[quote]Quick Ben wrote:
I made an exaggeration to make my point. Which is that the longer people keep bending over, the harder they are going to get fucked. And a $712 fine for barely breaking the speed limit is ridiculous, chanting “it’s the law” does not make it any less so.
Who should decide? I don’t know man. But certainly there should be safeguards in place so that politicians can’t send the cops out to do highway robbery whenever the state fucks up and goes broke.[/quote]
Unfortunately, the states govern the privilege to drive and the states control the fines for violating their driving laws. Sounds like another reason to leave the State of California. Aren’t the fines based on a grid in CA? In most places, you don’t really have much to argue because they have a fine system, such as 1 to 5 mph over =$75, 6-10 over = $100, etc.
In NJ, the car insurance rates are ridiculously high, so high that many years ago, the State cut a deal with the insurers that, in order to keep rates down, they enforce a mandatory surcharge of $300 per year for 3 years, payable to the insurer, for anyone who gets a moving violation worthy of 3 points or more. You may have guessed that the standard speeding violation carries 3 points, so while going 78 in a 65 might only get you a fine of $135, you will pay $900 over the next three years in higher insurance costs. At least that’s the way it used to be.
That’s why a lot of people show up in court, plea bargain with the ADA to get the speeding changed to a different moving violation that carries the same fine, but no points. The municipality makes its fee and you don’t get the points and the insurance company doesn’t get the $900, but they don’t know about it anyway, so everyone is happy.
Doesn’t sound like that will help the OP, except that he could get out of points on his license and keep his insurance premium down. But, it looks like he might be out the $712.
DB