How much is this ticket going to cost me and is it going to seriously effect my insurance rate?

June 8, 2006 2:44 PM

How much is this ticket going to cost me and is it going to seriously effect my insurance rate?

After dropping my girlfriend off at her work yesterday, I was heading to my office when I got pulled over. The officer wrote me a ticket for having not come to a complete stop when making a right turn at a red light. I live in Southern California and am well aware that I was guilty of having rolled the light, but I can't seem to find any point of reference on what such a citation might cost me in fines and whether or not it would effect my insurance. It was marked on the ticket as an 'infraction.' Anyone got any educated guesses?

posted by myodometer to law & government (10 comments total)

My fine and court costs came to just under $400.00 for a similar infraction in San Benrardino County last November. Red light tickets are a major money maker for local jurisdictions in SoCal.
posted by buggzzee23 at 2:51 PM on June 8, 2006

Pay the fine, go to traffic school and your insurance won't take the hit.
posted by buggzzee23 at 2:52 PM on June 8, 2006

California courts self-help page. (Google: california ticket complete stop at red light).
posted by jellicle at 2:54 PM on June 8, 2006

The officer wrote me a ticket for having not come to a complete stop when making a right turn at a red light.

If you came to any stop at all, looked both ways, determined it was safe to turn and didn't cause and accident, then I'd fight it. The ticket is based purely on the officers observation of your vehicle and therefore has a much higher degree of doubt than a speeding ticket might.

However, if you'd prefer to pay, be prepared to get dinged for a few hundred dollars, plus traffic school.
posted by o0o0o at 3:23 PM on June 8, 2006

o0o0o: I had considered that possibility, and I certainly slowed down to a near-stop and looked both ways - but the law clearly requires a full stop and I would prefer to just pay it to get it out of the way.
posted by myodometer at 3:38 PM on June 8, 2006

www.ticketassassin.com
posted by TheDude at 4:28 PM on June 8, 2006

You'll have to pay the face value of the ticket regardless. Do this as soon as possible. (Your other option is to show up dressed in a suit, talk pretty to the judge, and contest the ticket, but in my experience this rarely works. If you work for a living it's not even worth the time off to bother with it. Again, my opinion, your mileage may vary; if the cop doesn't show up you might get off.)

If you pay the ticket, then go directly to traffic school - you can get one moving violation wiped off your insurance record per year. If you don't do this, expect thousands of dollars in increased insurance premiums over the next few years.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:10 PM on June 8, 2006

Same thing happened to me last October in Yolo county (Nor Cal). I had to pay $450. Don't bother fighting it. Judges will always side with the cop when its your word against theirs (seen this plenty of times). ymmv though. You can however:

a) Go to court, plead no contest and explain the circumstances to the judge. He/she might be considerate and lower your fine (I got mine reduced to $200). Its also ok to ask the judge to reduce the fine if you're poor/student etc.

b) Also ask to go to traffic school. It'll add $35 (or so) to the fine but you wont get anything on your record and your insurance company wont hear about it either.

I feel for you. It sucks to get an unjust ticket for such a large amount.
posted by special-k at 5:33 PM on June 8, 2006

If your insurance company doesn't have a reason to run your motor vehicle report (i.e.: you're an established, preferred policyholder), they might not even find out about said ticket. Just don't volunteer the information to them. If they do find out, however, they will probably increase your rate, but the amount is hard to say - most insurance companies rate differently for different violations, and whether this is your second or third (or more) might also make a difference. It could be zero, or a couple hundred per policy period - to a certain extent, it depends on your policy contract and your insurance company.
posted by mewithoutyou at 7:37 PM on June 8, 2006

If this is your first ticket, you might also consider fighting it and trying for an outcome that might not get you out of paying but might not hit you in the insurance. I got a hefty speeding ticket last year, went to court not knowing what to expect, and the policeman was there basically giving everyone who was there on a first violation a chance to get a moving violation changed to a parking violation. So, I pled no contest to some terrible parking violation and managed to not get points placed on my insurance, but I still paid almost $200 for the ticket. There are good books in your local library on how to deal with tickets and it depends on the state what you can do with it.
posted by jessamyn at 10:00 PM on June 8, 2006