I also recently received a ticket in NC and went through the same thought process.
I was guilty as sin and was not worried about the fine, just the points. I made some calls and here is what I found out:
- They WILL NOT allow to plea the case down over the phone in NC. The only way you can plea down is by going to your court date. I live in Ohio...not worth the expense.
- Get a lawyer in NC to handle this for you. Trust me; the lawyers there are vultures...you will be receiving at least 20 mailers from local lawyers promising you the world for a measly $100-200 PLUS the cost of the ticket.
- Points are NOT TRANSFERED to Ohio from NC. Our states are not reciprocal. Neither is PA or Michigan (I’ve had tickets there, too). I specifically asked what would happen if I did not pay the ticket. I was told that the individual states BMV's are finally connected, but it takes months for data to be transferred. No bench warrants, suspended Ohio license, etc. The worst thing that would happen is eventually NC would suspend my license and then eventually it would get to Ohio and they could suspend my license but it is highly unlikely.
At the end of the day, I decided that I was guilty and since the points do not transfer to my Ohio license and that it will not be reported to my insurance, I simply paid my $218.00 fine + $5.90 online processing fee to pay electronically and called it a day.
The fine itself was only $30 (79 in a 65) but the mandatory court costs were $188.00. If I had to pay those fee’s regardless, plus additional attorney fee's and court costs to plea down to a non-moving violation, it wasn't worth it.
I did a little further digging and you may want to thoroughly read your ticket. From what I read, going 15 over in NC (depends on the county) requires a mandatory court appearance.
I'm sure I was going more than 15+ but I was on my bike at 10PM and the cop was nice.
Give the county a call and I'm sure they will be honest and up front with you. All they really want is your money.
Hope this helps,
Marc