Illegal U-turn. Pay the fee or go to court.?

I got pulled over yesterday late at night for doing an illegal U-turn (I am not even sure when is it legal) at about 1:30 am with no one around but the cop coming behind me but by no means close. He actually did the same illegal U-turn to stop me. Of course this does not make me any less bad... but it shows it was safe to do given the conditions.

It was a U-turn in between intersections, so probably that was the bad part, but I am not sure if that was the problem.

My question is, should I pay or go to court? I am not as worried about the fine as I am about the whole point thing and my insurance rate getting screwed, this is my first offense but I have just 8 months of driving history (rates are pretty bad as they are for me now). The officer didn't bother to write the amount I am supposed to pay or who should I pay it to.

According to North Carolina DMV and magistrate sites, it looks like it is 25 dollars plus court costs (no idea how much is that) and I get 2 traffic points (the charge says G.S. 20-154).

So... Should I pay? If so how much? or try to go to court to find out how much to pay / negotiate some way to not get negative points and just pay my fine?Illegal U-turn. Pay the fee or go to court.?
Police can make a U-turn anywhere in the course of their duty if they are doing so in the effort to stop a driver who is not obeying traffic laws or there is an emergency.



Most of the time, if you go to court and say, "Yeah, I did it, and it won't happen again", then you get a lighter fine or fewer points. It's up to the discretion of the judge. It always looks better if you show up. Most traffic tickets I've seen don't have the amount of the fine on them. Just make sure you take enough cash to pay off the fine and the court costs. Since the fine is only $25 according to the DMV site, I would think it wouldn't cost any more than $100 total (and likely quite a bit less).




Only glad to help out. Good luck!

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Illegal U-turn. Pay the fee or go to court.?
In most states it is legal to U-turn in an intersection. If you were between intersections then you are at fault. Go to the drivers ed place and pick up a manual or look up U-turns and see what the law is. If you were in the right then go to court and fight it. If you were wrong then just pay it.
if the fine is just $25 then pay it. It's not worth the $75-150 in court costs to fight it. Your insurance may not even be affected by this anyway.Illegal U-turn. Pay the fee or go to court.?
I would go to court and see if they will offer something with a fine but no points.