its always worth fighting tickets....
at least send it in not guilty
if they throw it out then you won
(insurance rates not effected, didnt miss any work, didnt pay anything)
if they give you a court date then you can still pay off the ticket untill the day of your trial (if your a pussy)
(insurance rates go up, didnt miss any work, payed full amount of ticket)
if you go to court for the ticket there is a VERY good chance it gets lowered to a lesser infraction and the fine gets lowered
(missed work, payed lower fine, most likely will have less effect on insurance rates)
or it could get thrown out
(missed work, no fine, no effect on insurance)
another thing to do is, when you go up to speak with the DA before talking to the judge... ask if you can get the charges dropped in exchange for a charitable donation (there is usually a list of acceptable charities in the clerks office)
(missed work, payed an ammount about even with the fine, insurance rates not effected)
you need to remember, its not the $200 fine you need to be worried about.... its your insurance rates going up $300/yr for the next 3 years (dollar amounts are just random numbers... actual figures could be more or less)
so even if you take home $20/hr and miss an 8 hour day of work to go to court and get the ticket dismissed.... you lost $160 from missing work but you gained $200 for not having to pay the ticket and $900 for your insurance not going up.... so your up $940 compared to if you simply sent it in guilty and paid it....
now dont get me wrong there is the chance that you will still be charged with the full amount of the ticket and possibly some court fees and all that other bullshit.... but if the chance is there to end up paying less and having your insurance rates effected less isnt it worth at least trying
another side note.... your driving record does effect the chances of getting the ticket dismissed... if you have a relativly clean record there is a good chance it will be thrown out.... if your driving record is 4 pages long there is a snowballs chance in hell it will get thrown out... but it still could be lowered....
your driving record also has an effect on if you even get a ticket in the first place.... when the officer calls in your info if it comes back clean it is pretty likely that he will let you go with a warning (as long as it wasnt anything too serious)... if your info sucks ass the officer now knows that you make a habbit of driving like an asshole and is not going to cut you any breaks
this may not apply to all areas... i can only speak for CT NY and MA (states where i have gotten tickets and fought them
)