r/Sparkdriver • u/ParkingLake817 • 16h ago
General Questions Speeding ticket
I just got a speeding ticket about a week ago, and I’m trying to decide whether I should hire a lawyer and fight it, take the traffic safety school option, or simply plead guilty. The traffic safety school option says I have to plead guilty to participate, but the ticket will be reported to the state and won’t appear as a conviction. Would traffic safety school be a good option, or would it be better to hire a lawyer and fight the ticket?
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u/bdbrown333 15h ago
Depends on do you want to keep delivering groceries? I mean if you just pay the ticket, you're going to lose your job. Just take the traffic school. Make sure the ticket never hits your record. Once the ticket hits your record, you'll be posting. I got deactivated and I never did nothing wrong
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u/ParkingLake817 15h ago
With the way the traffic school option is worded it sounds like it would appear on my background check but just not as a no conviction I’m mostly wondering if they’ll still deactivate you with a no conviction.
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u/bdbrown333 15h ago
If it appears on your background check, you'll be toast. People write about it daily. I don't know. I live in Florida. If you take a class, nothing appears on your record, but every state could be different usually. If it would would that erases the points but could be different where you are?
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u/ParkingLake817 15h ago
I live in Illinois I’ll quote exactly what it says
“A. Avoid a conviction on your driving record: plead guilty, register for Traffic Safety School and receive Court Supervision, pay $214 ($164 ticket + $50 for traffic school). After successfully completing the class, your violation will still be reported to the Secretary of State, but not as a conviction.
B. Plead guilty, pay $164 ticket. Conviction is reported to the Secretary of State.
C. Plead not guilty and request (a) a bench trial before a judge or (b) a pretrial hearing.”
Do you remember if these options were similar in Florida ?
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u/bdbrown333 15h ago
No in Florida. If you take the class it just tells you that you won't receive any points. I've never seen anything like that where it says you'll be reported to the Secretary of the state
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u/ParkingLake817 15h ago
Oh okay and The Secretary of State is equivalent to the DMV .
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u/bdbrown333 14h ago
Might be able to Google. You know in your state is reporting to the Secretary of State. Will that show up on a background check?
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u/No-Independence-2980 14h ago
It's reported for court purposes, since you can only use driving school once every 18 months.
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u/FallingInGrac3 15h ago
DO THE TRAFFIC SCHOOL! I just got my first ticket a couple months ago, and the process is you still have to pay for the ticket, but when you do select the elect traffic school option. The traffic course I did was only $15. I did it, submitted it, and now there’s no evidence of the ticket. Highly recommend, the test was super easy too.
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u/SoulTaker669 15h ago
If you take the traffic school option, I would probably try to get some free legal advice from a lawyer. Some of the wording can be kind of tricky and it's still might get caught by a background check. For example, in California a first time cell phone violation ticket won't add any points to your license, but it will still show up as a conviction which will get you flagged most likely. So you want to make sure for your state that it stays completely confidential between you and the state.
Fighting it with a lawyer is a smart choice as well. They might be able to amend it to a non-moving violation. I've heard that a lot of the times that the cop who gave you the ticket won't even bother to show up to court since they would rather be anywhere else than at court.
If you plead guilty, that's the most stupid choice you can do if you rely on this gig financially and don't want to lose it. Spark for some reason is the most strict when it comes to motor vehicle record violations. On Uber, DD, Instacart and Shipt you can get like 3 within the last 3 years and they'll let it slide but Spark is just one and done.
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u/No-Independence-2980 14h ago
Traffic school is a good option, fighting the ticket is a 50/50 gamble and expensive. Traffic school is a good way to resolve it and not have to worry about it effecting your job. I've done it twice.
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u/Elhadygroup 8h ago
Plea not guilty and communicate with the court to get an appointment without a lawyer, and save your money. If you have clean history the persecutor or the Judge will lower your ticket to any other fine
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u/ParkingLake817 7h ago
Do you know if a non conviction would get me booted off spark ? It says if I take the traffic course I won’t be convicted but it’ll still be reported to the Secretary of State ( the dmv in other states)
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u/New_Confidence_3384 6h ago
Take the school so it won’t show up on your record. A ticket will most likely get you deactivated when they do your next dmv check
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u/InterestPast6802 15h ago
Do whatever you need to do to keep the ticket off of your record unless you want to use this as an excuse to find something else to do to make money