Speeding Ticket (1-14 miles in city street) Knoxville (insurance, schools)

[Shershaah]

Hi All,

Today I have got my FIRST ticket and this was for speeding (1-14 miles) in city street.
Cop gave me the citation and the fine is $116.50. I have been asked to appear before the judge in Knoxville Municipal court on 06/30/2016 or I could pay my fine online.

I checked online this will also add 3 points to my driving records :-( which is upto today was very clean.


I have the following questions:

1) what are my options? should I pay online or appear in court ?

2) what could I do so that they don't add the 3 points to my driving history ? I couldn't find any credible information on If I have the option to do safe driving course in lieu of 3 points.

I am very tense and any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
shershaah

[kamoshika]

Knox County has a Driver Improvement Program (DIP) in which "Qualifying traffic offenders may avoid appearing in court and still have their moving violation(s) dismissed and kept off of their driving record by complying with DIP."

I don't know if the City of Knoxville has a similar set-up but many court systems do. Try calling the Court Administrator, Valerie Coleman, at 865-215-7474 and see if she or somewhere else there might know if you qualify for such a program.

City Court - City of Knoxville

TDOS-Approved Defensive Driving Schools by City

[scinmyheart]

Shershaah, I just went through this malarkey last month. I got my first Knoxville speeding ticket in January...copper said he clocked me going 43/30 but listed it as 35/30. He said that I had a mandatory court date on March 18 at City Court. I had no idea why going 5 mph over would require a mandatory court appearance, so I didn't know what to expect.




There were a lot of people there for driving 5 over, so it seems to be a good revenue generator for the city. We all lined up, three at a time, to the side of the judge's bench when our name was called. When it was my turn to face the judge, he asked me if I had anything to say...I told him that I had a clean driving record for the past 12 years (true) and would do what ever was necessary to keep it that way. He looked at his computer (I'm assuming at my record) and said I was on "double secret driving probation" for one month...if I did not get another driving offense in a month then that ticket would be voided like nothing ever happened.


if this is your first driving offense, maybe he'll do the same for you...at the least, you should be able to take the online driving course to keep it off your license so your insurance won't go up...but be prepared to pay either way...you know they will get their money


I did get to donate $101.50 on the way out, though, to the policemen's fund


are you sure it's Municipal Court and not city court?...I thought Municipal Court was for the more serious violations

[Shershaah]

@ Kamoshika, scinmyheart many thanks for your reply.

my ticket says the following:
"you have been cited to the Knoxville Municipal Court by a KPD officer. You may appear on your scheduled court date or you may pay fines and fees due by your court date"

I called the number Court Administrator, Valerie Coleman, at 865-215-7474, however she was away from the desk. I will try to call her again today.

As I understand Knoxville Municipal and general session court are 2 separate courts and "DIP or traffic safety programs"
are available to people going to session court and i ts listed on the session court website, however Municipal court has no mention of such programs.

Anyone with the experience of going to Knoxville Municipal court ?


I really appreciated your response.

Thanks,
Rohit