What to Expect After a Speeding Ticket in North Carolina

An Elon sophomore student was taking Interstate 85/40 back to Elon from Raleigh when he got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding. He was asked the normal questions, required to show his license and registration, but received a paper with a court date rather than a normal ticket and fine.

North Carolina has some of the strictest traffic offense laws in the country, something that not a lot of people really know about. In fact, if you are caught speeding over a certain amount, you will most likely be handed a mandatory court date instead of a speeding ticket.

This student was going 87 in a 65 miles per hour zone, according to the officer, and the law states a court hearing is required if you’re speeding 15 miles or more over the speed limit while driving over 55 miles per hour.

Traffic laws are much stricter here in North Carolina, something not a lot of college students from out of state are aware of. Photo from unsplash.com .

“He [the officer] asked me if I had any questions,” the student was too shocked to say anything. “I was just trying to process how I was going that fast.”

Originally from Connecticut, he had never been pulled over before—never mind receiving a court date for something that would otherwise get you a regular ticket anywhere else.

Going to court isn’t just a scary and inconvenient thing you have to deal with, it’s also ridiculously expensive. According to iTicket.law, costs and fines can range between $188 and $250 on average, and you still might have to pay the whole ticket depending on if you win your case or not.

Add in the amount that your insurance will go up as well, and this offense has gone from minor to major in terms of money.

The student showed up to Orange County courthouse for his 8 a.m. hearing and shuffled past the metal detectors and officers along with other North Carolinians in the same position as him.

“I waited there for give or take an hour,” he explains.

At court he was faced with three options: plead guilty and get fined, plead not guilty and try to fight it, or hire an attorney and receive another court date for the attorney to represent you instead.

“My initial thinking at first was to defend myself,” he tells us. “I thought since it was my first time doing an offense of any kind, I could escape with a lesser punishment of some sort.”  

As soon as he was faced with these three options from the courthouse, he chose to hire an attorney and receive a second court date for his attorney to fight his case.

His attorney has now been in contact with him about their plan to try and fight to get a lesser punishment.

“I have to take a driving course that’s going to help my case in court,” explains the student.

Hopefully by doing this, he will receive a lower fine, less points on his driving record, and fewer points on his insurance.

“They [the attorney] said the minimum punishment I could get was three points on my license. But that’s only in North Carolina, not in any other state.”

If you are in the system for a speeding court case, traffic ticket lawyers will most likely reach out about defending you by sending you notices in the mail. Even though it may cost around $100 to $200 dollars to hire them, the long-term prices on insurance may end up being even worse than that.

Cover photo from Pixabay.com.