I know the obvious of being polite and respectful. do I show up early like an airport? Do I just show the guard my ticket? Anything I should know or be aware of?
I know the obvious of being polite and respectful. do I show up early like an airport? Do I just show the guard my ticket? Anything I should know or be aware of?
How does that work In this situation tho? My license is expired and I was driving. How could I say not guilty? Wouldn’t that just piss the judge off?
Don’t bother pleading not guilty unless you have an attorney. It grants you (your attorney) time to negotiate with prosecutors to plead guilty to a lesser charge or similar. But an expired license is about the lowest charge you can get.
Traffic court is very routine. People get up, hear the charge, mostly plead guilty/no contest, hear their sentence (usually a fine, probably under $200 depending), and get pointed to where they can pay. You negotiate payment terms at the later office.
It will help to show how you’re going to address the original issue. Even just having an appointment at the DMV, which you can probably book online.
I wouldn’t listen to this advice, personally. Driving with an expired license is more black and white than speeding. With speeding could have been other cars around that the radar was picking up, the radar might not have been calibrated recently, the cop might decide it’s not worth showing up.
I’ve pleaded not guilty to several speeding tickets and got some dismissed and some reduced (I lived in a rural area as a college student and they made a lot of money that way)
One time my sister got a ticket and asked me the process to expect when you plead not guilty so I told her - but I didn’t know she got the ticket in a school zone. When she got there the cop got up on the stand and ran through his certification to operate the radar and when it was last inspected and they asked her how she could explain that she could possibly be not guilty and she got whatever the big fee was. (Which I assume she would have had to pay anyways but without the embarrassment)
It’s not in dispute that your license is expired, and I would think hard to dispute that you got pulled over while driving. Given those two facts I don’t see an advantage to pleading not guilty, you might just annoy the judge, which decreases likelihood of lenience.
Right now you’re innocent, assuming you’re in the US or other former English colony. The judge is presuming you’re Innocent. It’s the cops contention that you were driving with an expired license and they may(do) have evidence to that claim, but until you admit to that in court, youre innocent. It’s not illegal to assert your right to be presumed innocent, and it’s not illegal to argue a poor case at a later date.