Ask a cop

Originally Posted by dP3NGU1N

^that is for your arraignment, sir. You can waive the arraignment hearing - it does nothing for you. What you CAN use the arraignment hearing for, however, is to establish your right to traffic school BEFORE you plead not guilty.

Once you plead "not guilty" then you are required to pay the bail amount first, which is your traffic fine, before a judge will actually see for your trial. I suppose this could be where the break down in communication is. What zbrah and I are talking about is the actual trial hearing, not the arraignment hearing - which are two different things.

The point of the arraignment court is to quickly process everyone who wants to plead guilty so they can pay their fine and attend traffic school. They will not hear your case if you wish to plead not guilty. What they'll do in that instance is give you a separate court date to make your case - essentially wasting about 3 hours of your time.

Originally Posted by Cbtech

actually the second ticket for the stop sign I pled not guilty hoping that the police officer wouldn't show up. they then scheduled my court date for another 2 months out. two months later I show up for court and as they're getting prepared for trials video of me going through the stop sign comes up on the screen. they gave us one more option to plead guilty or no contest before the judge came out. So since the cop was there with the video of me going through the stop sign I ended up pleading no contest then that is when they fined me $240

unfortunately I'm quite the veteran when it comes to the traffic court system here in Sacramento. The several times over the years that I've pled not guilty I've never had to pay a fine before going in front of a judge.

Originally Posted by dP3NGU1N

Then it seems we're both right in our respective areas of the state.

Originally Posted by Cbtech

sucks that they make you pay up front there though...that is not right at all.