its not a speeding ticket guys. thats why there is no fine listed. i got pulled over for doing 28 over one time. it was my first ticket. the cop knocked it down to under 25 or whatever because otherwise, it would of been wreckless driving and i would of had to go to court to find out what i my fine/sentence was.

we hired an attorney for 1 moving violation i had when i was in college. a cop showed up to my door and handed me a ticket saying that there was a complaint that i was wrecklessly driving down some street. they had 2 witnesses (its probably true, i was an idiot) but my dad was livid that that they could just hand out a ticket because 2 citizens in a neighborhood got pissed and both called it in (they were neighbors..right next to each other). the lawyer called the DA, the da said he'd knock it down to a disturbing the peace instead of a wreckless driving charge so it wasn't on my driving record. i went to court, it took 5 minutes.

charged me 200 bucks for the 2 phone calls.

Have talked to several people in our area over the last few days. Seems pretty clear that the likelihood of getting no points on the license and no big insurance hike without the help of an attorney was pretty slim since it was over 25 mph.

Found a lawyer that has worked with this county on a lot of these type of cases. $175 fee. Seemed pretty confident that they could get it reduced to a small fine and either community service or a driving class.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

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At $175 you are definitely making the right move hiring a lawyer. speeding in excess of 25 mph is not a charge you want to go in unrepresented and throw yourself at the mercy of the court.

Your lawyer will easily be able to get the DA to lower the charges in a plea agreement, something you wouldn't have gotten if you were unrepresented.

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That is good RFDC. I still can't believe I didn't think speeding 25 over was a big deal as it seems to be. Hope I don't find out.

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Elections have consequences.

Attorneys by trade, suggesting you ABSOLUTELY need an attorney. I did not see that coming.

I did not just talk to attorneys. I talked to people who have went thru similar situations.

I am not sure what is so hard to understand here. $175 is a small price to pay to keep from paying out the butt down the road.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Yeah. You made the right decision. You don't mess around with a charge with those types of penalties.

Getting it knocked down also gives you the chance of doing a traffic school to hide this from your insurance company though that depends on your area. If that happens you probably saved that $175 in the first year.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You did what you thought was best and it didn't cost you an arm and a leg.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Hey, Bob, are you sure $175 was enough? Seems like that lawyer shortchanged himself. At least RFDC should have paid for his lunch and gas.

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Freedom is our Strength.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Plus, RFDC can just write it off.

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It's Missouri. He probably paid for his _______

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Question everything. Plus I read that UHaul deal went south with the driver dead.

Actually, I think he got married. That might be worse.

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Freedom is our Strength.

He's seriously didn't need a lawyer though. With all the shit going on, I don't think anybody cares about a white girl going 26 over.

Why do you assume his daughter is white?

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Elections have consequences.

You may be right but rolling the dice is far more risky than spending $175.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

She wasn't arrested on the spot.

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Elections have consequences.

I think the proper punch line is, "She's alive".

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Freedom is our Strength.

I'm not so sure. 20-26 over is some weird dividing line in most places that takes it from "Let's get some revenue by pulling you over" to "EVERYONE COULD HAVE DIED THAT WAS ON THE ROAD THAT DAY AND WE NEED TO MAKE SURE NO ONE EVER DOES THIS AGAIN".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Is that true? It seems to me that if you're not going twenty over, at least in the far left lanes, you're going to have someone right on top of you.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Sadly, this.

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It depends on the state, but normally the regular fines end somewhere between 20 and 26. It becomes a criminal offense.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Seriously, it never would have occurred to me to get a lawyer for a speeding ticket unless it was the one that was going to get my license suspended. But I guess depending on how much over you were going the fines get up there. And Illinois doesn't use a points system, I don't think.

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Freedom is our Strength.

pay $175 for a lawyer and a sure thing in court or gamble on white person immunity.


At over 25mph, even $500 is a worthy expenditure for a lawyer. Light speeding, rolling a stop sign, no insurance card...these are things you should just rep yourself for.

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No insurance card? You literally just have to show up to your hearing with proof of coverage during that time frame and all charges are dropped.

-edit never mind, read your post wrong.

Agreed, but my only speeding ticket was in Wisconsin, and I was only going about 12 over.

25 plus gets into reckless driving, and I'd probably do some research to see what may happen and make a decision from there.

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Well, it's not a normal ticket. You are charged with a misdemeanor.

I've had two speeding tickets and one for a minor fender bender I was at fault on and all of them basically had an option that said "If you just mail us a check and don't cause us to use any resources besides cashing it then it all goes away or it's going to be a lot more expensive for you" so I did that.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!