First Ticket; Under Age 25; Reduced To 15 Over.

Today I got my first ticket unfortunately. I was doing 94 kmh in a 60 zone. The officer was nice enough to reduce it to 75 kmh in a 60 zone. I'm only 18 and I don't know enough about what I am able to do. I informed my parents but I think its always good to get more opinions. I have my full G license. There are a few things I want to know like if the ticket is worth fighting and in what ways will my insurance be affected or if it even will be. I typically don't speed and at the time of this ticket I was flowing with traffic surprisingly. I've always thought to myself that I'm okay as long as I go with traffic. Unfortunately this wasn't the case for me. Does anyone have any advice for me as to what I should do? Should I fight it or pay the fine of $52.50? Will my insurance be affected if I do fight it? If I choose not to fight it, by approx how much should I expect to see my insurance rates increase? I am not a primary driver on any vehicle, just an occasional driver. I appreciate any advice.

Your questions are pretty common ones, read through the forums and you'll probably get some good ideas of your options and what other people have done.

The ticket may impact your insurance, but you'll have to contact your provider to see if so and by how much.

Either way is a gamble, case law says if you fight it the charge can be upgraded to the full speed...they still have to prove you were speeding, but if you are going one over, you are guilty, at that point the argument is about the amount...you sorta got a discount, the downside is your rates may go up, calling and asking them is not great, cause now they know to watching your record...getting convicted of the higher amount is worse...this is a no win situation...safest bet? Pay the $52...my opinion...

nickel052 wrote:Does anyone have any advice for me as to what I should do? Should I fight it or pay the fine of $52.50?

That's for you to decide. "Following the flow of traffic" is not a defense.

nickel052 wrote:Will my insurance be affected if I do fight it?

Your insurance may very well be affected either way. They don't really care if it's 5km, 15km, or 34km. A charge is a charge unless you're doing 50km and over, then it's a completely different story. If you plan on going all the way to trial, your charge will be brought back up to the original speed.

nickel052 wrote:If I choose not to fight it, by approx how much should I expect to see my insurance rates increase? I am not a primary driver on any vehicle, just an occasional driver. I appreciate any advice.

This question is asked daily and unfortunately it's the same boring answer every time. No one can tell you what your insurance company is going to do. What they do is up to them. They can choose to ignore it, or they can choose to not have you as a customer anymore.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'm still not quite sure what to do but atleast I know what the most common options are. Another question I have is if I choose Xcopper or pointts to fight it for me, would it be worth it? I spoke with my brother earlier today who got a ticket about 10 years ago doing 150kmh on hwy 407 with his tailgate down (blocking the plate from the cameras). He used xcopper and for $500 they were able to solve the whole thing and wipe it from his record as well, leaving his insurance rates untouched. He was also under 25 at that time. I don't know if the police reduced it on the spot for him though. I was thinking if I used xcopper as well, would they be able to do a similar solution? My ticket compared to my brothers is insignificant and I'm thinking it can be resolved for a similar or lower price. Just want to keep it away from insurance as I spoke with them earlier today (while remaining anonymous) and they said any young driver with a first time ticket automatically get a minimum increase of 10% to their rates for not having a clean record. Thanks everyone for the info.