012, 03:20 PM
    Pandemic
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    Quote:

    Quoting flyingron
    View Post
    22348 VC, speeding in excess of 100 MPH, is a MANDATORY 30 day suspension. 22356(b) penalty is at the discretion of the court. If they give you a fine, without an appearance, you'll not get a suspension.

    Thanks for the advice! Since I was going exactly 100 and charged with a 22356b, do I not need to worry about a license suspension?
  • 10-29-2012, 08:06 PM
    themadnorwegian
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    The court may still revoke your license, but it's at the discretion of the judge.

    13200.
    Whenever any person licensed under this code is convicted of a violation of any provision of this code relating to the speed of vehicles or a violation of Section 23103 the court may, unless this code makes mandatory a revocation by the department, suspend the privilege of the person to operate a motor vehicle for a period of not to exceed 30 days upon a first conviction, for a period of not to exceed 60 days upon a second conviction, and for a period of not to exceed six months upon a third or any subsequent conviction.
  • 10-29-2012, 08:35 PM
    Pandemic
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    Quote:

    Quoting themadnorwegian
    View Post
    The court may still revoke your license, but it's at the discretion of the judge.

    13200.
    Whenever any person licensed under this code is convicted of a violation of any provision of this code relating to the speed of vehicles or a violation of Section 23103 the court may, unless this code makes mandatory a revocation by the department, suspend the privilege of the person to operate a motor vehicle for a period of not to exceed 30 days upon a first conviction, for a period of not to exceed 60 days upon a second conviction, and for a period of not to exceed six months upon a third or any subsequent conviction.

    Thanks themadnorwegian! Do you think that if I go to court and act extremely apologetic and admit guilt, I will be able to avoid the license suspension? I am actually going to submit an apologetic letter to the judge and ask if he can waive my mandatory court appearance since I am a student and the court is 4 hours away, causing me to miss class.

    This is my first traffic violation, which helps. However, I was 20 when the violation happened.
  • 10-29-2012, 09:22 PM
    Who'sThatGuy
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    What was the speed limit that you violated?
  • 10-29-2012, 09:35 PM
    Pandemic
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    Quote:

    Quoting Who'sThatGuy
    View Post
    What was the speed limit that you violated?

    The speed limit that I violated was 70mph. I'm just at the upper range of the 22356(b) violation, which seems to be 1 point on the driving record and usually (hopefully) no license suspension.

    If your license gets suspended, do they take it on the spot in the court room or will I be able to drive back and send it in later?
  • 10-29-2012, 11:22 PM
    themadnorwegian
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    Do you think that if I go to court and act extremely apologetic and admit guilt, I will be able to avoid the license suspension? I am actually going to submit an apologetic letter to the judge and ask if he can waive my mandatory court appearance since I am a student and the court is 4 hours away, causing me to miss class.

    The judge isn't required to suspend your license for this violation. It's left to his or her discretion. It certainly wouldn't hurt to own up to your mistake. I'd avoid making any excuses to the judge. Writing a letter may or may not help. Many courts have rules against ex parte communication. This means that you're only allowed to talk to the judge when the prosecution is also present. However, for most traffic cases there is no prosecutor involved.

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    If your license gets suspended, do they take it on the spot in the court room or will I be able to drive back and send it in later?

    You would have to surrender it when you are sentenced.

    13206.
    Whenever a court suspends the privilege of a person to operate a motor vehicle, the court shall require the person's license to be surrendered to it. Unless required by the provisions of Section 13550 to send the license to the department, the court shall retain the license during the period of suspension and return it to the licensee at the end of the period after indorsing thereon a record of the suspension.

    Until you get your courtesy notice, you won't know if the court appearance is mandatory. If it's not mandatory, it's very unlikely that anything will happen to your license. I'd take it easy for now. 20 over the limit on I-5 is pretty speedy, but it's not nearly as bad as 20 over the limit in a school zone, or on a local road.
  • 10-31-2012, 02:18 PM
    That Guy
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    I agree with TMN on most of what he said... Well except for his contention about the 20mph over. I think chances are, you will be found guilty of 30mph over...

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    Do you think that if I go to court and act extremely apologetic and admit guilt, I will be able to avoid the license suspension?

    In addition to your letter to the judge being ex-parte communication, and the judge being forbidden by law to read your letter, you are not going to find an easy way of apologizing without making an admission of guilt... "So what?" you say... You've already conceded that you will not win this case. Well, in addition to simply losing, driving at a speed of 100mph does not happen all of a sudden, and it isn't anywhere near an "Oops, I really did not realize I was going that fast". Making such a statement, which on the surface may seems harmless, but in theory you are also admitting to exceeding the state's absolute maximum speed limit all while you're being careless about what you are doing.. Actually, careless while not realizing what you were doing or how fast you were going. While there is no "careless driving" statute under California's vehicle code, this is when the judge is more likely to impose additional penalties including the license suspension. The other alternative to that statement is to say "yeah, I knew I was going that fast", and this would then add the "willful and wanton disregard" which combined with other factors might push this into the realm of "reckless driving" and so clearly is NOT going to help your case either.

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    I am actually going to submit an apologetic letter to the judge and ask if he can waive my mandatory court appearance...

    While I will admit that I have no verifiable proof of my reasoning, I will say that I have researched it extensively and there are only two reasons that I could come up with as to why the courts require a mandatory court appearance for speed violations in excess of 25mph over the limit. (1) So that the court can admonish you that the penalty for a conviction of the charge you are facing does possibly include a license suspension and (2) so that that court can ensure that if you plead guilty, it can order you to surrender your license forthwith immediately after sentencing.

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    I am a student and the court is 4 hours away, causing me to miss class.

    One thing I can tell you, is that judges hate it when you prioritize other matters ahead of them. A mandatory court appearance means you are "ORDERED by the court to make an appearance either in person or by council. (Yes, the alternative to all of this, of course, is that you can hire an attorney to appear on your behalf and while he may/may not be able to mitigate your penalty, he/she could relieve you from having to make it to court now that classes are so important to not miss)!

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    This is my first traffic violation, which helps. However, I was 20 when the violation happened.

    How does it help that its your first violation? it doesn't... Nor does your age no matter what it is. You are a "driver" and per the code, the judge is not going to care how old you are... You'll note that VC 13200 sets the license suspension possibility as a penalty for a "first speeding violation"... It doesn't matter if its your first violation!

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    I'm just at the upper range of the 22356(b) violation...

    You're actually at the highest possible number for a 22356(b) citation... Think about it; anything higher and you would be in the 22348(b) area!

    Quote:

    Quoting Pandemic
    View Post
    If your license gets suspended, do they take it on the spot in the court room or will I be able to drive back and send it in later?

    Some courts will require that you surrender your license on the spot, other courts will not... Regardless of what your court will do, section 1803 of the vehicle code requires the court clerk to submit a record of a conviction and the judgment (sentence) if it includes a court ordered suspension to the DMV within 5 days after the sentencing, and this report can be submitted electronically. But you don't know if that record/sentence/suspension will be abstracted to the DMV within minutes after your sentence or 4 days 23 hours and 59 minutes later. Only that it will be submitted. So if the judge tells you you're suspended "as of now"... Then you should clearly refrain form driving for the entire period specified by the judge and only drive AFTER you can verify with the DMV that your suspension has been lifted. There may even be a reinstatement fee that you'll have to pay!

    Lastly, although you are clearly under the impression that the court will accommodate by making a number of different concession, anywhere form waiving the mandatory court appearance to taking it easy on you because you are now sorry, to allowing you to drive back although you may have to surrender your license. While you are free to ask for whatever it is you want, and more power to you if you were to get ALL of what you want, if I were in your shoes I would assume nothing... And so it would be in your best interest to make sure you have a licensed driver with you on the day you go to court.

    Quote:

    Quoting themadnorwegian
    View Post
    Until you get your courtesy notice, you won't know if the court appearance is mandatory. If it's not mandatory, it's very unlikely that anything will happen to your license.

    While I'll stick to my understanding that the mandatory court appearance is directly related to the possibility of a license suspension, I wouldn't go as far as assuming that if there is no mandatory court appearance then the likelihood is that there isn't going to be a license suspension. Remember, the qualifier uinder VC 13200 applies to:

    [U]any person licensed under this code[/U] is convicted of a violation of any speed related provision or a violation of Section 23103, and there is no requirement that it be subsequent to a mandatory appearance.
  • 11-01-2012, 12:49 PM
    Pandemic
    Re: Going Exactly 100mph on I-5nb in Kern County, California
    Thank you for the advice, guys!

    So what is my best course of action when I go to court? Will immediately pleading guilty possibly get some lenience from the judge? Should I say I was being careless or that I knew that I was going that fast? I just really want to avoid a license suspension at all costs (and yes, I realize I should not have been driving that fast in the first place).

    I will bring a licensed driver with me when I go to the court, but is there any risk of them impounding my car?
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