I Got Issued a Speeding Ticket – Do I Have to Actually Show up to Court?
If you’ve been ticketed for speeding ticket then look at the citation. If the offense was egregious enough it will state on the actual ticket if you need to show up or not. Some violations require a mandatory court appearance and that will be clearly marked on the ticket.
If it says “mandatory” then yes, you must show up to court on the appropriate date. There are numerous repercussions if you have a mandatory court date for a speeding ticket and fail to show up on the given date. The most significant punishment is if a warrant is issued for your arrest. That will most commonly happen for being a ‘no show’ on your court date. You may also get a hold on your driver’s license. If you send in a payment for a fine, do not believe that you can bypass your court date as you still need to show up. Just by paying does not give you any breaks as you will have to show up and then pay the fine to follow the proper protocol.
Appearing in Court for a Citation
As mentioned above, the ticket that was issued to you by law enforcement will have the verbiage of your mandatory court appearance and will list a date and time. If you do not have a mandatory court appearance that typically means that you can just pay the fine and be done with it.
However, whether you have to go to court or if it is your choice, you should contact us at Ticket Busters and we can fight your ticket and often time get charges and penalties reduced.
When attending court, allow yourself enough time. Most locations for courthouses (and certainly the ones in Las Vegas) are in high-traffic areas so it always takes longer than expected to even get to the location. Once there, you have to find a parking spot which in many cases will be far away, and then walk into the courthouse.
After arriving, there might be a line getting through security and then you have to find your specific courtroom. Needless to say, unless you are going to court often, it is a new experience and you will for sure have a lot of questions that will be time-consuming. If you miss your court date and time then that is just as bad as completely blowing it off so budget your time wisely to ensure you get it done.
Entering a Not Guilty Plea
Once in the courtroom and your allotted time arrives, you can plead guilty or not guilty. Pleading ‘guilty’ will require you to pay the fine and get your sentence (which usually includes traffic school and demerit points against your license).
A plead of ‘not guilty’ means that you are contesting your citation. Once that plea is made, your speeding ticket case will then be set for a pre-trial conference that will include the participation of a Deputy District Attorney (DA) and/or a Trial before a judge. This will not occur on the same day and will be scheduled for a date in the future. Again, simply call Ticket Busters and we can help you through this tedious process.
Failing to Appear for a Mandatory Court Appearance
Most likely, if you fail to appear for your speeding ticket mandatory court appearance the judge will issue a bench warrant for your arrest. When that occurs, a notification will be sent to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) which is essentially a request to the department to suspend your driver’s license.
This notice also helps law enforcement so any interaction with them and they will be aware of the outstanding warrant and will arrest you on the spot. Any fines due for the speeding ticket will grow much higher if a warrant is issued because you missed your mandatory court date.
Warrant Issued for not Showing for a Mandatory Court Appearance for Speeding
If you miss your date for a mandatory court appearance for a speeding ticket and a warrant is issued for your arrest you will want to get that rectified as soon as possible. Contacting a lawyer at Ticket Busters is highly recommended or you can call the Citation Division to start the resolution process. Please be advised that if there is an active warrant for you then you are subject to arrest at any time and any place. So that is 24 hours a day and 7 days per week until the warrant is revoked.
To help resolve the issue of an outstanding warrant it is best to simply pay the fines in full. However, a court appearance may also be necessary so you will need to verify so that the issue does not compound. There are services to make payments against the fine as many people cannot afford to pay it off in one shot.
You can research the Warrant Resolution Program which is somewhat like layaway. Using this program allows for you to make payment plans when your warrant is eligible. A couple of criteria that will help determine eligibility include:
- Is this the first warrant issued
- Is a mandatory court appearance required
Mandatory court appearances do not just apply to speeding tickets and can be issued for a variety of reasons depending on the situation. If you are caught speeding and traveling more than 30 miles per hour (MPH) over the posted limit then that is considered a ‘moving violation’ misdemeanor.
These types of violations carry a variety of punishments in Nevada including demerit points and fines. Typically, speeding is a civil infraction with fines and punishments increasing significantly if the speeding occurs in a school zone, pedestrian safety zone or a work zone. As previously mentioned, be sure to check your speeding ticket to make sure you do not have a mandatory court date. It will most likely be determined on how bad your violation was.
If caught in a position of any traffic violation including one involving a mandatory court date for speeding you should contact our office. We at Ticket Busters are located in downtown Las Vegas and can take care of your issues. In our long history, we have assisted more than 50,000 people concerning all types of legal issues.
Whether there is a bench warrant for your arrest or you simply want to get the charges from a traffic ticket reduced give us a call. We have a large team of legal professionals and attorneys that can assist you with practically any need. Do not worry about making an appointment as you can just simply walk in. If you call us we can assist over the phone but will most likely need to meet in person if your issue is more complex.
We are experts in the legal field and have resolved thousands of issues. That equates to saving you money and time as we can handle just about everything on your behalf. Dealing with tickets, courts and law enforcement officials is stressful and time consuming so let us hand that for you. We are experts at it and know how to navigate the legal process. In many cases our legal staff will have to negotiate the resolution of your traffic ticket, bench warrant, DUI or criminal defense case.
Without you, the customer, we would not be in business. So it is our promise to provide exemplary customer service and resolution to your problems. We at Ticket Busters take this promise very seriously and welcome any feedback. We’ll give you clear and concise expectations so that you know what you can expect regarding service and cost. We never want you to leave our office unhappy which is why we are upfront with our services. The last thing we want to do is promise more than what we are able to deliver.
We believe the open communication is the key to delivering great service. As your legal issue proceeds through the proper channels we will continue to keep you abreast of the situation so that there are no surprises. We know these types of issues are stressful to those that aren’t usually involved in legal proceedings so we keep ourselves available and will constantly notify of any next steps that are required by the justice system. Because of our high expectations for ourselves, we recommend you meet our team and let us personally introduce ourselves to you prior to hiring us. We are confident that we can provide answers to your issues and know we will give you great service and value as we appreciate all of our customers.
