Go talk to the judge

Absolutely appeal that ticket. It'll cost you $25 extortion fee to appeal it. The first time you go to the court you will not be meeting with a judge, you will be meeting with a clerk. The police officers do not show up at this stage. There is a representative of the police department there who reads into the record the police officers version of events.

Definitely fight it. It's not just the fine. It's the increase on your insurance - up to 30% for 1 to 3 years.

Is it worth it to hire an attorney or should I try to take this on myself?

Most people plead their case themselves in MA unless its egregious. Yours is not that.

Nope. Your first appearance you absolutely do not need a lawyer.

You were speeding. Suck it up

If you want better chances, you could try Off The Record. Look them up, I've heard good things about them.

Were you speeding around that amount? 52 in a 35 is no laughing matter.

Were you doing 52 in a 35?

always fight. always. there are services online that will do a lot of the work for you too

Yes 100%! Every time I’ve fought a ticket I’ve won because the office never showed up. If you were respectful they probably have better things to do than go to court. If you were not then they will go. If even consider a traffic lawyer. I’ve seen far too many times people walk into court to fight a traffic ticket and then admit guilt and say sorry I was doing this or that. You are there to prove innocence. 7 years on your license with added points on your insurance is a horrible deal for paying a ticket and not fighting it. Take the court date

Yes it’s worth it unless you have experience

Don’t speed

I say yes fight it, but do some homework first. “He didn’t have his lights on” might not play as successfully as you might hope

Definitely appeal. I stupidly drove 82 in a 55 once and I appealed. After about 2 years of waiting for an appeal date, I received a call from the magistrate and I was just apologetic and candid. They wiped it clean.

Not worth hiring an attorney, basically the first time you go in you'll be talking to the court magistrate and a representative of the police dept who will read the police report. If you can't convince the court magistrate you didn't commit the offense you can pay another $50 to take it to actual court and at that point the cop has to show up otherwise you're off.

Yes, you'll be before a magistrate and they'll be a police officer rep to read the charge. Dress in your Sunday best and be very apologetic they may drop it.

If not take it to court, if the officer doesn't show you won't be held accountable. It's worth the extra fees if you think about the hundreds of dollars you'll pay in insurance premiums for the next three years

Off the record gives a 90% chance of getting it dismissed, but will cost around $250. Might be worth it, just to save insurance points possibly?

Check to see MA law on how police can check your speed. If he did not use a radar gun, but used his vision to estimate, this is a method some states allow, however you could more easily argue that one (you could request a copy of the officers last cert for this estimation process to see how long ago it was, photograph the area he was parked and see how his visibility was to your vehicle, etc)

Just pay the ticket and slow the fuck down dickhead

If he was not wearing a hat fight it!

THe officer not showing up thing doesn't work any longer thanks to the pandemic . Now they do a lot of hearings Virtually and you have no choice but to come do the online virtual hearing or you lose and pay in full. About the best that usually happens is they cut the price of the ticket down in half or so, but they still find you at fault.

Always fight it , at least they will probably cut it down by half. Just express your sincere apology and don't try to lie about things or claim things about the officer. Just say you recognize what you did was wrong and say like I was listening to some music and got distracted or something and there was light traffic around at the time. If you don't have much of a driving record, tell them you have had no tickets in a very long time and it wont happen again and you are truly sorry. Explain that you have a financial hardship (even if you dont) at the moment (have a lot of bills to pay or something), and if they could at least cut the ticket in half that would help. 9 x out of 10 they still find you at fault anyway but if you explain all this they will usually cut it in half for you ....or close to it. You wont get it thrown out but will save money and have extra time to pay for it.

I’m surprised by this because typically police officers are required by their department to show up, quite literally it’s their job. Not only that, typically they get paid overtime to show up to court. I haven’t heard of this happening in many years.

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It’s appalling that people can fight such tickets even if they were in the wrong.

And if the magistrate finds you responsible you can always hire an attorney before your court date.

Absolutely fight it. If the state wants to hit you with this then make them work for it and use the court's time and resources.

Well, we don't know how old he is, how many points he currently has. Depending on what he gets hit with, AAA Defensive Driver Course could completely offset this. He would have to talk to his insurance agent to determine whether it's worth fighting or not. Hopefully his ins person knows their shit.

You have a magistrate date. This is like a preliminary hearing, so you can plead down the charge to like half off. If it's economical for you to go to the court house, then go. It usually works if you are dressed well and apologetic. If you live more than a 2 hour drive away, it might not be worth it to fight in time or money.

Estimation, pacing, radar, lidar, and timing are all proper in MA.

Estimation is basically *exclusively* listed in conjunction with radar/lidar... as in, the officer first estimated the vehicle traveling greater than the posted speed limit, then used technology to confirm and determine the exact speed.

There is a Ch/Sec for "faster than reasonable" for conditions"... where estimated would be proper in and of itself... but you wouldn't have the specific dollar fine amount that is calculated based on actual speed / posted limit.

Hey thanks for the advice!!

Fight it most likely they will cut fine in half and no lawyer needed unless you want fine gone totally then you may need one. Also most of these hearings done online now.

Estimated? They just get to fucking guess now?

Always fight it - it's more than just $105. It's going to bump your insurance premiums up for years which will cost a lot more. It's better to try and fight it and lose rather than not at all.

I notice that you aren’t answering the question. Were you going 52 in a 35? Many streets in Brookline are 35 when they out to be way less, like 20. I ride a bike in Brookline. My kid walks on the narrow sidewalks along the streets posted 35. So, I hope that your weren’t going 52 in a 35.

This guy fights tickets.

But seriously, they're right. I've never once lost an appeal even if I was at fault for the citation. Like you said, most of the time it's reduced and usually to a violation that won't increase your insurance. It's always a NO until you ask or apologize in this case

OP u/showeralarmed5903 don’t listen to this person trying to blame you 🙄 they’re clearly already bent over if they’re trusting a pig’s word over yours.

you fight every single ticket you get and if you don’t you’re just letting them walk all over you

First, document it all and get pictures. If you go to court print it all out. It shows you’re serious and not fucking around. More importantly it helps the magistrate understand your case.

Make those pigs work if they’re going to saddle their budget woes on you undeservedly

You go, do the magistrate step, and you appeal it again to force them into court and they likely never show up (note: Pandemic may allow the pigs to remote in to your court date, not sure but others stated that in this thread). You get the case dismissed if they don’t show up, or at least that’s how it was pre Covid. If they do show up and you put half an ounce of effort into it you’ll get the ticket reduced or waived usually.

This is how the legal system works. It’s not a justice system. You’re guilty until you put forth effort to prove innocence against some likely tub of lard overtime scammer / govt welfare milker cop because their word takes precedence over your presumed innocence until you fight it

Otherwise enjoy your thousands of dollars in increased insurance premium for 7 years

Good luck

Ps don’t waste money on a lawyer unless it is to your convenience. Generally not necessary for petty tickets like this

Lol what the fuck is this?

You go to court, you don’t rely on this convoluted bullshit

Never use off the record. They are scammers.

LOL ok grandma

Don’t be a bootlicker

Typical brookliner

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Stop licking boots dork

Edit and no, fighting a ticket isn’t bad advice, is what any lawyer or anyone other than a bootlicker would recommend

Just because mommy raised you to lick a boot…it doesn’t mean anything…come to the real world

Lick boots

Cops lie

You can pull information from/on them using Freedom Of Information Act if it’s to your benefit.

Make sure it’s certified mail because they’ll lie that they never received it, they’ll delay, they’ll obfuscate - they don’t play by rules and they have zero integrity. They’ll fight you against any FOIA execution. When they do just show up with a paper trail to let the judge know and you’ll be covered. It’s your right and the case will be delayed until they fulfill that for you.

Generally not useful for petty speeding tickets but sometimes you can get them on their lies using this and / or delay the case if it helps. Still have to go into court with a valid reason to delay; usually the pigs lying and obfuscating against certified mail will cover you for that

Tell me you're still on your mommies insurance without telling me you're still on your mommies insurance.

Lol what

Lick more boots at your “driver’s education course” 🤣

Thank you to everyone who offered helpful advice and insight into the citation process. To the miserable people who are trying to shame me or call me names because I made a mistake and asked for help on what to do next, I hope you have the day that you deserve. I'm hardly the first person in this state to get a speeding ticket, as evidenced by this community and the several posts about speeding tickets, but I hope you feel good about being rude to someone who just wanted some advice.

If you were not breaking the law, absolutely fight it. If you were then don’t. That’s my advice. You’ll feel better about it if you are on the side of justice.

Stop giving people bad advice that is gonna cost them more then just paying their deserved speeding ticket, because you are trying to prove some misguided point. Dipshit

Asking someone if they were doing 52 in a 35 isn't casting blame. Why are you trying to make a problem where there literally wasn't one? You can't actually be that dumb.

What a stupid comment this is, we all know the implication don’t you worry

No tendies yet?

Sure you don't. I'd fight the damn thing.

You really have no idea what a boot licker is and are clearly just throwing that term around as a meme so have fun with that. Lol of course a lawyer would tell you that! What he doesnt tell you is that its going to cost you more to consult with him the it is then to just pay the well deserved ticket. Your youtube education is showing. Read a fucking book dipshit.