Please help me understand this New York State traffic ticket

September 17, 2024 8:45 AM

Oy vey, I got a ticket for speeding in a small town in Western New York. My options are to plead guilty, plead not guilty (can't do that; I'm a tourist who lives across the country so I can't appear in court), or "seek a reduction." I am confused about what the reduction is and how it differs from pleading guilty.

Not that it matters, but I'll say that this was a total speed trap and I fell for it. It was a spot where the speed limit declined twice in close succession; I saw and obeyed the first but didn't see the second. The cop was "nice" in that I was apparently going X miles above the speed limit (I forget) but he lowered my speed so it'd be 15 miles over, rather than higher than that.

So here are the instructions for how to ask for a reduction. It's clear what to do, but it isn't really clear why I'd choose this over pleading guilty? Online searching seems to correlate this with a reduced fine for low-income folks, but the paperwork doesn't ask anything about my finances. (And I would not qualify as low-income, I'm guessing.) The instructions say only "IF you wish to argue for a lower fine, you should include an explanation with your plea on a separate page" but does not say that this is mandatory.

So based on the checkboxes on that form, it looks like my option would be to start with: VTL 1180 – Speed less than 20 mph over limit
Which then might be reduced to: VTL 1214 – Opened door unsafely
And the fine would be: $0 - $150, TBD. Plus a fee of $93.

The only other option, to plead guilty, just involves marking "guilty" on the ticket and physically mailing it back, with no info about the fine I'll be receiving.

So does anybody have insight on the best way to handle this? I'm guessing it's better to have "opened door unsafely" on my driving record than "speeding" but is there more to it than that?

posted by BlahLaLa to Law & Government (10 answers total)

Usually pleading to a reduced charge means fewer points on your driving record, as seen in the table. Because points often lead to increased insurance rates (which usually stay higher until the points "fall off" or expire from your record), the cost can really add up. It seems worth trying to ask for a reduction in this case.
posted by rachaelfaith at 9:02 AM on September 17

Call the court clerk or town clerk for the town you got the ticket in and ask what to do to get the best result. If you plead guilty the state gets the money. If you can get reduced to unsafe door opening or illegal parking the town will get the money. The clerk would rather the town gets the money.

In general in rural New York the default 55 MPH speed limit drops to 45 or 40 when entering a built up area. When it gets to the actual village with houses, stores, traffic lights etc it will drop to 30. You have to drop your speed when you see the first speed zone or you will still be going 15 over when you get to the 30 MPH zone.
posted by leaper at 9:03 AM on September 17

Yeah, leaper, that's exactly what happened. It was my first day of driving in a big road trip. I did not make that mistake again!
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:14 AM on September 17

VTL 1180 – Speed less than 20 mph over limit
Which then might be reduced to: VTL 1214 – Opened door unsafely

That's the difference between a moving violation and not. I'll bet your insurance company cares about that.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:21 AM on September 17

Okay, I'm gonna submit the form. Let's see if it works. Thank you!
posted by BlahLaLa at 9:32 AM on September 17

I was once in a similar situation with a speeding ticket. It was explained to me by an acquaintance who worked in a traffic court that all the jurisdiction cares about is the money. They truly don’t care what the charge is. They just want the fee. So, I pled to a lesser, non-moving offense, paid my fee, and kept points off my license.

It’s a shakedown. Pay the lower fine.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:02 AM on September 17

Several years ago, I was in a similar situation in another location. I did some back-of-the-envelope calculating and figured it was cheaper to pay a lawyer to contest the ticket than to pay *any* fine and accrue the insurance points. This might be worth your time to investigate, as well.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:26 AM on September 17

Same here. I didn't want to go to court, so I got a lawyer who substantially reduced the points portion of it (to zero, I think) in exchange for a failure to obey a traffic sign and a higher fine that I was happy to pay since, as Thorzdad alludes to, speeding tickets are a prime source of revenue for those cash-strapped small towns.
posted by lassie at 11:32 AM on September 17

Yup, in NY State I was given the option to reduce a speeding ticket down to a « parking on pavement » charge. Weird! But it worked to reduce my charge and avoid points on my driving record.
posted by marlys at 5:57 AM on September 18

I've already heard back. My low-level speeding offense was downgraded to having opened my car door in an unsafe manner. $93 for the reduction, $107 for the fine, $15 to process my credit card.

Fingers crossed this won't affect my insurance.
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:24 PM on September 24