Jail time? Wtf. Just go to court and pay the fine. Get a lawyer if you are concerned about this affecting your insurance rates. Especially if you have prior traffic issues. If this is your first time, I wouldn’t bother with the lawyer unless you really think your car insurance is going to sky rocket.

I got pulled over once. Long story, but I had snow on the roof of my car and the cops were running a campaign after a snow storm to pull people over. I had 3 possible tickets. Snow on the car (the whole point of the stop), expired license, expired registration. The cop gave me 2 tickets, snow and expired license. Both of these were mandatory court appearance. So I show up. I sit for 4 hours while all the people with lawyers get to go first. I watch people in court for stealing diapers from Target, etc. my turn comes, I go to the prosecutor table to arrange a plea before I go before the judge. You can accept the plea the prosecutor offers or take your chances with the judge. Taking your chances with the judge is assinine though. Anyways I get up to the prosecutors table and the prosecutor is like hey neighbor, he is the dad of one of my sons friends and lives a few doors down. He’s like don’t sweat it, gives me the plea deal. I accept. I got before the judge who reads the plea deal and does a double take. The judge is like wtf. Haha.

LPT: If you aren’t friends with the cops in your town, be friends with the prosecutors.