jt14894

Yes! That's right NO CONTEST.
At the traffic court that I went to, Hillsborough County Tampa (FL), you have the choice of pleading NOT GUILTY, NO CONTEST, or GUILTY. I'm sure that there are states/counties that have similar court rules and those that don't, but that's how it was in this court.
And by Florida law, insurance companies cannot raise rates if a driver has attended drivers school and received Adjudication Witheld on their license.

At this court, the majority of those had speeding tickets, traffic signal violations, or tickets for causing an accident while a minority were there for DUI, suspended license, and other violations.
Most of the people pleaded NO CONTEST or GUILTY, got no points, didn't have to attend drivers school, and paid their $10 court fee.
However, there were some who had two or more traffic violations, and pleaded NO CONTEST or GUILTY, but were ordered by the judge to attend traffic school.

My case was not a 'normal' court case, as you said. However, I never got the chance to plead. The judge read my citation and asked me to present proof of my license reinstatement. He looked at it, dismissed my ticket, and I didn't pay anything.

If I get another traffic ticket, from now on, I'm just going to go to court, plead NO CONTEST, and pay my $10 court fee.
I know it will be a minor inconvenience of having to make the time to be there, but paying $10 is a lot less than paying, for example a $100+ ticket and an extra $40, $70, $100, 250, or whatever to attend driver school or using some kind of traffic ticket agency or traffic lawyer.
If I'm in another state, well, thats another story.

Like I said before, if you know someone in your local area who has been to traffic court ask them what they did and what the court proceeding are. Or, contact your local traffic court for information.
If its worth it, do it, otherwise do the traffic school, traffic ticket agency, or lawyer.

Shea

Those Florida rules are insane.

There's no way in hell that would fly here in Michigan.

Unless your ticket gets tossed out, you are getting points plus a fine, and that's it.

Are you sure that you understood him correctly, that NO CONTEST means you don't get points?

NO CONTEST means, AFAIK, that you don't plead guilty but you do accept the punishment. Basically, it's a loophole so that you can say you have not been convicted of a crime even though you were punished for it.

jt14894

That's correct!
No contest is saying that you're not contesting the charge, but you don't admit guilt or innocence. Its strange, but thats the way it was when I went there.

If you want to know what traffic court is like in your area, you can go there and see exactly what goes on.

I

jt14894

That's correct!
No contest is saying that you're not contesting the charge, but you don't admit guilt or innocence. Its strange, but thats the way it was when I went there.

If you want to know what traffic court is like in your area, you can go there and see exactly what goes on and the rules of the court according to the judge.

If could go back and do it all over again, for the prior tickets I've had, I would've gone to court instead of doing the driving school and all.

GhostTX

Texas has a No Contest plea as well...and that's the route I went with my ticket...and deferred judication.

Texas doesn't have a point system either, to my knowledge.

uberPony

Okay I am a former police officer here in Illinois. I have written lots of tickets in Cook County.
Just take the class. That is all you need to do. Forget court. You wont get a "not guilty" in a trial in Cook County. All the judges give supervision.
If you go to court the best you will do is to get supervison without traffic school. Most likely you will just be assigned to take the driving school class and then get supervision. You can get that same deal by just mailing the citation in and signing up for the class.
Attorney will charge you good money to just get you the same deal so dont waste your money.

dustindu4

Sorry you live in Mayor Daley's liberal stronghold

if you're one of em, nobody's perfect

07VistaBlueStang

I've heard of trying this but have never had the opportunity to. (Thank God) Write out a check for the ticket, but overpay by like 62 cents. For example if the ticket is for $87.39, write a check for $88.01. This will force them to mail you a refund check for 62 cents because the ticket was overpaid. As long as you don't cash the check, points aren't deducted from the liscence. Insurance isn't notified, stuff like that. Again I haven't had the opportunity to try this but know several people who have successfully done this here in Wisconsin. Maybe we just have a screwed up legel system. Just a thought...

Embalmer

What's really weird is my cousin who lives in Chicago got a speeding ticket years ago and elected to take the driving school. I also had a 54 in a 40 ticket and elected to take the school option. She could only get in to the school where I live in Dixon because of her schedule. We met each other in school on a Saturday afternoon not knowing about each other's tickets! Needless to say we spent most of the class talking. A funny footnote - one of our local cardiologists was forced to take the class because he had quite a long history of speeding.