Is a 15 over ticket worth fighting? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Is a 15 over ticket worth fighting?

turbodish said:
The net of all this is that for many drivers, even most drivers who are not habitual ticket collectors, it is not worth fighting an occasional minor traffic ticket, especially if that ticket has already been lowered at roadside.
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Roadside lowering is irrelevant and has no meaning, unless it gets you from a major into a minor offence. (Edit: or if you're a point or two away from licence suspension, which is not the case for most people.)

Most of what you quoted about insurance rates are guidelines, or generalizations, not specifics (with the exception of Wawanesa). Fact of life is that many insurance companies will increase rates. A conviction may also affect the premiums when switching insurance companies.

Another fact of life is that you can get a ticket simply out of bad luck. Everyone will speed or commit another infraction at one point or another even if they intend to stay withing the legal limits, and they may just happen to do it at the wrong time and in the wrong place.

I know that in Poland the insurance premiums do not increase with the number of tickets. If that was the case here, in most cases there wouldn't be any dilemma whether to pay or to fight.
 
El Zilcho said:
Fact of life is that many insurance companies will increase rates. A conviction may also affect the premiums when switching insurance companies.
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Fact of life is that MOST (even Facility!) will not raise rates for a single ticket, and some not even for a second one.

As for "bad luck", that is to a large part completely within your control when it comes to tickets.
 
turbodish said:
Fact of life is that MOST (even Facility!) will not raise rates for a single ticket, and some not even for a second one.
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A single ticket can make you ineligible for some special discounts that insurance companies may be offering and regardless of that it will put you a lot closer to the potential increase.


turbodish said:
As for "bad luck", that is to a large part completely within your control when it comes to tickets.
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I have already accounted for that. The "bad luck" I'm talking about is what's left.
 
I believe where you get into trouble is not with your current insurance company but if you want to shop around. For example, I moved postal codes and my rates skyrocketed with my previous provider. I lost it on my insurance agent who proclaimed : they are giving you a discount, however because you have a ticket (5 over...I **** you not...guy was in a BAAAAAAAAD mood on Boxing Day), I can't shop you around because you're a one star driver wherever else we put you.

That being said, that was on my car. My bike broker laughed when I told him the story.

It wasn't until I got a group rate through work that my rates became realistic again.

My lesson learned, fight everything.
 
Another fun fact our chronic information omission officer forgot to mention is if you live in the same house with another driver who also has 1 minor conviction they can add it to your total. Doesn't take much to get up to 2 convictions and beyond.
 
Not for me. My time is worth too much and I get a ticket every 10 years or so. Maybe for you.
 
turbodish said:
No.
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Yes (provisionally). Insurance rates can be set by the worst risk, in a household. The only way to avoid this is to file a statement of exclusion, for that driver, stating that they will never use the vehicle in question.
 
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Rob MacLennan said:
Yes (provisionally). Insurance rates can be set by the worst risk, in a household. The only way to avoid this is to file a statement of exclusion, for that driver, stating that they will never use the vehicle in question.
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That is not what I was responding "no" to.

The worst risk is measured by looking at the individual records of all drivers in a household. It does not mean that they tally up the total number of tickets obtained by each and every driver to arrive at a household total for all drivers. That is what he was claiming.

If such was the case, a family with six drivers, of which four drivers received a single ticket each, would see rates jacked up in the same way that a two driver household might see if one of the two drivers there had received four tickets alone. That is simply not the case.
 
hey OP, I was just wondering what's going on with ur ticket now? I have recently got a speeding ticket with 15km/h over...

I'm wondering if I should ask a lawyer to fight it or should I go by myself?
 
kickstartt said:
I'm wondering if I should ask a lawyer to fight it or should I go by myself?
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If you think that you should hire an actual lawyer to fight your ticket, you're better off dealing with a paralegal. Start with the ticketcombat.com site and if you feel uncomfortable about the process or have other convictions on your record, hire a paralegal. Redline - charged.ca is a highly reputable company with extremely capable paralegals.
 
Minor tickets are (usually) not worth paying anyone else to do anything.

This website and others have guidelines on how to fight tickets. Follow them. Make sure you are following information that is relevant and specific to Ontario.

Even if you don't have a valid defense, give "the system" every opportunity to fail. Maybe they don't give you a court date. Maybe they don't give you your disclosure package, or maybe the disclosure that they give you is inadequate. Maybe the officer gets transferred or retires or quits or doesn't show up for whatever reason. If you just pay the ticket, you give up all of these opportunities.

The value of the time that it takes you to do all this, is a factor that only you can judge for yourself.

The months to year delay for the conviction to show up on your record can be useful, too. Keep in mind that if your record is absolutely clear and this ticket will be the only one showing up on it and your insurance company doesn't care about one minor, it may actually be in your interest to just pay it - because if you get *another* ticket sometime in the next couple of years, you can use the delaying tactics on *that* one while the first one comes off your record sooner than if you had gone through the motions.
 
roadtoruin said:
LOL what a load. Does getting 2 tickets within a 3 year period in speed trap city really make somebody a habitual ticket-gatherer? because that's all it takes to get ****ed in the turbodish by insurance companies.

Fight the ticket because you are almost certain to get more, it's become part of driving life. Fight it yourself and it costs nothing but your own time and effort.
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LOL what a load..
 
My experience was that I got a speeding ticket in my car which was also a 15 over. It was also reduced. I went home and payed my ticket online. Dealing with my insurance agent, she said that 1 minor ticket did not affect my record. It didn't. When it did mess things up was when I wanted to change insurance companies. If I had a state farm account I would of saved hundreds of dollars a year in insurance. Instead, I had to wait almost 2 years before my record was erased from the files and only then was I able to switch agents!

So it might not screw with you immeditely but down the line it may.
 
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