Hi, guys! I've searched the Internet but couldn't find an answer. Are there some tickets that can't be dismissed with traffic school in California? Recently, my dad was ticketed for failing to yield to a school crossing guard. (The crossing guard barely raised the sign and no one else was on the crosswalk yet as my dad approached.) Anyway, the court clerk (West Covina Municipal) told my dad that even if the judge allowed him to take traffic school, if the DMV later realized that it was for this violation, DMV won't accept the traffic school and still add the point to his record. Is that right? I've never heard of that before. I thought it was the judge who had discretion in these matters.

It's probably too late now since, if I'm not mistaken, paying the fine = admitting guilt and admitting guilt = no chance for appeal. But it would be nice to know for future reference.

 

yes there are those types of tickets

ie. excessive speeding, i believe 20 over the speed limit and you cant do traffic school

 

Yes, certain voiations are not typically dismissable. Be careful, even if the judge approves traffic school, the DMV does not have to accept the certificate and dismiss the point. That kinda sucks, you'd think a superior court judge would have authority over a DMV clerk. This happened to a friend of mine....

 

True case: 62 in a 35 zone , did traffic school, no points. huge $$$ fine though

 

Thanks for the responses!

I had told my dad that he should've just demanded traffic school, since there is a chance the DMV would accept it and it's better to maybe waste time in traffic school than to definately get a point and have his insurance go up.

Thinking back to the tickets I've gotten years ago, I was always able to take traffic school and not have it show up. I've even gotten a ticket with 2 violations on it and taken traffic school. I also got one for 85 in a 55. (Was actually over 100, but the officer couldn't prove it.) Many of my tickets, I had to take 12-hour class (instead of 8), but they always counted.

I know some things have changed, like how there's a fine for having loud exhaust. Before, it was just a $10 fix-it ticket. (I've had about 10 of those.) Does anyone know what's dismissable and what's not? Isn't there some vehicle code or some sort of DMV table I can look up? It should be spelled out somewhere...

 

There are definitely tickets which are not eligible for traffic school. If you have to show up to court for your ticket, instead of paying for the fine over the mail, then most likely this is a ticket that cannot be dismissed with traffic school. But, if you are eligible, I highly recommend a site called trafficschoolonline.com, cause I took that online traffic school course in less than 10 minutes. You just gotta cut and paste the text they give you and when you are given the mini test, just hit ctrl-F and find the appropriate text for the right answer. Easiest traffic school I've ever been do and I did at work so I didn't lose any personal time.