wanchu83

This is about my friend and I am trying to help him out.
I live in Westcoast so I don't know anything about Eastcoast.

He lives in MA and he went to Rhode Island and he got ticket. HE was going 90. The police has the record of him going 90mph. Fine was about ~250.
Now he lives in MA, but since he got ticket in Rhode Island.

He wants to lower the fine, what options does he have?
Does he has to go to court in Rhode Island?(He is willing to go there if he can lower the fine or erase).
Is there some other options? In WA, there is some program I forgot what it was called (maybe deferral program) or something that he could get excused if he stay clean for a year. But you can use once.

So Is there program like that? I heard there is traffic school but I don't know if that is available in Rhode Island. (He wants to do it if it's available.)
Can you help my friend on what steps to take to dispute or lower the fine?

Kraut783

Is this an electronic citation or was he stopped by an actual officer?

There should be information on the citation on when he needs to contact the court by, he needs to call the number given and inquire of his options...he can do a "deferred" which usually means he pays a lower fine and he is on a type of probation...if he doesn't get another citation is XX amount of time..etc.

Even though he lives out of state...he needs to compy...an arrest warrant can be gotten for not appearing or contacting the court. Depending on the jurisdiction, of course, some municiple jurisdictions don't do warrants and have the matter sent to a collection agency where it hits your credit.

Also google the agency for info...state or local...and get information that way if he does not want to call.

Good luck.

wanchu83

police officer actually wrote the citation.
I guess best action would be to show up on court date and try to defferred and lower the fine ?
any more ideas?

Thank you Kraut783

Kraut783

Have your friend read the citation carefully, in Texas most citations have a date you have to contact the court by, not an actual court date. When you contact the court you are given some options, including setting a court date if you wish to fight the citation.

If it is an actual court date, have your friend call the court prior to the date and inquire on the options.

And....I would google for the city or court of the jurisdiction that gave the citation. Most have a website that list out what to do and have a list of options and such.

Take care.

jokerswld34

I live in MA and i would tell your friend to appeal the ticket. He has 20 days from the ticket issue to send the ticket back marked for an appeal hearing. Once he gets his appeal date, which may take a few months, he can plead his case to the magistrate. If he has a clean record or minimal violations, the magistrate will probably reduce the ticket to the state minimum which I believe in RI is $100. If the magistrate is nice, he or she may just get rid of the ticket and your friend will be just fine. If he has any evidence to back up his story, and the trooper fails to attend the hearing (which is 90% of the time), he has a much greater chance of significantly lowering the fine. From my own experience, a 90mph ticket will probably get reduced but not thrown out. The trick with the magistrate is to profess guilt and be apologetic for breaking the law. They will probably ask him how fast he was going, so a safe bet for reduction would be that he was going 75-80 mph. Do not try to convince the judge that he was going the speed limit; big no no

I always appeal tickets regardless of whether i was flagrantly at fault because the court systems get so backed up with appeals, they sometimes lose the ticket. When this happens, the ticket is automatically thrown out at your appeal date; its a great freebie. I haven't gotten many tickets in RI, but I have a few family friends who are troopers there and they all tell me to appeal and hope for the best. he needs to act on the ticket though because MA and RI DMVs are linked and any violation in either state will surcharge his MA insurance and if he doesn't pay it, will ultimately place a warrant for his arrest. There is no traffic school option or deferral program, unless you have 5 surchargeable events in 1 one year period, then you must complete a training course or lose your license for 60 days. hope this helps and send me a PM if you have any further questions. cheers

wanchu83

thank you all for detail procedure. I will let my friend know.