Dallas PUA

Hey guys I just wanted your opinion on this issue.

December 18th 2008 Thursday:

I finished studying at the public library here in F.M. area then got into my car. I decided to check out some new roads and ways to get around the town. The weather wasn't great. It was heavily foggy because of mists and all. After driving on new road for about a minute, I get pulled over.

Officer: you were doing 28 mph in school zone area.
Me: what????!!!

Mother fuckers... they didn't even have flash lights on school zone signs.
I guess I was kinda lucky going slow even though, I didn't know I was in school zone. It's because I was tryin to see clear in fog, and signs were basically not noticeable because of the weather and no flash lights.

I would have known about school zone if I have been to that road before in my life.


I had to go to clerk for the citation I got today. I tried to explain what happened to her, but she says I would have to talk at the court and gave me court date and all.
My friend calls me and we happened to talk about the speeding ticket I got. He tells me I would be better off by taking defensive driving rather than going to court. He tells me courts won't give a shit even if there was no flash light, not easily recognizable signs due to shitty weather, whether I have been on that road before or not. (He also told me that it's impossible to win against the court and I could face bigger consequences if I lost at the court.)

I'm trying to decided if I should go ahead and appear at the hearings or I should just cancel it and take defensive driving.
BTW, my record is clean. This is first time I've gotten traffic citation since I started driving at the age of 15. I have 8 years of clean record.

So what yall think? Should I just go take the defensive driving or go to hearing and try to dismiss the ticket?
Anybody has some experience like this?

why should they dismiss it? on what grounds?

So if you are on a road at night that you don't know and you run a stop sign, would things change?

yea it sucks, just do DD, i suspect you would be a complete waste of time trying to fight it, i don't understand what your argument would be.

I've taken the Addison Improv comedy defensive driving. It's tolerable to the extent any of that kind of thing is going to be. :)

send the ticket to a lawyer (only costs about $30 around here). odds are it will be dismissed and if not, they'd reduce the fine and it won't go on your record. and...I'm pretty sure school zones have to have flashing lights.

My friend was going 100+ miles on 65 mph limit road. He didn't even have an excuse but went to court anyway. That cop didn't show up and case was dismissed. The result was that he was supposed to pay $600 dollars but only ended up paying $150.

What usually ends up happening is that those lazy ass cops won't show up to the courts.

Deferred Adjudication. It's what lawyers do. You can request it also. You will still have to pay the filing/court costs, but it wont show on your record. The only catch is you must not get another ticket within the allotted time-90+days(?).
It's been awhile since I've used it, but I bet you cant juggle them in different counties any more like I did.

Aren't school zones not in effect @ night?

knowledge of the law is presumed for all people n the jurisdiction of the law.
"Ignorantia juris non excusat or Ignorantia legis neminem excusat" (ignorance of the law does not excuse your actions)

while ignorance may make a factor in your sentencing...it makes no difference on the adjudication. you broke the law.

I say defensive driving.
and plead Nolo contendere

-Rockstar
oh and the fine print: in no way does this constitute legal advice.

Let's say that cop shows up at the court. I wonder what would happen if he loses at court. If the judge decides that the citation was fair, does that mean he cannot take defensive driving after losing at court? For example, will it stay on his record instead of being able to take defensive driving just because he went to court and lost.

I never thought about it this way. It's interesting to see how it would be. I know for sure that he won't get bigger punishment for losing the court.

What I am interested in is if you/he go to a court for cases like this with something to lose.

That could suck if you can't take defensive driving just because you lost at the court, and they put that on your record.

if you actually do go to court and lose, I think it does go on record and all that jazz. me, personally, I've never taken it to court. only one of my tickets the cop showed up. and I just did a deferred adjudication instead of going for the hearing. like, I went to the court date, the officer was there, so I had the option of doing the hearing or deferred adjudication. again, though. I'm in Fort Worth. so I don't know how it is there...

You can't take defensive driving if you were speeding in a school zone.