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I live in central New Jersey and drive 8 miles back and forth to work each day. About two weeks ago I received a solicitation in the mail from a lawyer stating that I had received a moving violation in New Brunswick and that they could help fight it. I have never been pulled over by the police or issued a ticket so I ignored it. One week later I received an official letter from the Municipal Court of New Brunswick stating that my court date had been rescheduled to 9/1/15! I still hadn't received a ticket and there was no information in this new letter about the reason for the court date. My wife started calling the city the next day but was unable to find out what this was about. Today I received the actual ticket in the mail (postmarked 7/21/15, the day my wife made all the calls) and it is for tailgating - I looked it up and it is a 5 point violation! My usual route to work is through the Douglass campus of Rutgers University and it is fairly congested during my morning commute. The location on the ticket was at an intersection where I make a left turn each day and the time was exactly 7:30am. With the typical congestion at that time of the morning the turn is usually very slow, results in immediately having to go up a semi-steep hill right out of the intersection, and usually happens when the light turns yellow. The next stretch of road is also slow going until I turn right one block later. The date on the ticket was 7/1/15 and it says a court appearance was required (it was originally scheduled for 7/14/15 but I didn't even have the ticket at that point). I don't recall the incident but I assume I followed someone through the left turn and up the short hill (I have a manual transmission) and I may have been fairly close as the light had likely changed. We couldn't have been traveling more than 3 or 4 miles per hour in the congestion. Any thoughts on what happened and any advice as to how to proceed? 5 points is the same issued for "reckless driving" or going more than 30 miles over the speed limit. I am a very safe and courteous driver, over 50 years of age with a spotless driving record.
99% of most tickets are unfair and should never have been written. My first ? is who signed the ticket, was it a public servant or a private person.
There are various avenues responding to this such as most towns offer you the "Jim McGreevey special" where you pay a sizable amount of fees to the govt and they change it to a zero point violation, or simply if the person who signed the complaint never shows up for court it would be tossed.
The ticket is signed but is fairly illegible. It might say Patr Sanchez, which I assume is Patrolman Sanchez. However, I read on a different forum that the person signing the ticket is not necessarily the person filing the complaint - if it was a citizen they would have had to go to the station and file the complaint and the ticket would be issued by an officer. I am probably going to plead not guilty and go to trial unless they reduce the infraction to something with no points. I can afford to pay a fine but I don't want points on my record. Any thoughts?
The ticket is signed but is fairly illegible. It might say Patr Sanchez, which I assume is Patrolman Sanchez. However, I read on a different forum that the person signing the ticket is not necessarily the person filing the complaint - if it was a citizen they would have had to go to the station and file the complaint and the ticket would be issued by an officer. I am probably going to plead not guilty and go to trial unless they reduce the infraction to something with no points. I can afford to pay a fine but I don't want points on my record. Any thoughts?
Absolutely plead not guilty. It will likely be dismissed. If the patrolman was too lazy to stop you in person, then he is a long shot to appear at a trial. At which point you can motion for dismissal on the grounds of failure to prosecute. You will likely be able to make a deal with the prosecutor prior to the trial for a no point violation.
Just keep in mind the hidden secret of points. DMV points are NOT EQUIVALENT to INSURANCE POINTS. So, say they let you plead to "failure to wear a seat belt", which does not carry DMV points. Sounds good, except that failure to wear a seat belt is a very serious insurance violation and your carrier will assign you insurance points that could lead to you getting dropped. A fate far worse than what the state has to offer.
Definitely plead not guilty and try to make a deal for an equipment violation such as a broken taillight. Offer to pay a healthy fine to avoid any points, DMV or insurance.
Yes along those lines the most popular deal NJ courts have pushed for maybe the last 10 years is this so called "Unsafe Driving" which is zero driving points unless you get too many of these. Its like if you get a third one within 10 years or so you get 4 points instead of zero.
I have heard it both ways that insurance does see these if they check. I had a few and an insurance quoter asked me about them and sort of brushed them aside.
There are better deals but they are given out very sparingly. One is called Obstructing Traffic which is also MUCH cheaper like $75 to $90 range and that one Ive never ever seen appear later on. Most of the time if you ask for that most towns wont agree to that unless they have another reason, whatever it is. For instance you are the last case and they want to go home for the night, or you know someone, etc.
That Unsafe Driving is a catchall but it is expensive, about $485 so thats why the courts push these on most everyone.
And then what? Go into court and sound like a complete idiot when you step up to testify? I'm "not guilty" but have absolutely no idea what happened that day. Enter the plea with the court and then do your homework.
If you have to, go to the court in that jurisdiction and get copies of the documents involved. If it was signed by a civilian, which sounds likely in this case, then there will be a statement as to the probable cause for the court to have the summons issued. As it stands now, you are not even sure where the offense took place so defending yourself is going to be difficult to impossible.
If it was signed by a officer, there would be a badge number listed. you are correct that even a civilian summons is usually signed by a officer but not always. We did not and the complainant signed after the Court Clerk accepted their statement..
The advice to accept a no point violation is idiotic. You may escape points as far as the state is concerned but you will still be accessed points under the insurance company guidelines.
A few years ago I filed a complaint against a driver. The driver was tailgating me. The driver was obviously in a hurry. When we got to a traffic light, the driver cut thru a gas station. That's how I saw the plate number.
When I went to court, the registered owner of the vehicle claimed that she wasn't driving the vehicle. A relative was. She showed up in court with two other females. Her lawyer asked me if I could identify the driver. Since I couldn't, the case was dismissed.
If I were you, I would show up with one or two other people and ask the person who signed the ticket if they could identify the driver.
Absolutely plead not guilty. It will likely be dismissed. If the patrolman was too lazy to stop you in person, then he is a long shot to appear at a trial. At which point you can motion for dismissal on the grounds of failure to prosecute. You will likely be able to make a deal with the prosecutor prior to the trial for a no point violation.
Just keep in mind the hidden secret of points. DMV points are NOT EQUIVALENT to INSURANCE POINTS. So, say they let you plead to "failure to wear a seat belt", which does not carry DMV points. Sounds good, except that failure to wear a seat belt is a very serious insurance violation and your carrier will assign you insurance points that could lead to you getting dropped. A fate far worse than what the state has to offer.
Definitely plead not guilty and try to make a deal for an equipment violation such as a broken taillight. Offer to pay a healthy fine to avoid any points, DMV or insurance.
And then what? Go into court and sound like a complete idiot when you step up to testify? I'm "not guilty" but have absolutely no idea what happened that day. Enter the plea with the court and then do your homework.
If you have to, go to the court in that jurisdiction and get copies of the documents involved. If it was signed by a civilian, which sounds likely in this case, then there will be a statement as to the probable cause for the court to have the summons issued. As it stands now, you are not even sure where the offense took place so defending yourself is going to be difficult to impossible.
If it was signed by a officer, there would be a badge number listed. you are correct that even a civilian summons is usually signed by a officer but not always. We did not and the complainant signed after the Court Clerk accepted their statement..
The advice to accept a no point violation is idiotic. You may escape points as far as the state is concerned but you will still be accessed points under the insurance company guidelines.
I'll add this. Most people believe that the court is obligated to make a plea deal which I'm sure that you know it is not. I can remember quite a number of times that the judge got on the bench, called the court to order and went on record saying that no plea deals would be entertained. Granted that the judge obviously had a bug up his arse those days, but it did make a bunch of defendants very unhappy.
I hope you're a lot better at selling houses than you are at giving legal advice.
Do you have a correction counselor? Or are you just annoyed that your Depends keep shifting?
Last edited by Marc Paolella; 07-24-2015 at 01:00 PM..
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