[MATCHBX]

Basically if they are willing to work with you (i.e. you weren't going excessively fast or being stupid with the officer), they will give you a few options.

A....You plead guilty, pay the fine and it goes on your record.

B....Being that you have a clean record, you can ask for a "Plead guilty, no acceptance" What that is it that you plead guilty to the offense, usually pay the whole fine and then they don't accept it for a set amount of time (mine was 6 months, but sometimes it's up to a year). After that time is up and you have not got any more tickets, it gets erased from the books. So you are on probation for that time period. If you get another same or similar offense, then the ticket goes on your record for what ever amount of years it takes to come off.

C....Plead innocent and set up a trial date.

Those are usually your options for that type offense. Unfortunately you usually end up paying the full fine (and possibly a small administration fee, but not likely) for option B. You won't get something for nothing basically. They might be able to set up a payment plan with you though too. Pay most of it when you're there and then pay the rest within a certain amount of time.

I took option B the last time I got a ticket. I had a 6 month time period I had to keep mine clean. I got a small speeding ticket a few months later and was so pissed at myself. Until I found out the officer never turned in the paperwork to the court so they had no record of me having a courtdate that day. So I took my paper copy of the ticket into the court the day after I was supposed to be in court and they dismissed it. I had called the day of my court date to pay it and they said they had no record of it. So she told me to bring in my paper ticket and she would dismiss it. I got EXTREMELY lucky on that one.

If you do get option B, make sure that after the probationary period is up that you follow up with it to make sure they don't put it on your record and make sure that they do get rid of it. It can get lost in the shuffle and something might come back to bite you. Just make sure you cover all of your bases.