Advice needed on fighting a speeding ticket

[Jack Miller]

True ...

Some Judges take Court time-wasters ... VERY seriously ...

I guess that's why the cops drop the charges when you put up a decent fight - they don't want to be seen as wasting the court's time with petty, questionable charges.

[Jack Miller]

The OP hasn't posted since the 6th of March ... I suspect things didn't go well ...

My last ticket was issued on 21 Sept 2010, the charges were finally dropped in June 2011. And that was quick. These things can be spun out for more than a year. Two years is not unheard of.

[scumdog]

I guess that's why the cops drop the charges when you put up a decent fight - they don't want to be seen as wasting the court's time with petty, questionable charges.

Pfft!
Ya ain't met me by the sound of it!.

Drop charges?

Not me baby, I'll let you know the first time someone trys to defend themselve on one of my speeding tickets...

[roadracingoldfart]

Pfft!
Ya ain't met me by the sound of it!.

Drop charges?

Not me baby, I'll let you know the first time someone trys to defend themselve on one of my speeding tickets...

Well one of ya bloody mates almost got me when we came to see ya , I was going to have to ring Clair to get a leg up lol.

[FJRider]

I guess that's why the cops drop the charges when you put up a decent fight - they don't want to be seen as wasting the court's time with petty, questionable charges.

The OP was facing a 35 demerit charge ... which is a little more serious than just "exceeding the posted speed limit" ....

Hardly "questionable charges" type infringement ... We only got ONE side of the story remember ...

[FJRider]

My last ticket was issued on 21 Sept 2010, the charges were finally dropped in June 2011. And that was quick. These things can be spun out for more than a year. Two years is not unheard of.

And my last ticket was a year previous to that (and totally justified) ... but I have been "spoken to" a few times, and told to pull my head in and bugger off ...

I suspect our Scumdog may be this type of officer ... (writers cramp is a bitch eh ... and I've seen his handwriting ... not pretty)

[davereid]

Wrong, the points are added from the date of conviction , not from the date of the ticket. If it an instant fine they are added from the date you pay the fine!
Innocent until proved guilty
The flip side is that you can get a ticket in say 2000 & fight it through until 2005 & when (if) you lose the points are added in 2005, but if it goes to court the judge often forgets to add the points & you just get a fine & court costs.

The points are not recorded against your licence until conviction. But the effective date of the points is the date of the offence.

So, for example on 27 July 2009 you get a ticket worth 99 points, and they are recorded against your licence on that day as you pay it immediately.
On 26 July 2011 you get a ticket worth two points.

You fight it in court, and a month later are convicted.

The points are not recorded against your licence until conviction on 26 August 2011.

~ There is more than two years between conviction dates.

~ There is less than two years between offence dates.

The points based disqualification WILL apply. Delaying the conviction date will not help.

However, you are not actually disqualified until the NZTA serve you. If they cant serve you, you remain licensed.

HOWEVER.. they can serve you on the side of the road, at a checkpoint or routine traffic stop. In that case you get to push your bike home.

[White trash]

My last ticket was issued on 21 Sept 2010, the charges were finally dropped in June 2011. And that was quick. These things can be spun out for more than a year. Two years is not unheard of.

Five years on a bullshit dangerous driving charge they put me through. Eventually, on my 5th or 6th visit to court to defend the charge, and the prosecuting sergeant STILL didn't have all the shit in one sock, the judge suggested that the police get their shit together rather than waste 5 years of mine and the courts time and dismissed the case.

Five fucking years though.

[p.dath]

The points are not recorded against your licence until conviction. But the effective date of the points is the date of the offence....
HOWEVER.. they can serve you on the side of the road, at a checkpoint or routine traffic stop. In that case you get to push your bike home.

So if it took them two years to serve you, the points would clear immediately?

[davereid]

So if it took them two years to serve you, the points would clear immediately?

Yes.

If they don't serve you within two years, you are off the hook.

Thats two years from the time the points are entered against you, not two years from the offence.

And they use credit reporting agencies which means debt collectors, private investigators, document server specialists, as well as police to serve you.

So if your details on the driver licence or motor-vehicle register are correct you will get served.

And if you have electricity, gas, insurance, rates, credit card, loyalty card, q-card, farmers card, GE card, Harvey Norman account, bank account, etcetc with the correct address on, amendment 5 to the credit reporting code means that credit reporting agencies have your address cross referenced to your driver licence number.

So chances are you will be served within the two years and get to enjoy your disqualification.

[scumdog]

Generally I've found it best to avoid the whole getting a ticket and demerits thing, vastly over-rated.

And defending same uses up valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere.

(Like on KB f'rinstance)

[thepom]

I plead not guilty just so the copper turns up in court...........if he,s there with me he,s not handing out tickets for more revenue gathering...........

[scumdog]

I plead not guilty just so the copper turns up in court...........if he,s there with me he,s not handing out tickets for more revenue gathering...........

More likely it'll be his day off so he'll be grumpy and ticket everybody on his wa to and from Court.
Then work double hard to dish out tickets when he's back on duty.

[rastuscat]

I plead not guilty just so the copper turns up in court...........if he,s there with me he,s not handing out tickets for more revenue gathering...........

Oh yeah, he writes less tickets, so he gets paid less.

Bollocks. The cops don't get the fine revenue. Their funding is from the Land Transport Fund, not the Consolidated Fund, where the fines go to.

So there.

[FJRider]

I plead not guilty just so the copper turns up in court...........if he,s there with me he,s not handing out tickets for more revenue gathering...........

Don't forget ... he knows where you live ...

And ... he/she may be in court with you ... but the same number of officers will still be out there ... somewhere ... waiting for your mates ...