Need a Traffic Lawyer in NJ
 

Anyone know a good one for Rt 80 Highway Patrol near Montville?

Got a ticket for 85 in a 65 :(

License is clean no points, etc. but I took a defensive driving course already and I can't plea this down to unsafe driving anymore.

If you got popped by a Statie, the chance of winning any plea is near zero. Those are tough bastards.

Perhaps diving less than 20mph over the speed limit is advisable to avoid this issue in the future?

:confused2

I think he was state patrol.

I explained the situation to the officer and was very respectful and still got a ticket lol.

I was behind a dump truck who was legit spraying rocks out of the truck. I sped up to pass the truck and he caught my speed while I was speeding up to pass. I wasn't consistently going that fast.

Bummer, I hate getting behind trucks spilling gravel etc off the load. There are rules about having to cover open gravel loads here, but lots of truckers just ignore them. Too bad the cop didn't give the trucker a ticket for open load.

Is 20 over worth hiring a lawyer in NJ?

Yeah - that is pretty crummy and I probably would have done the same thing. The problem is, however, that you have now essentially admitted guilt. You may have had a valid reason in your eyes, but in the eyes of the court you just admitted fault.

Sorry - when I said statie, that was slang for State Trooper or Highway Patrol. Those guys take speeding seriously and will almost always show up to court and vigorously defend. Most counsel will just tell you to give up if it's a statie ticket.

You can do some research, but this might just be a hit to your wallet and driving record.

Not really worried about the fine. It's $200.

It's more the insurance hike I'm worried about... I want this to get reduced to a 2 point ticket so insurance doesn't automatically get notified. And 2 pts won't be nearly as bad as 4.

Wondering if you got snagged at that center median crossover between Hook Mountain Road and that swamp-y area. That's a popular place for Troopers... there's even one there on Apple Maps! 😣

Excellent that you've admitted going 20 over already. You are well on your way to fighting this!

I don't know if this is helpful or if it applies in the US but in Canada Insurance companies don't care about points their concern is moving violations. And they will usually give you a free pass for one or two moving violations. It's usually the third ticket in a three year period that get's you the increase.

You're admission to the officer that you were speeding to pass the truck won't help you to beat the ticket, perhaps you can appear in court and offer to plead guilty to a lower speed, this is common practice in Canada. Again, the insurance companies here don't care so much about the speed or points, it's just the moving violation. You might want to call an insurance company (maybe not yours) in your state and ask what their policy is. Good Luck.

Ask the prosecutor for a reduction in speed in exchange for a guilty plead. They don't want a trial they only want your money. Getting a lawyer is a waste of money as you can usually get just what they get although they do sometimes get considerations from the judges and prosecutor and you get to go first too.

If you want to know what to expect you can go the week before and note the plea deals. But note that they will know you went to "school" and will know what for as well.


///Rich

This is sage advice.

They want an easy win and your money. I care less about giving them my money and more about points on my license. My approach (granted with mixed success) is usually:

1// Once pulled over, acknowledge I was going 5-10mph over the limit and that I'll take the ticket no problem if we can agree on that.
2// Ask the officer my options for courthouse appearance. Depending on where you're ticketed, they usually have multiple locations and you have the right to choose...choose one they don't want to show up at and you may have a no-show officer (this is luck mainly)
3// Contest by mail. Usually they're so backlogged (I'm in California, not NJ, mind-you) that you have a shot of winning purely based on luck/laziness
4// If that fails, show up to court and there's a solid chance the officer is a no-show.

Again, I'm in California and NJ may be different.

I recommend getting a dash cam for future events. You could've used it to show you were getting out of a dangerous situation (getting pelted by unsecured load). I've used my dashcam to successfully fight a ticket.

Actually, that's not a defence. Slowing down and creating distance would be avoiding the situation. I'm not sure I'd call gravel hitting the front of your car a 'dangerous situation".

It could be, if you had evidence of why that would be the safer route. The thing is having a dash-cam also opens you up to them subpoena-ing your footage, so it's a double-edged sword.

Have you ever been behind a dump truck spewing gravel behind them? You can hit your brakes all you want to create space but the shit just keeps coming. I've been stuck behind them on the turnpike before and it's either speed past them or slow down to 40mph on a 65mph road so that I can create enough distance that I don't get hit with debris. I don't need to see the debris hitting my car, if I can hear light taps or ticking noises from rocks hitting my car that's enough for me to get pissed off.

I REALLY hate dump trucks. One of the main roads in my town leads up to a quarry so there are dump trucks coming up and down the road all day long. You can see where they turn onto the bridge and drop shit all over the road. The road is also fucked up as hell with pot holes and bumps because of the constant truck traffic going up and down the street. I get that they have a job to do, but this stretch of road is more or less their access to the highway and its a disaster because of it. I really wish they would maintain it as if it were their own property but that's not gonna happen.

I've been behind a dump truck dropping gravel, or trucks with ice chunks blowing off....my point was really that backing off and creating distance would be the appropriate response rather than passing. At least from presenting a defence against the speeding ticket.

This is exactly why I don't use a dash camera.

I went off on a bit of a tangent but what I was trying to say is that slowing down significantly to the point of avoiding the debris from the dump truck is sometimes a difficult option. It may even be illegal in itself. Imagine me driving at 45 mph in a 65 mph and I'm holding up traffic behind me because I don't want to get hit by the debris.

The only time I can remember slowing down instead of speeding up when one of these dump trucks was dropping shit behind them was when they were driving like a lunatic. Legit, they were doing 80+ mph and the only way to pass them was to drive even more crazy than they were.

I understand your point though about using a defense of "I was speeding to avoid debris". It's not a good defense, maybe a better defense would be something like "I attempted to slow down or change lanes but was unable to due to the surrounding traffic, I would have caused a disruption to the flow of traffic or unsafe conditions by attempting to slow down enough to avoid the dump truck."

I believe they have a deal that NJ will automatically notify your insurance if it's 3 points or above.

Anything below requires insurance to pay to pull which generally happens at new policy or once every 2 yrs.