Q: Yesterday I was pulled over for going 97 in a 55.

A: Hopefully you requested a trial and not a waiver hearing, as you can do better on a trial date, including working out a deal with the police officer directly to get some tickets dropped. The speed citation carries 5 points, which will put you at 7 current points total, so 1 point away from suspension. However, you will be ordered to appear for a point system conference before the MVA if you get the 5 points. Most judges will drop the speed to a 1 or 2 point offense, and may consider granting a PBJ disposition which would mean no points for that ticket. The problem is, the speed greater than reasonable citation and the negligent driving citation also each carry 1 point (multiple tickets from one incident do not result in adding up all the points--you can only receive the points from the ticket with the highest point penalty). While you cannot be guilty of negligent driving based solely on speed alone, the speed greater than reasonable may stick at such a high speed. The other citations do not carry points. In cases where there is a prosecutor (jailable cases), many of these citations would be dropped, and proof of valid registration and tags at the time you come to court would typically suffice to get all those related citations dropped. In a non-jailable trial, it's just the officer who appears; however, the officer can agree to drop citations and even amend citations (like drop the speed down) as part of a deal. I recommend you retain counsel for all these citations, as you are likely to get a much better deal negotiated by a lawyer than by you alone. The judge can and typically does ignore the fines checked off on the citations, and imposes a fine of their own choosing, usually much lower than what is on the ticket, so yes, those dollar amounts can be reduced. However, court costs must be imposed on each ticket, but getting most of the citations dropped eliminates all of those fines completely. If you do not work all this out ahead of time before the case is called, then the judge will have to render a verdict on each citation, which could mean quite a list of convictions appearing on your driving record. If you mistakenly requested a "waiver hearing" instead of a trial, a lawyer can file a motion to change the date and reschedule the matter for trial.