Speeding Ticket in Wisconsin - Traffic Safety Course to avoid points?

[blacknwhiterose]

So, I went to court, spoke with the prosecutor, and got a reduction in my penalty: $50 reduction in the fine and 2 points (down from 4) on my record for 1 year. Good deal. Thanks all for the inputs.

[cainebourne]

Originally Posted by mizzou65201

There is a ton of terrible and misleading advice in this thread, as there usually is in speeding/traffic law.

Traffic Safety School
In Wisconsin, completion of Traffic Safety School gives you the option to have 3 demerit points removed from DOT's running total of points on your driving record. This is an important distinction from how traffic school works in other states. In some other states, traffic school lets you keep a traffic conviction off your record, or removes the conviction entirely after a certain amount of time. That's not how it works here. In your example, the 4 point speeding ticket would remain visible on your driving record for 5 years, like other non-OWI traffic convictions. There would then be a separate entry showing that you took Traffic Safety School.

Generally speaking, you should not take Traffic Safety School for a point reduction unless absolutely necessary to save your license. This is because you an only receive a point reduction via Traffic Safety School once every three years. If you use it when you have a clean record, you won't have it available if you get into point trouble in the next three years.

You can take Traffic Safety School and not request a point reduction. The only possible benefit to that is if your insurance company provides some sort of discount or credit for taking a defensive driving class. I'm not aware of any prosecutor who will give a better offer just because someone went to traffic school before coming to court.

Traffic Safety School is only offered through the Wisconsin technical college system. There is no online course.

I am aware of some communities that will require you to complete their specific online driving course (for a fee) as a condition of a point reduction. Those are definitely not the norm.

So You've Gotten A Ticket
I do agree that you should always "go to court," however, this means different things in different places. What you (almost always*) want is to have a short meeting with the prosecutor or their office called a "pretrial conference." In some places, you get that meeting on the date on your ticket, which is called your "initial appearance date." In other places, if you show up to court on the date on your ticket and want a pretrial, you'll leave with an appointment to come back on a different day. There are 69 circuit courts and more than 200 municipal courts in Wisconsin, and they all have their own way of doing business. Don't hesitate to call the court clerk's office handling your ticket to find out how their specific procedure works.

A notable exception is tickets returnable to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, most of which are issued by the Milwaukee County Sheriff on the freeway system. Here, you just want to show up to court on the date on your ticket. You will be presented with a "menu" of sorts--find your violation, and you can pick either Option 1 for less points and the same fine or Option 2 for even fewer points and an increased fine. Wait for your name to be called, tell the commissioner your menu choice, and you're on your way.

If you have a good driving record and were decent with the cop, most prosecutors will offer some sort of reduction to a speeding ticket. The exact type of amendment will vary greatly depending on your speed and the jurisdiction. What I mean by that is, a ticket for 18 mph over might get you a 0 point parking ticket amendment from one county's DA's office, but only a reduction to a 3 point speeding ticket for 10 mph over from the DA's office in the next county over. A ticket prosecuted by a city/village/town attorney inside one of those counties you may get a 2 point Defective Speedometer or Obstructing Traffic. Every community and county is different.

Although amendments vary from county to county, within a particular prosecutor's office amendments are typically quite standard. In other words, you typically don't need to plan an elaborate sob story or "build a case" about why your ticket should be reduced. Again, unremarkable driving record + decent with the cop = you should get that office's standard amendment.

Can I get my speeding ticket entirely dismissed or thrown out?
In theory, sure. It is exceptionally rare. Long-standing case law gives radar readings a presumption of accuracy. Prosecutors do not throw out cases just because someone requests records. I would say officers show up to court north of 98% of the time. As you might expect, officers get in a pretty significant amount of trouble with their employer when they don't appear in court as ordered.

Who is the prosecutor for my ticket?
Generally speaking, citations issued by a county sheriff's office, the State Patrol, UW system campus police or the DNR are prosecuted by the county district attorney's office in the county where the ticket was issued. In a couple counties, the Corporation Counsel (the civil attorney for the county) does traffic prosecution instead of the DA's office.

Non-criminal traffic citations (like speeding) issued by a city, village, or town police department are prosecuted by the city/village/town prosecuting attorney. In larger communities like Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, Racine, etc., this is an Assistant City Attorney who is a full-time City employee. In most suburban and rural communities, the municipal prosecutor works for a private law firm and and serves as the prosecutor by contract.

I have no other tickets on my current record for 3 years. I have one a bit before that and a rather clean record for a very long time.

I was driving to work for the first one and was detoured by construction so on a road I’ve never taken. The officer pulled me over and seemed very apologetic and said they had complaints off people slowing down traffic by going straight in the left turn only lane so they were specifically camped out trying to catch people that say. I never saw any sign.

For the second ticket I was driving home. On a road I always take following the flow of normal traffic. At no point did I feel like I was speeding and I was not in a hurry. Suddenly lights and another ticket. I asked the officer for a break as I just received a ticket. Again the officer seemed apologetic and said this is a very common speed trap as the speed drops from 40 to 25 very suddenly and it’s an honest mistake. He remarked I’d get it reduced based on my great driving record then awarded me the maximum fine.