I know the obvious of being polite and respectful. do I show up early like an airport? Do I just show the guard my ticket? Anything I should know or be aware of?

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I wouldn’t listen to this advice, personally. Driving with an expired license is more black and white than speeding. With speeding could have been other cars around that the radar was picking up, the radar might not have been calibrated recently, the cop might decide it’s not worth showing up.

    I’ve pleaded not guilty to several speeding tickets and got some dismissed and some reduced (I lived in a rural area as a college student and they made a lot of money that way)

    One time my sister got a ticket and asked me the process to expect when you plead not guilty so I told her - but I didn’t know she got the ticket in a school zone. When she got there the cop got up on the stand and ran through his certification to operate the radar and when it was last inspected and they asked her how she could explain that she could possibly be not guilty and she got whatever the big fee was. (Which I assume she would have had to pay anyways but without the embarrassment)

    It’s not in dispute that your license is expired, and I would think hard to dispute that you got pulled over while driving. Given those two facts I don’t see an advantage to pleading not guilty, you might just annoy the judge, which decreases likelihood of lenience.

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      you might just annoy the judge,

      I covered that with the part about a bad judge. Additionally, nothing stops them from changing their plea to guilty after the fact. Their court date is tomorrow. This will give them time. After that, even if OP was guilty and caught dead to rights, they could get the case dismissed if there wasn’t a valid reason to pull them over. Sure that might be unlikely, but possible. Lastly, the cop might not even show up.