On average, a 40-year-old driver with good credit and minimum coverage will pay $148 more per year with one speeding ticket on their record. Young people already pay the highest insurance rates, so a ticket or two can really jack up the monthly amount taken out of your bank account. If you were speeding due to an emergency, consider pleading "Guilty with explanation," which may prevent your insurance premiums from going up. You mayget a judge to dismiss a speeding ticketor significantly reduce the charge if you are prepared for court and can justify the unfair ticket. Looking for a lawyer to handle your traffic speeding ticket? This will involve going to court. Refer to your printed ticket for information about the presiding court handling your case. You have the right to remain silent. Traffic Tickets - Getting an Attorney's Help To do this, you must send a written request to the court noted on your ticket to request a hearing, and then showing up on the assigned court date. You can view a breakdown of Pennsylvania's traffic fines, updated in 2014, on the Traffic Injury Prevention Project website. Check the violation and fines, and make certain that your name, address, vehicle information and license number are all correct. The penalties you'll face after a guilty verdict will depend on the severity of the traffic charges brought against you. When Will a Speeding Ticket Show Up on Insurance? Make sure you choose a firm who has experience fighting traffic tickets in Pennsylvania. When evaluating offers, please review the financial institutions Terms and Conditions. Even if you were clocked at 26 miles per hour, the ticket is under $50. Outcomes may include: You pay all or some of the ticket, but it doesnt affect your driving record. How long the suspension lasts depends on whether your license has been suspended before: At Berman Law, our traffic defense lawyers are able to help you review your driving history and consider the possibility that the moving violation or traffic offense will result in a license suspension. Stick to questions with short answers and avoid asking why questions. Considering the costs, hiring a lawyer is likely worth the money if your ticket is particularly expensive or could result in the loss of your license. The vast majority of speeding tickets are resolved via plea agreement. Compare over 50 top car insurance quotes and save. Your job is to present your case in order to prove you are innocent. Prepare to achieve this goal. Once again, it's not an admission of guilt and refusing to sign it will not make you look favorable in the officer's eyes. Traffic Violations Providing evidence, testimony and if appropriate, witnesses The opportunity to be represented by an attorney Testimony by the officer who issued the ticket Cross-examination of the officer by your attorney Losing the opportunity to plead outright to lower charges You should probably avoid testifying against yourself while fighting a speeding ticket as it is unnecessary and could make you look bad. You may think that your only option once you have received a speeding ticket is to pay the fine, watch your insurance rates rise, and accept the addition of points from PennDOT. How to beat a speeding ticket. Hawaii Exceeding a speed limit by 16 to 25 miles per hour. For more tips from our Legal co-author, like how to prepare for your speeding ticket trial, read on! We can negotiate on your behalf, reducing or even eliminating the fines and points you will be assessed. Here are five key ways: 1. Remember, you're not making any arguments during cross-examination. Otherwise, to fight your ticket you'll need to plead "Not guilty" and challenge the officer's measurement of your speed or their identification of your vehicle. NerdWallet strives to keep its information accurate and up to date. Join 1,972,984 Americans who searched for Car Insurance Rates: In Pennsylvania, you must submit your plea of not guilty to the traffic court handling your case, within 10 days of receiving the traffic citation, if you wish to fight your ticket. In other words, you do not have to testify against yourself. Assigning Editor | Auto insurance, home insurance, other insurance. The judge is the person overseeing the case, who has final authority on the rulings. Reviewing Your Ticket 1 Check your ticket for accuracy. A few tears while explaining the circumstances and showing extreme remorse may be all that is needed. This will not work on every police officer, so the driver will need to read them to see what might be effective. A speeding ticket in PA will cost $42.50 for going 5 miles per hour or less over the limit in a 65 mph zone, and $35 for going 5 miles per hour or less over the limit in any other . You could go to the County Clerk's office and request a trial date. Passing this class removes 2 points from your record. You can appear before a judge and enter a Not Guilty plea as well as a request for a court date. When the officer asks for your license and registration, politely explain where these documents are and ask permission to reach for them. Gather information to help successfully dispute the speeding ticket. How Much Will a Speeding Ticket Raise My Insurance Premium? Look up the method the officer used to clock your speed, note its weaknesses and prepare to present them. If the officer cant remember you, he or she might fail to recall details in front of a judge. The True Cost of a Speeding Ticket The actual cost of the ticket should not be your primary concern. The penalties that you face may include the cancellation of your driver's license. Other factors that can affect the total cost of your PA speeding ticket include: Besides fines being doubled in active construction and maintenance areas when workers are present, there are other consequences if drivers speed in work zones. If the officer clocks you at greater than 11 miles over the speed limit the ticket grows to $500. Find an attorney who has a lot of experience, especially if you have any special circumstances regarding the situation. This will, however, result in the same consequences as pleading guilty. Most speeding. That's it! No matter what happens, you must be polite and submissive. Here are the 16 top reasons cited for getting out of a speeding ticket, and their rates of success as determined by CarInsurance.com: I'm bringing home hot food and didn't want it to get cold (11% . Go to the Traffic Division's website at courts.phila.gov/traffic. Before you try to fight a speeding ticket, check with your insurance to see how much your premiums will increase if you fight the ticket and lose since they might go up more than if you were to just plead guilty. Traffic tickets usually contain instructions on how to contest or enter a 'not-guilty' plea. e.preventDefault(); Our attorneys can be reached at (614) 361-2804. traffic school or defensive driving course. In addition to the speeding fine, drivers also must pay a surcharge based on the mph over the Maximum Speed Limits outlined in the table below. If you end up going to trial before a judge, you can expect the process to follow this general outline: If you'd like to pursue your case after a guilty verdict and sentencing, you can file an appeal with the PA Court of Common Pleas with the county court where you received your citation. That way you can decide whether to contest the ticket or pay the fine. If convicted, your charges could result in, You (or your attorney) and the PA state prosecutor submit. If you ask for a hearing, plan to make your case and be questioned before a judge. If youre convicted, a violation will: Affect your driving record, possibly resulting in suspension of your license. "Pacing" is a method often used by officers to determine whether a driver is speeding. Get your attitude right. You can question the issuing officer, including about his or her memory and training with speed-clocking equipment. Always check with your insurance before fighting a ticket. Delay the hearing. Read more. If you have any passenger's, take note of their names and make sure they stay silent during the exchange. Youll pay the speeding ticket and any court fees. Subscribe to our News and Updates to stay in the loop and on the road! If there are any discrepancies in the nature of the violation, you can dispute the ticket within 30 days. Before hiring a lawyer, ask if it will cost you more money to hire a lawyer than if you were to just pay the ticket. For example, speeding up to 10 miles over the speed limit is a 2-point violation. Call (614) 361-2804. Over the phone by calling (800) 492-2656. If convicted of failing to drive at a safe speed while driving 11+ mph above the posted speed limit or involved in a crash in an active work zone, you will automatically lose your license for 15 days. How to pay a speeding ticket in Maryland. Sometimes, just showing up means you win. Doing this, the officer can immediately see that you're not an immediate threat, and his stress level is reduced. The prosecution will strive to prove you're guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If he asks how fast you were going, you do not have to answer the question. The far greater consideration is that your insurance costs will rise. Immediately put on your hazard lights to show you are respectful of the safety of other drivers on the road. Typically in mitigation, you admit to the offense and present information that would lead a judge to grant you leniency. The officer who issued the ticket is also asked to appear in court. By mail Fill out the Hearing Request Form attached to your Notice of Violation and mail to: Red Light Camera Program P.O. Get you tickets dismissed easy. Make witness arrangements. Shop our 2023 Best-Of Awards list. That's it! Her work has been featured by USA Today, U.S. News and World Report and The Associated Press. The prosecutor/ADA is the individual or team working on behalf of the state to prove your guilt. If you decide to fight the ticket in court. Pleading "Guilty with explanation" means you admit to speeding but want to the court to take certain circumstances into consideration, which may result in your insurance premiums staying the same. In order to fight the traffic ticket, the driver must appear before a judge. If you dont attend the hearing, your license will automatically be suspended until you do. Her work has been featured by USA Today, U.S. News and World Report and The Associated Press. We know how to fight a speeding ticket with efficacy and diligence. Speeding ticket fines are the same throughout Pennsylvania, and are set based on fast you were going, and what the posted speed limit was: If you were in a work zone at the time you were clocked speeding, your fines will be doubled. If the officer does not show, which happens sometimes, you will be found not guilty. Answering that you were speeding can be taken as an admission of guilt and sabotage your chances of successfully fighting the ticket. Traffic school is one of the best options for most people who get a speeding ticket, so you should at least check to see if it's an option where you live. 2. Theres nothing fun about the feeling you get when those blue lights flash behind you on the highway. If foot traffic within the school zone is non-existent and there are no physical prompts signaling me to stop, is it really justifiable for an office to charge me with such an outrageous penalty? But you do have an option you can fight your speeding ticket. However, that isnt the only cost youll be assessed. If the officer that issued the ticket doesn't show up, it's almost automatically a win for you. At the hearing, the examiner will decide whether to implement a 30 day suspension based on the facts in your case. Whatever you do, dont ignore the ticket. Here is a list of our partners. Motorists must enter a 'not-guilty' plea within ten days of being issued to fight a Pennsylvania traffic ticket. Upload a photo of your speeding ticket. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Fight-a-Speeding-Ticket-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Fight-a-Speeding-Ticket-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/1\/1d\/Fight-a-Speeding-Ticket-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid3335265-v4-728px-Fight-a-Speeding-Ticket-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"