Need some advice:

I received a speeding ticket doing 98 in a 70 in SC.

I have a NYS drivers license - the NYSDMV reports that it does not record out-of-state violations

If I plead guilty and pay the $445 fine, can my insurance company (Geico) somehow find out about it and increase my rates?

Should I hire a lawyer who's fee is $350 and says he can get it reduced to an 84 in a 70 and only pay a $180 fine (total of $530+ in fees depending on how far he can get it reduced)?

ask d10

[x] wreckless driving itt

i am a ny resident. when i was in the navy, i had a texas license, with my ny address on it, and virgina plates on it. i got hit for a 84 in a 55 w/wreckless.

long story short, get a lawyer in sc, and get that crap plead down to something alot smaller, and then plead no contest.

The best play is don't drive 30 MPH over the speed limit outside your home state, you're going to get nailed every time

Thanks Captain Hindsight

ignore it and dont go back to SC obv

Doesn't work like that in the US.

op has right idea though

Pay the fine. Your insurance company won't find out. They never do. I have several thousand dollars worth of NJ tickets over the 11 years I've been driving, since I'm a complete animal/imbecile behind the wheel, my insurance has never become a problem over any of them even once.

NYS doesn't record the points. You'll be alright.

Only conceivable problem here is if Reckless Driving is considered a criminal offense in SC

Oh, and I never get tired of the Selena Gomez avatar

You always dispute your tickets and have them lowered just for showing up.

this is more common sense than hindsight

Everything 2outs said is correct.

If you have the time, you can come to the court yourself and get it lowered, you only need to show up really. The only reason to get a lawyer is to make him come to the court instead of you and save you time. 350 seems too expensive, you can probably lowball it. offer him $150, see if he takes it.

Don't worry about points and insurance.

LOL. This is wrong. I lived in NJ until I was 32. In NJ once you have 9 points or more, you are considered a high risk driver. Once you are a high risk driver, the insurance company finds out and they either raise your rates or cut you altogether. In my case, they cut me and I ended up paying $3,100 a year on new car insurance.

If your rates never increased or the insurance company didn't find out, it's because you never became a high risk driver. If the OP already has points on his record, his insurance company could very well find out what he did in SC.

What the OP needs to do is find out how to get the lowest amount of points on his license. Speeding that high and a reckless driving charge can be 5+ points. He should get the lawyer, pay the extra bit of money and see if the lawyer can get the judge to drop the points.

This isn't always the case. You have no guarantee this will happen, and in many instances the tickets aren't for a ton of money to begin with, so the reduction amounts to peanuts. In this case, since we're talking $445, it might matter though.

As far as me personally, I work full time at a good, legitimate job, and do not have the time to show up and fight tickets when I'm clearly guilty just so I can feel like I stuck it to the man. On top of that, it wouldn't ever be worth it monetarily. Ergo, the above wouldn't work/doesn't apply. Maybe OP has more time to battle tickets, I don't know.

Heh, the one speeding ticket I got was in Tennessee, I think the ticket was for $165, and the judge lowered it to just pay court costs and we'll dismiss the charge. Of course, the costs were $160.

I like you as a poster and your stuff is almost always pretty good, which is why I can't make sense of this. It's a very well written post, but go through the thread again and see why it is completely irrelevant. The OP is not from NJ, he's from NY, he says this in his post. I'm not from NJ, I'm from NY, many people on this site know this about me. No one's talking about people with NJ driver's licenses. I have a NY driver's license and to be honest, I actually downgraded my comments in my first post about my $$$$ spent on NJ traffic offenses (didn't feel like answering questions during a thread derailment about my maniacal driving), it's probably closer to/above $10k worth of offenses (no DWI's or criminal stuff though), and I've never had my NY insurance catch anything even once.

In a general sense points are literally the most overhyped thing in the history of the world. People get tickets and talk about points like they're a death sentence. They aren't. Most of the time they're completely irrelevant. OP will be alright with a SC speeding ticket if he has a NY license. The only potential worry is if Reckless Driving is considered a criminal offense in SC.

in ny(maybe other states too, but i have no idea), points in other states do not count on your license in ny. they only stay in that state.

Oh my mistake. I thought you were living in NJ. Had no idea you were from NY. I couldn't figure out why you were saying you owed thousands in NJ and they didn't find out. Should have read what you said better. I apolagize.

A South Carolina speeding ticket is considered a criminal offense

according to this site: http://www.speedingticketcentral.com...ng-ticket.html

What's the potential worry?

But regardless, disputing the ticket adds to the log of tickets disputed allowing for more time before it is applied to your record.

Over in BC, the backlog of tickets made the news and miraculously, some people were getting off the hook just for disputing the ticket.

It took 10 months for my ticket to go to court. I knew I couldn't win. But in that 10 months, I was able to land a job that required a clean abstract.

Given that, I will always encourage others to dispute their tickets even if there is no hope of winning. If I weren't working full time, I'd even go to the lengths of educating the public on how disputes work into great detail (which would likely screw the government out of some money) because everyone and their dog would be disputing their tickets.

On your court date, multiple cases are brought up and it's unreasonable for each cop to spend 30-40 minutes per trial so they reduce your fine if you plead guilty.

If everyone knew that, everyone would dispute their tickets.

Really, it's that simple.

There's even a way to avoid paying your fine altogether.

Put your car in someone else's name and get an out of area license.

You force the justice system to go to great lengths to convict you for a minimal fine, which you can avoid paying anyhow.

I read that. It's absolute nonsense wasn't what I meant. I meant a criminal offense as in it results in a misdemeanor or felony being attached to your criminal record as you might end up with if you got a Reckless Driving or DWI etc (Reckless Driving in NY is a misdemeanor). You're not going to have a record from a speeding ticket. I'm actually still murky on the OP since it comments on getting one ticket but states that there was a ticket for speeding, and reckless driving. Which were you charged with?

Seriously, your best move here is to simply pay the ticket and move on. You won't win in court, it won't cost any more after you pay it, and a lawyer will seemingly cost you more. Paying $445 sucks, but, do so and move on, you don't have a choice.

The ticket I got was for violation of code 56-5-1520 which is a speeding ticket, however the officer told me that going over 25mph is considered reckless driving and gets the $445 fine. I guess he meant points wise and fine wise it is considered reckless driving and I would get 6 points on my license (if it was SC drivers license). I'm actually kinda confused too, I don't know why the cop mentioned reckless driving to me.

I called a SC lawyer and he told me to just pay the fine if I think the car insurance company won't catch wind of it, think that's what I'm going to do

You're fine then. Pay the fine, move on, it sucks, but that's the law.

What part of 95 did you get stopped on?