First off, here's the sequence of events: The court date on your ticket is an arraignment. The ONLY thing you do here is plead guilty or not guilty. A not guilty plea will get a actual court date set in front of a magistrate. This is where the cop gets the summons to appear, and where all the magic happens. Going early to talk to the prosecutor is always, always a good idea. With a clean driving record, you shouldn't have any problems with getting the points off. Remember, the government cares about cashy money, not about some arbitrary points. However, talking to the prosecutor gets harder if you already incriminated yourself to the cop. When you were pulled over did you admit to speeding, even indirectly? The cop should have written all that down in the narrative (the part of the ticket you don't see) the prosecutor will have that in his file when you see him, and it WILL be used against you in a court situation. The only time a cop no-showed on me was in 04 when I fought a seatbelt ticket. I knew I was wearing it, I told the cop I was wearing it, he wrote me a ticket anyway and no-showed. And even though this doesn't apply to you, if you find yourself in Mayor's Court, for fuck's sake get it remanded to the county muni court. Mayor's Courts are some of the most unconstitutional bullshits out there.