My friend just got a speeding ticket for going 20 over on the freeway. She's never gotten one before so she's freaking out and I honestly don't know how she needs to handle it. If she pays for defensive driving, what other fees does she have to deal with? Does still have to appear in court and pay the ticket? Does the insurance skyrocket? Her ticket says it's $108 plus $4 for every mile over. She was on 35 in Waco. What does defensive driving do for the record/fees?
If you take defensive driving, it doesn't go on your record and insurance never knows about it. You will have to pay defensive driving and court processing fees. It'll be a couple hundred dollars probably. As far as showing up to court, follow the instructions on the ticket.
Not entirely true -- if you take defensive driving it *does* go on your record. On your public record at least, since it means you plead nolo contendre to the charges against you. I've had two tickets in my lifetime. I took DD for the first one, and I was surprised when I got my second ticket and the cop pulled up my record on his computer and saw it. On the plus side, you get an insurance credit if you take DD, but honestly DD sucked so much that I'd rather not do it even despite the insurance credit. On the other hand, if you hire a lawyer, usually at the very least you should be able to get a deferred adjudication, especially if you've never had a ticket before. You'll still have to pay a fine and court costs, but you end up with your charges dismissed and it never appears on your record. Plus lawyers are pretty cheap (usually charge anywhere from $45 to $75), and if you're a student, you might even get a substantial part of the fine knocked off. Or you could strike gold and your cop doesn't show up on your court day...
It all depends on your insurance company. I've gotten too many tickets to count over the years. State Farm simply has never checked. Ever. That said, have her take defensive driving. The cost is cheaper than paying the ticket. You get a small discount on your insurance. I've done the online one a few times. It's $40. The actual classes are cheaper, I believe.
I got this from dmv.org: Completion of an approved Texas Defensive Driving course is a great way to prevent violations from hitting your driving record. DMV.ORG recommends the following schools as the best Texas Defensive Driving courses to take online. Not only can the course dismiss a traffic ticket, attending a Texas defensive driving course can enhance your driving knowledge and skill and increases your awareness and the safety of you, your family, and other drivers.
Couldn't you get arrested for going over 20? What I did in my first ticket was get a lawyer and thank God I did because I was speeding on a school zone with the lights flashing and got a bunch of other violations in which I do not care to share. Also the cop showed up. So to be on the safe side, you might as well get a lawyer. Lawyers shouldn't be more than $75 per offense. They'll end up making you take Defensive Driving. Defensive Driving should cost no more than $20. Your friend can go to defensivedriving.com and get someone else to do it for her because it's a long 5 hour thing that she has to do. Or you can go to one of those classes like at Laffstop for instance. Both are boring that's why I went with a friend (which was still boring). Good luck to her!
Most likely not. I've known people get simply ticketed for going 120 mph on the highway. Usually the cop will make sure you aren't some sort of criminal, drunk or high and lets you go. I even know this one kid who was caught doing 90mph or so on Westheimer about 7 years ago. But the cop just gave him an ticket and thats it. He's now in medical school, although racing at that speed is dumbest thing anyone can possibly do.
a) 25 or more over is what you get arrested for (in theory, though there can still be exceptions) b) defensive driving should knock it off your record c) you can get deferred adjudication at most Texas traffic courts just by going in (or calling in) and asking. They'll tell you how to proceed for their specific court since it defers. But you only need deferred adjudication if you've already done defensive driving once in the past year...cause it does the same thing at a higher cost and with some type of moving-violation-probation usually. So, defensive driving. Just don't miss any court deadlines and your friend should be fine..
online defensinve driving...$25.00 I had no court fees...I just showed up and told them I would be taking defensive driving and turned in the certificate when I received it in the mail...small town...maybe a little different than Htown. http://www.asenseofhumordriving.com/
So, if she takes defensive driving it gets knocked off her record. Does her monthly insurance go up? Also, if she does DD does she still have to go to court? Pay court fines? Someone just told me that their court fines were around 100 while the DD was around 20. So $120 in all. Wondering if that's usually how it is. Y'all are a lot of help. Thank you.
Insurance should not go up whatsoever. Atleast mine didn't. It actually went down a bit since they show DD as a safety point. I paid $40 for DD online and around $160 in court fees...this includes paying for the driving record from Austin to provide to court. This was all for Pasadena court two years back. No clue what it would cost there now. No court, just take the DD and state provided driving record and pay at the window
Her monthly shouldn't go up because it's not on your record.. that's the whole point of the DD As far as the court fines.. I don't think you should be paying them. At least I didn't the other times I got a ticket and it gets dismissed. The one time I got to pay was when I had so many offenses and even then after I got my case dismissed (through a lawyer) they refunded the court fees to me. She doesn't necessarily have to go to court. She can mail in the form they send you before her court date and fill out the form asking permission from the judge to take a DD class. In most cases the judge will approve and the court send her another mail with the deadline for the DD. Then she has to go to court to turn her proof of DD in person. So all in all I think she has to go at least once.
Oh yeah.. I forgot about that other fees for the driving record and such. Is it $40 for the DD? I thought it was $20.. sorry I could be wrong. But one thing I remember was I didn't have to pay court fees. Maybe yours was a different case and story.
I am sure there is a difference between the records that law enforcement and insurance companies are able to see. Just because you took DD doesn't mean that you never got the ticket for whatever happened ... cops know but the insurance company does not.
DD fees can vary. You can find coupons and such but the regular price is about $40. I only had 1 ticket and I remember that the total price (court fee, fee for getting your driving record and the class) came out to about how much it would cost to pay the ticket..a little over 100 bux
defensive driving is 25 bucks online or not. i don't know where this $40 number is coming from. doing it online is the way to go since you can atleast browse the web while waiting for the timed sections to finish. it's ridiculously easy too. she's gonna have to pay that and the court fee which is usually $80 + but probably slightly over $100. not sure what that court charges but it should be on the ticket or on the internet. in addition she has to order her driving record from austin(they'll give her the paperwork) which costs $10. so yeah you're looking at 120-140 total but the ticket won't go on her record and it's far cheaper then deferred adjudication. defensive driving is always the way to go if it's your first offense or you haven't used it for a ticket within the past year. if she gets another ticket in a couple months, that's when you start getting creative to get out of it. i've had many many tickets none of which are on my record.
