How to Plea Bargain in Traffic Court

The simplest way to describe a plea in a speeding ticket case is to use a speeding ticket. For example, if you received a ticket for driving 20 miles per hour over the limit and appearing in court, chances are the prosecutor will offer you a plea agreement in which he or she downgrades the ticket from a 4-point speeding ticket to a 2-point ticket. To do this, you change your speed from 20 MPH above the limit to 5 MPH above the limit. In exchange for this, you agree to plead guilty to the amended (downgraded) charges. In short, an admission of guilt is your worst option. The main reason why plea agreements are made is to serve the interests of justice while saving the court time and money. Litigation is costly and time-consuming, and there are not many municipalities with sufficient resources to deal with all traffic violations in court. You should not expect your case to be rejected by negotiations. The purpose of a deal is a compromise, which means you won`t get the ideal result.

The judge could supervise a conciliation conference in his or her chambers, or it could take place in a more informal setting or even by telephone. The settlement may be set on a court date or in conversation outside the courtroom on the trial date. In criminal proceedings, there are also potential plea agreements. I recently had a client who faced a second offence for distributing marijuana in Bergen County. We appeared in court and I negotiated a plea deal for him at the pre-indictment conference, which allowed him to get probation instead of the mandatory jail sentence he certainly faced for a 2nd drug distribution offense. If he had been charged, that plea would have disappeared and there would certainly have been an offer from the prosecutor for a state prison. You have the right to appeal a conviction for a traffic offence. Instructions for the call.

While most defendants don`t want to plead guilty rather than beat them outright, pleading can often be the best option. On the one hand, not all cases are a guaranteed victory when they go to court. Sometimes getting probation instead of a long jail time is simply the best way to go, even if it means you have a permanent criminal record. It works well for you and for the state. You get a break by pleading guilty at lower fees with lower points, fines, and DMV surcharges. The state is able to resolve your case without the need for a trial where the officer would have to appear in court and testify against you to prove the case. If every traffic case went to court, the judge, the prosecutor and the police would plead day and night and they would not be able to do their job properly. On the other hand, if it is a little more complicated or if the prosecutor wants to investigate the case, look at the case and find out more about the individual accused in front of him; Then it can be at any later stage – even up to the day of the court hearing.

Plea negotiations are often concluded to avoid a lawsuit, so this can happen at any time during the process. For example, a speeding lawyer may be able to convince the prosecutor to reduce the charges against you. This could mean reducing a ticket to an immobile violation. Since insurance companies typically only care about transfer violations, this deal could save thousands of dollars over the next three or four years. If the court finds you not guilty, the case will be dismissed. The plea of non-contestation falls in the grey area between the not guilty and the not guilty. Unfortunately, this always has the most negative consequences such as an admission of guilt. Check your ticket(s) to determine if you have been ticketed for a “misdemeanor” or “traffic violation”.

You can find this information by looking at about 1/3 on the ticket on the left side of the ticket. An example of a compromise on a speeding ticket could be to reduce the quote to a regular speeding instead of a speeding one if there is evidence that your speeding has reached the speeding level. Another agreement on a single charge could be to reduce the amount of the fine if the law gives the judge discretion over the amount. If the violation technically allowed the prosecutor to request a driver`s license suspension, he could agree to refrain from doing so if the driver is willing to pay the fine. That`s great and all, but there are two big problems with plea bargaining: Admitting guilt might be your best option if all of the following applies to you: To have the best chance of winning your case, you need to know what your options are. It means understanding the difference between guilty, not guilty and no plea of challenge. You also need to understand how each of these advocacy options may affect your fines, fees, and other costs. Now you know a little more about how bargains work with speeding tickets. If you`re facing a speeding ticket and are worried about how the violation will affect your life, it`s a good idea to talk to a speeding lawyer before making a decision.