re: OT: I could sure use some help. Re: my son's speeding ticket in Jefferson County

What kind of car?

quote:

---

Sound advice all the way through this thread

---

I've got friends at Lexis Nexis. An MVR costs about $30 per driver per each time it is run. Insurance companies can't afford that, so Lexis Nexis sells them an $8 abbreviated report after some other company pays for the full MVR cost.

It is a lot like having 1 mortgage company run your credit and then equifax sells an abbreviated report (called a mortgage lead) to 20 other companies with a generic profile and then you get spammed.

quote:

---

Getting the speed reduced is the only goal there

---

Amen. I had some backasswoods prick give me a ticket years back for 72 in a 55 in the middle of nowhere on HWY 19. I tried and tried to get him to put me down for <70 on the ticket but he wouldn't budge.

Drove back down a few weeks later to go to the clerk's office to pay the ticket. Asked the dude if there was any way to drop the speed if I offer to pay the full fine (worried more about insurance hit than anything else) and, after asking me if I'd had any tickets in the last 3 years (I said no but I did) he accepted my deal. They don't give a shite about safety, they just want your money.

quote:

---

I could sure use some help.

---

From the old guy in the room.

Have you tried to reach the prosecutor and do you know who your judge is yet?

If you have an older judge and a reasonable prosecutor I would offer this deal as jacked insurance just adds to your cost and him having no car just means he has to be driven everywhere which really punishes you, not him.

#1 Enroll him in a drivers ed program and have them allow you to attend as well. The embarrassment alone of your parents being there will cut deeper than most any other punishment you can come up with.

#2 Ask the judge to suspend the charges but indicate you will pay court costs but you would like a judgment that for the next year your son will allow a monitor on the car that you can monitor for his driving habits. You basically become his probation officer and can pull his car if he screws up again.

#3 As the judge as punishment that he order your son for at least a year drive you and your wife where you need to go. If the judge has kids or grandkids he may appreciate making a sentencing ruling that might actually do your kid some good while not messing up his insurance record.

PS, 30 over the limit is not only stupid but dangerous. If he gets in a wreck and is 18 seems certain any damages will incur to you as you have the deeper pockets, especially if he is a rider on your policy.

quote:

---

And off topic but since Fromm started and I won our bet will I be getting the keys to the duck blind anytime soon?

---

What was the exact wording of the bet? Would you like to enter a transcript to the court as an exhibit?

Seems heavily redacted.

I anticipated such a response.

Can I have some blueberry syrup with those waffles?

quote:

---

Did a local or GSP write the ticket? I’m asking for a reason.

---

I'm really curious to know what you know.

In 2014, on the way back to work from a funeral and with a colleague in my car, I got hit by a GSP for doing a whopping 36mph over the limit. This was in Hall county. It was, interestingly enough, not a super speeder because I was doing 71 in a (very poorly marked) 35. Super speeder is anything over 75 on a two-lane road or over 85 on a four-lane road. I wouldn't have qualified in either case, but for the record, it was a four-lane, limited access highway, similar to 316. My car's GPS showed the speed limit as 65mph. My stand-alone GPS also showed it as 65mph. Every sign on the road up to the point I was clocked showed the limit as 65mph. Except one. One single, solitary sign read 35mph and about 300 yards from it sat the GSP off the shoulder. No school zone. No construction zone. To hidden drive. Nothing. Just a random 35mph sign. When the officer pulled me over, I honestly had no idea why (thinking I was going about 6 miles an hour over the limit). When he told me, I felt like I was about to vomit.

Needless to say, I went to court (it was mandatory for that speed). I actually went back and retraced my route a few days later, with a camera, just to show what all the signs leading up to that one said and to show what two different GPS systems were saying. In court, I never really needed to show the video. The solicitor wasn't willing to negotiate the speed or the fine. When I went up to answer the charges, even the judge himself admitted that there appeared to be some inconsistencies with the signage and stated it wasn't the first time it had been in question. Still, I paid the fine (about $240) and went on my way.

At any rate, I say all this to say that I shopped insurance not long after that and my rate on the new company I went with was $70 a month cheaper than my other carrier ($117 a month for two vehicles, both full coverage). Major carrier, too. And they saw that ticket and the accompanying points. You just never know what will happen. I was 34, though, so that's a little different. Still, the OP has been given a lot of good advice here. Best thing to do is start by speaking with the prosecutor, if you can, and go from there. The kid needs to learn a lesson, though, that's for sure. I think you already know that and you'll have to figure out what works for you. You've been given a lot of good ideas for that as well.

Good luck!

quote:

---

If I tell them that and that you personally know the Clintons that should be enough to scare them away.

---

Just tell them you are fishing.

"Whatcha fishin' for?"

"I dunno, ain't nothing alive in this river..."