More on Texas' 85-mph speed limit

On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:21:43 -0600, The Daring Dufas
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When I was in Maryland I did it all the time. There were far more than a few times that I walked away clean. I never paid the full fine or took all the points.
The best trick that I found out from a black buddy at work. Send in the card to postpone the trial as close to the last day as you can. That pushes out your court date a couple months. With a little luck you will hit a day the cop is off. If he is awake, he will postpone you back. If not it is a slam dunk, you show up and he doesn't, case dismissed. If he postpones, you postpone him back. That can ping pong a couple times or he might just let it slide once and you get dismissed. If you do end up in court 8 months later, there is a good chance you are not in the notebook the cop brought so you can ask him questions about the arrest he can't answer, Case dismissed.
OK worst case, you take the conviction. Maryland still cut it to one point and that point will not actually process through the bureaucracy for another month but by then, other points have, may have aged off. When it does post it is accrued from the date of the infraction, not the date of conviction so it ages off in 15 months instead of 24.
Those are just a few of the maryland court tricks
I moved to Florida and it is a whole different thing. The judge opened the court by saying "I see I have a bunch of traffic tickets cluttering up my docket. Be aware the maximum fine here is $1000 and I use that as a guideline. If anyone just wants to pay their ticket now, the clerk is over there". Then he called a case (fairly egregious) and threw the book at the guy.
There was a line at the clerk desk..
I saw my cop, I really didn't have a case and I got in line.

On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:21:43 -0600, The Daring Dufas
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I was in traffic court twice when I lived in Philadelphia, but it was over 35 years ago. The first time, there were over 100 people waiting for their hearing. Judge walked in, bailiff did the "all rise" thing. Judge got to his seat and asked everyone "how do you plead" and everyone said not guilty. "Dismissed"
Second trip had a crowd, but I was called for my case. As I approached the bench the court stenographer said "with a name like that, he should be dismissed" and I was.
My daughter had a speeding ticket in MA.. She was able to talk to someone and it was to be taken care of. It was, except on the way to court she was speeding and got another ticket.

On 11/22/2012 11:18 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
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The usual deal is to arrange for a lower charge that is crafted to be a fine only and plead guilty. If not unless you offer spectacular evidence you get the fine and points.
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I was in the local magistrates court waiting for a hearing and they called a guy. Judge says "so Mr Smith you are here in regard to a speeding citation?". Guy replies he is. Magistrate says "Officer Jones isn't here so I can either reschedule the hearing or hear it now". Guy replies he wants the hearing to proceed. Magistrate asks "how do you plead?" Guy launches a big story "I was driving my wifes car and wasn't used to the car and wearing heavy boots etc......"
Magistrate replies "guilty". The guy was so fixated on his story that he didn't realize he was getting a gift. Since his accuser was not there he simply needed to reply "not guilty".

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Not quite as smart as her old man, eh?

Per The Daring Dufas:
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Here in Paoli, PA they have a tricky little system.
You go before a JP to plead and he gives you a choice: plead guilty and pay the fine and get assessed zero points or plead innocent, get found guilty, and get assessed something like 5-10 (I forget...) points. I watched this little charade all day once - maybe 30 people pled... and it was the same thing over-and-over again.
Then, if you want to contest it, you get to go to the county seat about 20 miles away for a court date - but the JP warns everybody in advance that "You will need a lawyer then and lawyers cost a *lot* of money....".

On 11/23/2012 3:21 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
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I think JPs were replaced by magistrates in PA for quite some time. The main difference is that the winner of the election needs to complete a course and pass an exam in order to be certified.
What you are describing is pleading guilty to the one carefully designed offense in PA (75 3111 (usually Section (A)), obedience to traffic control devices) that has a fine, no points and nothing recorded on your record. It is the same situation you will find yourself in if you negotiate with the officer say through a friend. Unlike the days of JPs they simply can't tear up a ticket so there has to be a disposition.
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You need to file with the clerk at the court of common pleas. It costs around $80. The first thing that happens is the magistrates ruling is vacated as if it never happened and you get a scheduled court date. But it makes little sense to do it even yourself unless you have some evidence to present.

Per Oren:
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That one zipped right over my head...
?

wrote:
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Yep. I was once ticketed for 60 in a 55 on the 'Jersey Pike. It was only a $15 fine but that was real money to me then. Ohio (particularly Franklin County) was really bad, too, but I never got pulled over there.
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There are too many trucks and little old ladies (weenies trying to eek out .1MPG) here. I prefer about 5-7 over the 70 posted but the traffic seems bifurcated at 65 and 85.

Bifurcated? What kind of split is that?
Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org .
There are too many trucks and little old ladies (weenies trying to eek out .1MPG) here. I prefer about 5-7 over the 70 posted but the traffic seems bifurcated at 65 and 85.

On Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:33:36 -0500, "Stormin Mormon"
??? In two.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bifurcated

On 11/20/2012 6:43 AM, HeyBub wrote:
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If it costs me $20.00 more to get to a client paying me $100.00 per hour, I'll spend the $20.00 to get there so I have more time to make money. Folks who don't work for themselves will never grok the concept of spending money to make money. O_o
TDD

On Nov 20, 7:57 am, The Daring Dufas <the-daring-du...@stinky- finger.net> wrote:
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So you bill your cliant for the amount of time you have available rather than how long the job takes?
Odd.
Harry K

Per Harry K:
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I don't think that has tb the case.
If I'm working at my home office on Client A's job and I get a call from Client B about something that requires me to be at Client B's site, I drive up to Client B's site, do what has to be done, and then drive back to the home office to resume work on Client A's project.
Since I don't get paid for transit time, any time saved on the trip to/from Client B's site is then available for me to work on Client A's project and I earned that much more for the day.
Repeat that day after day, and there really could be a difference.
Having said all that, on the routes I drive with any regularity there does not seem tb enough diff between trying to drive faster than traffic and just going with the flow to influence my driving habits.
Also, it's entirely possible that I would choose to bike to Client B's site instead of drive - which takes a good 45 minutes longer in each direction....

wrote:
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Going to my "client B" is about 20 minutes faster by car than by bike - but If I'm coming back between 4 and 5:30, the difference is less than 5 minutes.

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I fight the frustration on my current driving of being held up by a slow driver (i.e., one going a few miles slower than the normal 'flow speed'. Honest evalution is that instead of driving the normal 64, 65, I am stuck behind someone going 60. Since the normal trip is only 14 miles it really doesn't make one bit of difference but I still bitch about it :).
Hawrry K

wrote:
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A lot of people can only bill for the time they are actually on the customer's site and travel time may be capped at a certain amount or not compensated for at all..

Suppose that the contractor has a job that will take say 80 hours to complete. For the sake of argument let's say that this contractor limits his workdays to 8 hours. Now suppose that by driving 85mph rather than 55, over a week or so he is able to spend enough extra work hours on the customer's job so that it will be done in 9 days instead of 10. Now he's eliminated a trip altogether, saving fuel cost and time that will likely more than pay for the reduced fuel mileage of driving at 85mph.

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:11:53 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote:
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For a service call I bill from the time I leave MY door until the time I leave THEIR door. So I get paid for hald of the transit time.
For contract time it is time on site.

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:56:30 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote:
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You can end up pricing yourself out of that contract tho if the next guy drives faster and charges less.
For most people who live in places with long drives it is just the time out of their lives that they want back. This may not make sense to people in the North East who have never driven much in the West. They can't even comprehend a place where towns are 50 miles apart and a whole lot of nothing in between.

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:10:11 -0500, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote:
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You missed it. CONTRACT is time on site. SERVICE CALL is door to door. When something goes south, they want it done NOW - and they expect to pay more. I charge the same rate, but they pay my travel time. No complaints so far.
I likely don't charge ENOUGH, but I make a living.