my lawyer is rather pricey, about $250 + court costs...but it saves you money in the long run!

 

$250 plus court costs is nothing compared to $400/yr insurance hikes.

 

 

$400/year insurance hikes!? For 1 speeding ticket in 7 years? Doubtful.

 

I got pulled over in Hendersonville, while driving a company G35 coupe. the cop told me to mail the fine in, because he wouldn't drop anything. 80 in a 65 at about 6:00 in the morning.

 

I got pulled doing 70 in a 55, a lawyer can take care of it.

 

So this is kind of strange. On the ticket, the date to meet with the trial officer, which is one of the county magistrates, is Sept 5th. Well, after surfing around the county website for a while, I found the court docket through Sept 12th for all the magistrates, including the one I am suppose to see. Well, not only am I not on the list being seen on the 5th, I'm not listed at all.

Anybody know what this means? Is the date on my ticket bogus?

 

I'd bet that either the sytem is not updated or that they don't add each ticket to the the court docket. With mine, the officer met with each person he gave a ticket to before they actually went to the magistrate. If you don't get it dropped there, or plead it out, then you go before the judge.

 

You have to show or risk being found guilty and a bench warrant, no matter what some docket says. If you really aren't on the docket on the day you show up, then talk to the DA and get yourself added for the day so the case can be heard/dropped, or demand the ticket be thrown out. You don't want your case getting mishandled - its a PITA down the road.

 

Just show up. If it was for speeding, chances are he wrote it for 4 points/$150. I've had tickets for 21 over and 19 over dropped to 9over just by showing up and talking to the officer (SC Highway Patrol, Spartanburg County and York county). They'll normally drop it to a 2 pt $50 ticket. If it's only your first ticket, I wouldn't bother with having a lawyer, your insurance most likely isn't going to go up for just one. (Unless it IS over 4 points).