Check this out
http://www.ticketassassin.com
There is something that can really help under "fighting with your traffic ticket by mail". As far as I understand it is a pretty good strategy. Keep in mind that certain things cost the court money. The more money it costs them the more likely they to give up on your case. At least you should end up being eligible for traffic school (sorry I missed it, did it happen in CA??)

I am pretty sure that at least 50% of police officers are not very nice people at all.
Yesterday I saw a police car running a red light at I think about double the 25 speed limit with no siren and red/blue lights off.

I've got 3 speeding tickets (2 transfered over from NJ!!!) and recently I've received a notice from DMV saying something about if I get one more my license will be suspended and exactly the following:
"this may cause devastating impact on your everyday life".
What the hell, are they threatening me? If I said that I can cause "devastating impact" on anybody's everyday life I would have probably ended up in jail and that would have been a deserved thing because it sounds like terrorism.

Do not feel guilty (I am sure you slowed down to safe enough speed). People run stop signs in this way every day and nobody gets ticketed. All police wants is money. They have a quote for the number of tickets they must collect. Another interesting fact is that a percent of money from tickets collected by automatic cameras at red lights goes to a commercial enterprise that manufactured the cameras. The shorter the yellow the more money they get.
Police officers lied about my speeding violations and I admitted it because I felt guilty.

Fight and do not feel guilty! At the very least you should be able to go to the traffic school to keep your insurance at the same rate.

 

Well, check this out. At my school, students protested and cried their eyes out for more parking spaces. Then the following fall, parking services tears up a few of the ones left for more buildings and puts in place those really wide speedbumps like a few feet from each other all throughout campus. You should come over here at drive around, get a taste of college student rape, American style

 

I've gotten a ticket in my driveway before too, but not in my S2. It was for doing a California roll. I wondered what would happen if I hurried up, closed the garage, and refuse to open the door.

 

Sorry ... I don't have a personal experience of driving in the States nor the UK. Didn't realize how bad the laws are configured to benefit the Big Brother. All I can say is, hope you get out of this one with no problems. I guess when you're feeling that it's not wrong ... Paying for it and suffering the penalties is really not on.

 

Actually, that is not correct in New York State, at least if the pursuit is into another state. I once got a ticket for speeding on I-684 (speed trap set up using Exit 2, the Westchester Airport). Just beyond there is a piece of Connecticut which extends into NY for a short stretch of I-684. While the [alleged] speeding took place in NY, the stop and ticket issuance was in Connecticut.

One of my colleagues in litigation (I practice corporate law) suggested looking up the "hot pursuit" law and I found two NY State Attorney General opinions to the effect that hot pursuit could take place into another state for a crime only; since a traffic violation is not a crime, hot pursuit into another state for a traffic violation was not permissable.

I pled not guilty by mail and enclosed the two AG opinions. Case stayed on the calendar (presumably over factual issue of where stop actually took place, assuming that the cop would say the stop was still in NY -- I had full preparation to rebut this).

I showed up and sat around for three hours before another cop came and (without discussing the merits of my legal position) said the complaining officer couldn't make it and he would give me an equipment violation/no questions or I could come back again if I wanted to try the case. Having spent 4 hours (including drive back and forth to Manhattan), $75 for the equipment violation was worth less than my time, so I went ahead and accepted it.

On trial, with the state having the burden of proof, I am reasonably sure I would have won if the judge accepted my testimony (and supporting evidence -- distance to the border from Exit 2, acceleration and deceleration times, angle of view to the IBM world HQ from the stopping point, etc.) -- one of the few benefits of being a lawyer and having the standing of an officer of the court!

 

ianb,

>>>As a UK driver who lived in New Jersey for a year, the stop signs drove me crazy. They were completely over the top and unnessary.<<<

Not for nothing, but I've lived in NJ all of my life (27 years) and can tell you that in the NJ/NY metro area stop signs are COMPLETELY NECESSARY and NEEDED. . .

As it is, most people don't make "true" stops to begin with (a lot of drivers use the rolling stop/go technique). . . Not safe.

Bottomline, without stop signs & traffic signals, I would hate to be a NJ/NY driver. . .