How to Fight a Speeding Ticket in Seattle in 2020

Seattleites, we know you can probably think of at least a dozen other things you would rather endure than the process of receiving and dealing with a speeding ticket. You might even prefer a trip to the dentist because at least the dentist gives options, including whether to go to the dentist at all. But with a speeding ticket? Well, you do get the chance to decide whether or not you want to fight it, but beyond that you don’t have much of a choice in the matter. And speeding tickets in Seattle aren’t cheap. According to the Municipal Court of Seattle’s Violation Table, speeding ticket costs are determined based on certain factors such as the speed limit, the type of street, whether you were in a school zone, and whether traffic was blocked. If you change the “Field to search on” to “Violation Description” and set “Text to search for” to “Speed,” and then press search, you will get approximately 30 violations as of January 2020. Not including the watercraft entries (yes, that’s a thing), a speeding ticket in Seattle can cost you anywhere between $99.00 and $426.00.

Believe it or not, the most expensive speeding ticket is not given in a school zone or cross walk. According to the Municipal Court of Seattle’s Violation Table, speeding in a school zone or crosswalk, with or without a camera, will cost you just over $200.00. The $426.00 speeding ticket is given to those driving either 36 miles per hour or more over on a road where the posted limit is 40 miles per hour or less or for driving 41 miles per hour or more on a road where the posted speed limit is over 40 miles per hour. The reasoning, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation, has to do with how speed influences the how often car accidents occur and how severe those crashes are at certain speeds. The Seattle Department of Transportation states that “Speed is the critical factor in the frequency and severity of crashes.” When it comes to crashes involving vehicles and pedestrians:

But it’s not just the Seattle Police that issue speeding tickets in the Emerald City. The City of Seattle also utilizes cameras to monitor for red-light and school zone violations. These cameras and tickets generate significant revenue for the city of Seattle.

Top 4 Reasons You Should Consider Fighting a Seattle Speeding Ticket

A speeding ticket in Seattle could cost you a pretty penny, but there are many other reasons why you should consider fighting the ticket.

Your insurance premiums could go through the roof for the next three years. It may not happen this month. It may not happen next month. But it could happen within the next six months or the next year depending on when you renew your auto policy. Your insurance provider, or their named agent, can pull a copy of your driving record that contains a three-year history of your convictions (including those for speeding) violations, accidents, and failures to appear. They use this information to determine whether they think you are more of a risk. If they think you are, they charge you more money. While you can shop around in the hopes of finding a cheaper policy, each insurance company will pull a copy of your driving record. There is no guarantee that you will find an insurance carrier with a cheaper rate. And, it takes three years for a speeding ticket to fall off of your driving record, so that ticket could have a negative financial impact for some time to come.

If you get too many tickets, you could have your driver’s license suspended by the State of Washington. The Department of Licensing will suspend your driver’s license for 60 days if you receive six moving violations in a 12-month period or seven moving violations in a 24-month period. After the suspension, you will be placed on one year of probation. If you get another speeding ticket, or another moving violation, during the time you are on probation, your driver’s license will be suspended again for an additional 30 days. Then, the one year of probation will start over again.

It could impact your job or your eligibility for certain jobs. If your current job requirements involve driving or if you are interested in a job that requires you to drive a company vehicle or to make deliveries, getting a speeding ticket could mean that you lose your job or that the company is unwilling to hire you.

You know that you are not eligible for a deferral or that deferment isn’t the right choice for you. Washington allows drivers to defer a speeding ticket. But take note: deferring a speeding ticket is not the same thing as fighting it and not everyone is eligible for deferral. You cannot defer a speeding ticket if you have a commercial driver’s license even if you were not operating a commercial vehicle at the time you received the speeding ticket. Also, you are only eligible to apply for a deferral if you haven’t used one in the last seven years and even then there is no guarantee that the court will grant your deferral. And, if the court does grant your deferral, remember that you are betting that you will not receive another ticket of any kind during the deferral period, usually 12 months. If you get one – even in another jurisdiction that the one in which the first ticket was issued - the deferral may be revoked. This may be true even if you contest and are able to get the new ticket reduced or dismissed. It all comes down to the court. Also, the administrative fee that you paid for the deferral will not be refunded to you.

Can You Talk Your Way Out of a Speeding Ticket?

Most people have tried, at least once, to talk their way out of a ticket. Some people try every time they get pulled over. Maybe you are one of those people. Seattle police officers have a lot of discretion in how they do their job, including whether they issue a speeding ticket. Of course, in some cases, say that of an accident or if the driver’s speed was very fast, the officer may feel that they have no choice but to issue a ticket. So, talking likely won’t help. There are also speed enforcement cameras in school zones that automatically issue tickets through the mail to the address on file for the license plate caught on the camera. In the case of a camera ticket, there’s no one to convince.

There’s also a risk of trying to talk your way out of a ticket. There are a million different things that can affect your ability to talk your way out of a ticket, many of which are directly related to the issuing officer him or herself. Because we cannot get into the head of every Seattle officer whose job it is to patrol the streets, there’s no surefire way to “talk your way out of a ticket.” And attempting to do so has risks too. If you are not very careful with what you say and in how you treat an officer, of if you accidentally do or say something that angers or offends that particular officer, you can very easily talk yourself out of a warning and into a ticket.

If you decide to try and talk your way out of a speeding ticket there are a few important things to remember. First, do not admit to speeding. That admission could be used against you later. Also, don’t directly answer questions such as, “Do you know how fast you were going?” But even as you try to keep yourself in check, do not be rude or argumentative or ask the officer questions such as, “Don’t you know who I am?” or “Don’t you know that my taxes pay your salary?” You also do not need to tell them that you plan to call your lawyer. It is a speeding ticket. Unless you are running a mini-criminal enterprise from your vehicle and need the lawyer’s advice immediately, you can save your comments about contacting a lawyer. While you do have the right to hire a lawyer to help you fight your speeding ticket, telling the officer giving you the ticket that you are calling your lawyer does not intimidate them or otherwise convince them to not write the ticket.

School Zone Speeding Tickets in Seattle

What about school zone tickets in Seattle? These tickets are not cheap. They will set you back around $250. School zone cameras are designed to keep children safe as they walk to and from school. In some school zones, the cameras are active during certain hours. In other school zones, the cameras are active when children are present. And in other school zones, the cameras are active during certain hours and when children are present. It can certainly get confusing. Sometimes, the language on the signs isn’t as clear as it should be or it is too hard for drivers to read. In fact, in July 2017, Judge Catherine Moore, a Seattle Municipal Court Judge, threw out a school zone camera ticket case against Jason Canfield who argued that the speeding ticket he received was unfair because the sign was too confusing to read.

School zone cameras were first implemented in Seattle in December 2012. You can find a full list of Seattle schools, school zones, and the current school year camera schedule on Seattle.gov. The good news, if there is any, is that while these camera speeding tickets are expensive, camera speeding tickets do not affect your insurance rates according to the Frequently Asked Questions on Seattle.gov’s website since they are treated as a non-moving violation. But the City of Seattle does take parking tickets seriously. If you have four or more unpaid parking tickets, they will put a boot on your car or they will tow and impound your car.

How You Can Fight a Speeding Ticket in Seattle

How you fight a speeding ticket in Seattle depends on whether the speeding ticket was given to you by an officer or whether you received it in the mail because of a camera.

Image Credit: Travis Wise - CC BY 2.0