It's going to be hard for you to win. How much is the fine? If you lose, then you're going to have to pay the fine + court fees.

 

Never heard of paying court fees if you lose. Usually, you pay court fees if they drop the points and you just agree to pay the fine.

The courts are there for our use and are paid with our tax dollars. We have the right to face our accuser AND are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Again, as such, we have a right to go to court (without cost) and defend ourselves.

 

I had tinted windows (35%) and the judge brought the fine down to 20 dollars. On top of that I had to pay court fees which was around 60 bucks. I would've been better off not going to court and just paying the fine. This is in VA.

 

In my experience you always pay court costs if you lose. Also, if you request a trial by jury, you also pay for the jury if you lose.

 

Wooo $6/day per juror The one time you'll be happy that jurors are paid so little.

I say it's always worth fighting it. If there I have any legitimate case I enjoy the opportunity to intelligently refute the officer's claims. Obviously this is assuming the officer is honest.

I had a cop who was definitely wrong once and I was so firm on the side of the road with him that I think he doubted himself and was willing to admit it as opposed to argue with me. Before he left he told me me to take it to court since he had already written it. I had to drive almost 2 hours as I had been up at the lake for the weekend, but when I showed up in court, he was the one cop out of about 14 that didn't show up that day. I had a wicked case prepared as well and was a little disappointed that I didn't get to present my photos with overlays of geometric shapes and lines and indicators of why I was correct.

I actually had a picture of my speedo from the passenger seat and an affidavit from my passenger at the time to indicate there was no issue with inaccuracies from his position, misreading a dial as our cars are digital.

 

Outcome?

 

so how did this go..?

 

Hey guys sorry, I just saw the thread with all the replies. I should have started this earlier.

Heres the story:

I go into the court room, jury is on the right side, and myself and a few other people are on the left. (I assume they had a trial)

Anyway, the prosecuter comes in and calls me into her office.

She asks if I still want to do this. I said that I did and that I know I wasn't speeding. She actually seemed to believe me, but said there was nothing she could do about it because my officer showed up.

She then asked me if I got my registration fixed (reffering to the sticker) but I was written for no front plate. The officer wrote down the term that reffered to the sticker instead of the plate so we were both confused.

So I leave her office and go to the stand. The prosecutor comes up and gives her opening statement of "We are the state prosecuting Miles for speeding yada yada yada" She sounded like a tape player. BUT she did tell the judge she was dismissing the front plate violation due to the written technicality.

I get up there and say "First off, I would like to thank you guys for coming and that I'm sorry my case is not more exciting to tell your families about." (that got some laughs so I was like ok good!) I continued, "I am not here today in an attempt to save money. In reality I lost money by taking off work for the pre-trial and this trial. I am here today because I was not speeding and I hope you all can help justice prevail."

We get the list of the jurers to select and eliminate, I just said everyone is good for me.

Next the officer gets called up and the prosecutor asks her all these lame questions, making conversation with her. I guess to develop a positive relationship with the officer and jury. She then gets into her training history of 8 months yada yada...

After that she goes into the story of pulling me over. The officer tells the story and says that she got behind me and paced me based on her spedometer and the gap between my car.

The tables turn to me to ask her questions.

I only had a few.

"So, you said you did not use your radar when pulling me over correct?"

She replies, "That is right."

"On the ticket it says paced WITH RADAR, could you explain this please?"

She then stammers, and gets into technical double-speak saying that the radar is connected to her speedometer ect ect and how it is always on.

I then ask "If your radar was always on then why didn't my radar go off until you were behind me for several seconds?"

She replied something along the lines of some technical jargon.

So I tell my story to the jury which is what I told you in the OP.

The prosecutor tricked me at the end with the closing statement. The judge asked her for hers and she said something and didn't go, then the judge asked me for mine and since she didnt go, I didnt care to go.

But turns out she used some term that meant she passed it off to me. So I didnt get a closing but she did

After the jury went to dilleberate I told her she did a good job (the prosecutor) as it was actually kind of fun.

She told me that I did better than a lot of lawyers she sees in there and she won't be surprised if I win.

The jury comes out and says I'm guilty, but I think in all honesty they were just mad that it was only a speeding ticket they had to come for haha.

So after that I got the court cost from the judge for 151, but my other charge was dismissed for the front plate and I had posted bond so it kind of canceled itself out.

Anyway, the judge that did my case was the part time judge but the full-time judge I think overheard my case so while I was in the court room he approached me and asked me how long I have had my s2000.

The judge and I talked for over an hour in his office about racing and cars. He used to race corvettes in SCCA with Tom Cruise and others.

Even more exciting is he helped start Baer Brakes when it was in Carrolton, TX before it moved to AZ. He is still great friends with the owners and he was showing me all these pics emailed from the owner of Baer Brakes.

Even though I lost, meeting that judge and having that conversation with him was def worth it!

 

OH I forgot an important part!

During my conversation with the judge, the court clerk came up to me and told me I didnt have to go to the front anymore (to pay for the court costs) and that I will have a check mailed to me for the ticket that was dismissed.

So I was not charged any court costs in the end. I got hooked up!

 

Too bad about the loss, but at least you're happy!

Nice job standing up for your principles.