Speeding ticket question?

[philibert63]

I was driving in one of those spacing out moments one day and what do you know a cop pulls me over for speeding. This is my first speeding violation since I've had my license the past 5 years (though I did have a minor bumper accident last summer and one parking ticket sometime last fall). I live in Maryland and got this ticket also in Maryland. I got a $160 fine, was cited as driving 45 mph in a 25mph zone (whoopsies), and also have this other section checked off under "Violation Not Listed Above". There is one box checked off next to "TA". What does that stand for????

Also, there's this new law out where you now have three choices of what to do. You can send them the payment and basically just get raped with the points (I think I got 2) and have ur insurance go up. You can request a waiver hearing, and you can request a trial. Should I do the waiver hearing or the trial? From what I've been reading everyone says to get a trial....but there's no doubt that I'm guilty so wouldn't the judge be mad if I show up to the trial and waste his time?

I also heard you can go to traffic school instead of getting those points. How would I go about doing that, and can I even do that in Maryland?? I'm a poor college student so the fine is bad enough, I really don't want the points bumping up my insurance payments :(

Thanks for all the help!

[tiernan]

go to trial. the cop will most likely NOT show up. which means that you should be in the clear. its more paper work than s/he wants to go through. even if you go to court, whats the worst they do "sentence him to the same punishment that he is to get....even if he didn't come today! muhahaha!"....i really think you should go. maybe he was using a Lidar-gun. its a new Radar-gun that cops use, they are used to check the speed of missle's on planes, yet they aren't regulation cop radar-guns and are still under testing. (which is why i got out of 2 tickets like that and more cops are testing them out right now)...anywhoo you should go, ask for a traffic school instead, they should give it to you.

[berwin]

Plead guilty but ask to go to the school. This is basically your first ticket.