by dallen47 » Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:43 am
Well, it depends on your insurance company for one, some do not raise your rates for 1 traffic ticket, while others will, and they will only raise your rates if the ticket is reported to them by either you or the state. I know in colorado, the state doesn't report to insurance companies, but the ticket will go on your record and if you get a new policy, they will check your driving history and it will show up. On another note, I would consider trying to fight the ticket as the signs were just recently put in and because you weren't used to seeing them there, or you would have stopped, also if the signs are hard to see, that's another reason for fighting the ticket as well. Courts will usually drop tickets if they believe your violation was unavoidable or due to recent changes that you were unaware of that prevented compliance. Sounds to me though like the 4-way stops were put in to create a trap, or for safety and the cops took advantage of it to write tickets and entrap drivers though. Also, if you take the ticket to court, and beat it, you DO NOT have to, nor do you want to report it to an insurance company as if it is beat in court, it WILL NOT be on your driving record and is not considered a traffic infraction that is required to be reported to an insurance company. So what I am saying is if you take it to court and win, DO NOT tell your insurance company as it is not any of their business nor are you required to report it either. Reporting of traffic infractions is only required if you admit guilt to it by paying the fine, admit to guilt in court and pay the fine there, or are found guilty of the infraction in court. If you are cleared of the ticket in court, just go on as if it never happened as in the courts eyes and the DMV's eyes, it never did and that's why they found you not guilty. Your Insurance company has no rights to information about traffic infractions that were deemed to not have actually happened in court and you were cleared of and cannot get information about them nor require you to disclose them by law anyways.