California Speeding Ticket in Hertz Rental
 

I got pulled over in San Ramon, CA for a speeding violation (60 in 45) while driving a rental vehicle from Hertz. I live in Canada.

Looking for opinions on how to best deal with this ticket to avoid any future problems traveling or additional charges from Hertz. I tried to call court to pay it (I don't even know how much it is for), but they said it takes 30-45 days (seriously?!) before they have the citation properly recorded in their system and can deal with it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Welcome to Flyertalk, mapleloaf. I am going to move this over to our dedicated Hertz Forum (car rental programs) for discussion.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Normally, if there's no amount to pay on the ticket, you send in a guilty plea (if you so chose), wait for judgment, and you will be sent a fine to be paid. Pay it, and call it done.

JP

Yeah -- that's all I'm looking to do -- not interested in bothering trying to fight it .
Will the judgment actually be sent to my Canadian address (which appears on the ticket)? What I am concerned about is the ticket notification being sent to Hertz as the registered owner of the vehicle and any additional charges that they may apply as a result...

Since the ticket is written out to your name, it should be sent to you and the address on the ticket.

Does the ticket have a box/place to write your plea? If so, go ahead and fill guilty (as you say you would), mail it in (registered mail wouldn't hurt), and wait for the court judgment + fine to show up. If there's a court appearance date, make sure your plea gets there BEFORE the court date, otherwise you may incur higher charges from the town/county/state that issued the ticket.

If you haven't heard about the fine for about a month after you sent the ticket (or the court date), give 'em a call.

JP

Hertz will never know you got the ticket. Notices for parking violations are sent to the registered owner of the car if not paid. As speeding ticket is a moving violation, nothing will ever be sent to Hertz, regardless of whether or not you pay.

On the other hand, if you don't pay or contest, a warrant will be issued for your arrest for failure to appear.

Usually if you call a traffic lawyer they can get it reduced to a "equipment violation" or something. You pay the full fine plus the lawyer about $300 but no points hit.

I see that you are from Canada though so I would just plead guilty by mail and pay the fine. You don't have to worry about the points.

Plea no contest. It's the "I don't want to bother fighting it" plea.

A traffic lawyer would not be able to get an "equipment violation."

If you showed your driving licence, they will mail the ticket to whatever address was on the licence. Hertz will never know about it unless it was a red light camera violation.

It takes 30 to 45 days. That is when you'll find out how much the fine is.

No contest is the same as a guilty plea. No difference in the fine. I expect it to be approximately $150 to $220.

And welcome to California!

Too bad you didn't get it in North Dakota (unless their fines have changed). I got one for going 37 in a 25 a couple years ago in a Hertz vehicle. The fine was $12. I laughed when I saw that, but didn't laugh so hard when my insurance went up by $150 a year because of it. But as far as Hertz was concerned, they never found out about that ticket.

In California, we can do trial by mail and also traffic school over the internet (if you wish to avoid your insurance premium increasing).

California does report traffic citations to many Canadian provinces so it may show up on your record there.

You must pay your fine FIRST if you plan on contesting a ticket.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/traffic/info.htm

California does report traffic citations to many Canadian provinces so it may show up on your record there.


Does anyone know what provinces?

If Ontario, you're okay
 

This post is several months after the incident, but for posterity:

Ontario only collects demerit points from New York and Michigan at the time of posting: Quebec from New York. Don't know where you license is from.

You might have heard about the "Non-Resident Violator Compact" - which most states and provinces are party to. This doesn't mean you will get points from a violation if your license and the violation occurred in participating jurisdictions - it just means that if you fail to pay a ticket your license will be suspended.

DUI's/DWI's , however are inter-reported within nearly every state/province.