Careless Driving ticket

YOU ARE LUCKEY TO HAVE MISSED THAT SMALL DOG! If you catch my drift.

 

In some states, hiring a lawyer from $150 to $300
may reduce the offense to a simple "Improper Equipment".

If yours is a pre-payable citation, the lawyer should
be able to settle the matter without you appearing in court.

If the charge requires you to appear, then it's best to attend
an 8-hour driver improvement clinic in advance and present the certificate
to the prosecutor. THis gives them a reason to decide in your favor.
If you were cooperative with the officer on the road, your chances of
having the matter dismissed improve.

Some prosecutors won't speak to a defendent before court begins
without an attorney present. If you present the certificate before
the judge without an attorney, do not plead guilty or that will force
a conviction on the original charge. When you plead guilty, it doesn't
give them a reason to reduce the charge, just the sentence. And it's
the charge that determines the amount of points. Pleading "no contest"
and presenting the certificate provides a way to presume you might be innocent.

 

I used to get so many tickets the district justices knew me (I mean twice a month knew me) by name. You do not need a lawyer unless you want try and get a refund for the fine. Just go to court say you thought you saw something and they will remove the points, you will still have to pay the fine though. I have even seen times were the justie does not show, if that happens you get your money back too.

 

Ok, just checking.

you're all suggesting perjury is the solution to the problem of a careless driving ticket?

So we're going to replace careless driving with careless lying?

GEEZUS guys.

Hire a lawyer, keep your yap shut, let him work the system.

Where, EXACTLY were you? State Trooper or local officer? Only asking because between all of us we probably know a local, well connected lawyer who can work this down to a no-points conviction/fine.

Now, on the other hand, if you were just meandering along and the cop pulled you over because you have blue hair and a jacked up mustang, well, that's a horse of a different color.

D

 

§ 3714. Careless driving.
(a) General rule.--Any person who drives a vehicle in
careless disregard for the safety of persons or property is
guilty of careless driving, a summary offense.
(b) Unintentional death.--If the person who violates this
section unintentionally causes the death of another person as a
result of the violation, the person shall, upon conviction, be
sentenced to pay a fine of $500.
(c) Serious bodily injury.--If the person who violates this
section unintentionally causes the serious bodily injury of
another person as a result of the violation, the person shall,
upon conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of $250.
(d) Definition.--As used in this section, "serious bodily
injury" means any bodily injury which creates a substantial risk
of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement or
protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily
member or organ.

 

Summary Offenses in Pennsylvania

Summary Offenses in Pennsylvania range from disorderly conduct to speeding tickets. Summary offenses are broken down into two categories, traffic and non traffic offenses. Non traffic summary offenses DO appear in criminal record history checks even though summary offenses are actually not criminal convictions like misdemeanors and felonies. Summary offenses are often reviewed by potential employers and should be taken seriously even though they are not criminal convictions.

Some of the most common summary offenses we see are disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, retail theft, and harassment. Often times when the police don’t really have any real crime to charge , but they want to assert their power against you, they use a summary offense as a guise to make a lawful arrest and say that your conduct was unlawful.

For example, I have had many cases where clients tell me that they observed the police making a bad arrest or physically inflicting harm against someone they were trying to arrest and my client started yelling at the officer about the way they were treating the other human being, or they were capturing the treatment on video from their cell phone. Another officer approaches my client and arrests them for disorderly conduct, and magically, their phone disappears.

Summary offenses are expungeable in Pennsylvania, even if convicted. If five years pass with no other incidents with the law, you may apply for an expungement with the Court of Common Pleas, and there will be a full hearing as to whether the summary conviction with be expunged. Unlike and ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition), there is no automatic right to expungement–you must win the hearing.

 

3 POINTS, BTW.

 

Below is something I plucked from a post i wrote ways back on other forum for guy in VA (where we really have the traffic / speeding nazis.... as in legislative intent is to ruin your life, lose your security clearance etc.) who got reckless violation. Not too familiar with PA in this regard, but I have a little legal background and I'm pretty sure in PA you have the same or similar appeal options & venues. Thrust of my suggestions, going alone for first bite at the apple won't hurt if you can appeal and appellate = higher courts typically hear cases that make minor traffic violations look like peanuts so my experience is favorable outcome is far more likely in higher court..... and if it gets to need an atty. pt. look for atty. CONNECTED (which in my expereince may very well differ from what one would conventionally consider to be a "good atty") in the jurisdiction as far as traffic/criminal matters.

"Luckily I only know the VA horror stories second hand.... but I do know some bad ones. Rarely do I hear that it doesn't turn out badly, usually very badly. I know for sure in MD the appeal any bad outcome in district crt. to circuit crt. thing can definitely work. Has for me multiple times. Reckless or bad speeding in district crt. you're like the worst person ever walked face of the earth, in circuit crt. a lot of defendant's in same session will be brought in - in handcuffs.... like real criminals and you're just a derelict driver.

But I would not underestimate the potential of the right lawyer knowing the right person in DA’s office extracting a favorable outcome… it’s all a big flim-flam money scam. I know in my area of MD (which isn’t bumf-ck Hazard Co. either) there are couple ex-cop defense atty.s who you can basically buy favorable outcomes from.

Preemptively take online driver ed. / improvement courses. That can help. Anything to kiss a-s."

 

My personal experience has been, go and fight the ticket. Almost every county I have been to gives you a "discount" just for showing up and give you a lesser offense. The only caveat being that they may not take to kindly in some counties to the careless driving offense and may not give you the same courtesy afforded to your run of the mill speeders.

Whatever you do, don't go to trial and think you are going to have your Perry Mason moment. Your chances of success, especially without an attorney, are negligible at best, and you are likely to just piss off the court. Better to go in with an eye towards pleading and try your best to convince the P.O. or the prosecutor that leniency is warranted!


Just my .02.

 

BTW,

There's no requirement for the local PD or DJ to report your guilt to the state and get you the points.

That's discretionary too, I guess. (Ask me how I know.)

Oh, and if it's local PD, find the local guy who does traffic up there. Dig around, ASK HERE, someone has to know the RIGHT guy for this.

D

 

Careless driving or Reckless driving ticket? There is a huge difference between the two. In Delaware a careless driving ticket is pretty much a catch all ticket. Eating a pizza while driving, playing with the radio, stepped on the brake just a second too late, etc... I'd be more inclined to worry about a Reckless Driving ticket than a Careless Driving ticket...but then again, not sure if PA carries the same view as DE.

I'm guessing that if you show up in court on your own, plead to a probabation before judgement (PBJ), or similar plea bargain type charge and you will end up with a fine but no points.

 

Careless in PA appears to be one notch below reckless. Looks to me like what they give you instead of a pile of unsafe lane changes and exceeding safe speed, etc.

Probably as a result of not getting enough distance on a speeding ticket, or perhaps he really cut the OP a break.

If he made 3 or four lane changes without a signal while exceeding the speed limit he could have gotten enough points to get his license suspended.

D

 

As i said.... looks like the payoff may be right here.... even if it is the same guy who said your bal-s should be fried, they're typically the guys who can get you off (go figure).... like I pasted from prior post... see who will play ball, this guy saying "ASK HERE" either is or he is full of sh-t... one of the two

 

I was given a careless driving ticket in Margate for going over the line while trying to avoid running over a senior riding his bike who could not control it. I went to court and told the judge what happened and I lost that was the last time I told the truth about a ticket. I guess you can call me a liar but over a three year period 19 tickets NO points and in some cases I even got the fine back.Yes I hired an attorney a couple times and it made no difference the outcome was the same they just lied instead of me! Do what suits you but if lying to get out of a ticket is the worse thing I ever do I can live with that. Now I just drive slower only one ticket in the last year.

 

You can also do nothing. Every 12 months you go WITHOUT getting a ticket the system automatically deducts either 2 or 3 points (can't remember which, pretty sure its 3 though). So, if you have no other offenses and can be 'good' for a year, the ticket will disappear from your record on its own. The fine is less than $200 as I recall, so you may just want to pay it.

Also, reckless is not an automatic 6 month suspension -- at least I don't think it was when i got mine many years ago. It is 5 points though as i recall. Passing a stopped school bus is an automatic suspension and i think is 6 points. Also, an automatic suspension isn't really an automatic suspension -- you have to take a 20-question scantron-type test to demonstrate your knowledge of laws and safe driving situations. If you pass, they remove 3 points immediately, thus taking you out of suspended status (which I think is 6 points). If you fail, you are suspended.

I've been through all this before. More than once actually. Each time I take the test I get a 100, usually just by 'studying' in the room waiting for the test to begin.

 

1.5 points per year if you have no other violations during that period.

 

Yes, some points are deducted each year, my guess is 3. The only problem is that the deduction applies to your driving record for a possible license suspension for too many points. HOWEVER, insurance componies do not subscribe to that kind of forgiveness, the points stay on your record with them for 3 years and then its a year from then for it not to be counted, so essentially 4 years. ASK ME HOW I KNOW. and this is for an offense pleaded down to 2 points (Richboro, Bucks County)
So, go to the hearing and the officer will probably offer you a no point plea before the hearing. So, I probably would not worry about getting an attorney. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees.
GOOD LUCK

 

I had a wreckless ticket in VA, which is very tough and can result in jail time here. Pre-emptive steps I took before court:

Cooperated fully with police
Lawyer
Defensive driving course
Letter from a place I do volunteer work with inner city students

I got improper equipment, no points and a relatively small fine. According to my lawyer ahead of the proceedings, the judge I had was not known to be lenient, but the volunteer work seemed to strike the strongest chord with him and he personally commended me for it. He also asked the police officer if I was cooperative and the fact that I was extremely cooperative, acknowledged by the officer, seemed to also further my case. No perjury required. Some others were not so lucky that day and they (imo) had lesser violations as mine involved an accident (no injuries). The lawyer definitely helped in my case, but it depends on the judge/DA as I've had other minor court appearances where you could work it out with the DA ahead of time, but this is a gamble and not one to take on a more serious offense. Not a pleasant experience, but it ended as well as I could have hoped.

 

The OP is charged with careless driving, which is a fairly minor traffic offense. Depending on the county he may receive a no point plea. However, the fact that he was driving a Ferrari at the time means he will be memorable. Depending on the county and the PO, that made be a bad thing.

FWIW, I once got pulled over for speeding in my Ferrari. My first words to the officer where.... "Trust me, I am not as big an ********* as I appear".

He laughed and sent me on my way...

 

Its actually 3.

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/fact_sheets/pub472.pdf

There are no violations (or credits) based on half-point increments, incidentally.

 

In my experience, most insurance companies have neither the manpower nor the mandate to go checking into every policy holder's history, though i'm sure it does sometimes happen to some random (unlucky) few. They mostly rely on an applicant to divulge such information when first applying for insurance (or if you decide to change insurance companies). If you've been with the same carrier for a while, they pretty much don't know unless you tell them.

As Joe Zaff stated, a ferrari is a memorable car, so its perhaps more likely that a plea won't be offered by the cop, assuming he shows up. Even if he doesn't show up, the court room personnel will probably notice the marque on the ticket and be less sympathetic, thinking you are wealthy. Of course, you could get lucky but, as I stated before, if you are rarely issued tickets, this one offense probably won't matter. If you have been with the same insurance carrier for a while, it also probably won't matter.