Ticket advice...

[ViPER1313]

I'm sorry I have to disagree with you completely, but this is just coming from personal experience. A good lawyer (which like I said, down here is ~$150 for traffic violations, may be more in other areas) won't even let the ticket get to the point of the cop talking to the judge. On traffic court day, the judge has an entire table full of tickets and a lawyer will generally meet with him beforehand, work his magic, and if she has a clean record likely get it thrown out before it hits the courtroom floor. It's not like the lawyer is going to stand in front of the judge and the cop and try to win the courtroom over...the negotiation is done beforehand to save the judge's time.

The lawyer can't make a deal directly with a judge before hand - that's not how it works. The lawyer will try to talk with the cop and DA and reach some sort of compromise that will then be presented to the judge. The judge can then accept the proposed deal or say it's not acceptable. I went to traffic court and watched a judge yell at the DA for proposing a low penalty in one guys case (which had been worked out before hand with the dude's lawyer) and then impose the harshest penalty that he could. In the case of my VA reckless ticket, the cop would not budge / work anything out with my lawyer and we had to plead not-guilty and present the case (and thanks to Goodspeed, it worked out rather well). And I paid more than $150 for my lawyer. :dunno: