So...I do what now? Plead not guilty? Move the date? Take a nap?

Just go to the court hearing.  Many judges will give you an option to explain yourself.  Tell him the passing story then represent yourself as an outstanding citizen.  Wear a suit, tell him your a honor student, involved in the community........anything that would make you look good.  If it's your first offense you would at least definately get off no points

True. But I am not sure if I plead guilty and explain or not guilty and explain. Don't wanna shoot myself in the foot by doing the wrong thing.

Go to court, explain situation.  Don't say not guilty, just explain how it was a bad day dog got run over before work.  Then late to work, but still maintained just 5 over so you wouldn't lose your job and your 10 kids would go hungry.  Passed someone, but didn't want to stay in an oncomming lane to long and be unsafe.   Mabe by then the judge will just drop it to shut you up.  Or you could just cry, it works for my wife.

Seriously, no one from another locality can tell what a judge will do in your location, it is all at the judge's discretion.  But do go to court, that will usually lower the fine.  I always go if it is in my location, if away from home I send the payment in.  I only had one judge give me full fine, because I commented on him having the same last name as me.

Right, that's a good plan. HOWEVER, I have to check one of 3 boxes on the back of the ticket now. I can choose to:

Pay fine, no court (no)
Admit guilt, have court and maybe lower ticket
Admit no guilt, have hearing to determine if I am at fault or not

See what I mean. I HAVE TO choose one. That's where I'm going with this. Either option 2 or 3.  :dunno:

In your position, I'd choose option three if I were planning to go to court. When you're not admitting guilt, you aren't saying you're innocent. You're simply saying that you're not admitting anything, and you want to talk to the judge! Good luck!  

I'd say three............so you can see if the cop shows up or not.  Then if he does say that you were confused about it what to write on the ticket.  I believe they give you a chance to change your plea when you get there anyway.

Dude....  You have to figure out what each option means for you.

1. Pay the ticket and move on.

Can you afford to just pay it and get on with your life?  You say this is your first point, will one ticket increase your insurance?  Are you prone to getting another ticket which may increase your insurance more?[/list:u]

2. Attempt to reduce the fine.
Again...  Will this cost you more money in the long run due to an insurance increase?[/list:u]

3. Attempt to get the ticket thrown out.  
Is this realistic?  If you were speeding, for any reason, you are guilty.  That's the law.  Judges and cops don't take kindly to lying...  and they can smell it a mile away.  If you subpoena the cop and he shows up, you may have to pay for his time.[/list:u]

What I always used to do was this...
1.  Wait until the last second to send the ticket in.
2.  Select the "Mitigate" option (Not really admitting guilt, but not saying you were innocent).
3.  Wait until I got the court date.
4.  Wait until the weekday before the court date and call the court...  Tell them that I suddenly had to be out of town and needed to reschedule my court date.  (This effectively waves your right to a speedy trial and can push your court date out by MONTHS.)
5.  On the court date I would go to court and tell the mitigation judge that I couldn't afford the ticket and would like to request a fine reduction.  Most often they will do it and get you on your way.
6.  Once the fine was reduced I would ask if I could have time to pay it...  I've been able to get a 90 day extension on tickets.[/list:u]Now...  This takes a good chunk of time and isn't worth it if you can afford the fine and driving record ding...

In fact...  In WA, so many people were going to court to reduce their fine that when you select the "Mitigate" option, the court would send you a form say, "If you selected the mitigate option to have your fine reduced, the judge has reviewed your case and reduced the fine to $xx.xx.  If you selected mitigate for any other reason, return this form for a court date."

WA also has the deal where you can postpone the ticket for a year and if you don't get another ticket in that year, it's dropped from your record.

It's been a while since I've had a ticket in WA and I really don't know if other states do things like this...  So...   :dunno:

Dave, Just cry and get it over with already    

OK if you go to court, I think that last time in front of judge they will ask you guilty or not, you'd ahve to choose, you'r explainations come later, if you say not guilty in NC its hearing at that point, if you say guilty, the judge will let you explain and may reduce the fine etc, BTW if you chose not guilty its hearing and they will hit you with a extra $500 court fee. If you chose guilty, usually the judge will knock it down to what the ADA offered you earlier. IMHO total waste of time, its a collection machine, it works well. If you have a really really really good case, no crying no judge might believe me, no nothing, then take it to trial. Else just plead down to what the ADA offers you. Easier and better that way. 65 in a 60 may be knocked down to 60 in a 60 ... so like WTF ... it cant be even a ticket. people get 30 over the limit and get reduced to 15 over ... under 15 they usually dont write tix ... so you're already in the WTF zone.
Cool.
Srinath.