Last month I recieved 2 speeding tickets, one was for 13 over, the
other for 20.  A friend of mine said that I could ask for 'deferred
judication' and it wouldn't go on my driving record, I was wondering
if this was true or not, and if not, then what are some other
possiblities to keep them from going on my record?   And what exactly
is the difference between guilty & no contest?

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 09 May 2003 19:09 PDT

Where did this occur?

tutuzdad-ga

Dear emlyglt-ga;

As a 23 year veteran of law enforcement I am happy to answer your
interesting question.

What your friend is referring to is actually called “deferred
adjudication”. This simply means that the case is not prosecuted
(nolle prosequi). The court retains the right to summon you to a
hearing and try you on the charges for up to one year, usually under
the agreement that you will fulfill certain prescribed obligations
such as attending a defensive driving course, community service or
refrain from violating the law for a specified period of time. In the
event that you do not fulfill these obligations, the state can bring
the case back up and proceed in its prosecution against you.
Routinely, if the obligations are fulfilled as agreed, the case is
dismissed and basically treated as if it did not happen. In this
instance you will not be penalized in any way such as a fine, bad
driving record or a report to your insurance company (often resulting
in significantly increased premiums).

Now, I should also add this. Deferred adjudication is normally made
available to those who ASK FOR IT. Otherwise, there may not be any
mention of it as an alternative. Of those who ask, it is most commonly
made available to those who have no, or few driving offenses. A sort
of “first offenders” courtesy extended by the court, in hopes that
this incident will inconvenience you enough to teach you a lesson and
insure that you do not return to habitually burden up the legal system
any further than it already is. Bringing “two” tickets to court and
expecting a deferred adjudication on both of them will be a tough
thing to get in any court, however, you won’t know if you don’t ask.
Who knows? You may get lucky or you may get only one of them deferred.

In response to your last question, pleading guilty is just what it
implies. It is an admission of guilt to a crime for which you are
accused. In traffic related charges, this usually results in a
significantly lower penalty than would be handed down if you forced
the state to prove your guilt. By pleading guilty you will be placing
your fate at the mercy of the court to penalize you at its discretion.
Again, in exchange for your public admission that you were wrong, the
court will usually take your responsible cooperation and regard for
the law into account when passing sentence.

Pleading “no contest” (Nolo contendere) is usually a legal tactic
employed by defendants who fear punitive repercussions later on in a
civil suit. That is to say that they agree to let the court determine
their fate and willingly accept the penalty in order to put the issue
behind them, but decline to enter a plea for fear that they will later
be sued for their actions in civil court for millions of dollars and
have a potential guilty plea used against them (in which case a jury
would quickly use their own admission of guilt in determining if they
were at fault or not).

I welcome your rating and your final comments and I look forward to
working with you again in the near future. Thank you for bringing your
question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga


INFORMATION SOURCES

Professional experience

PLEADING "NO CONTEST" VERSUS PLEADING "GUILTY"
http://www.alaska.net/~pradell/Information/NoContestvsGuilty.html

YOUR PLEA IN COURT
http://www.pvkansas.com/citygov/court/plea.shtml

DEFERRED ADJUDICATION
http://www.sanantonio.gov/court/defadj.asp?res=800&ver=true

Tutuzdad-ga,
Thank you very much for the information, and just to answer your
question... It was in Texas, and I have no other citations. Once
again, thanks.