Can I ask a judge to wave or make a payment plan on a traffic ticket fine due to financial hardship?

Request a trial date within 30 days of the charge so that your license will not be suspended. Make sure you request a trial date and not a waiver hearing. If the officer does not appear for trial, you will be found not guilty. Even if you are convicted, the judge, depending on your driving record, can offer you probation before judgment which keeps the points off your record and prevents your rates from going up. The judge would decide the fine and assess court costs and if you need time to pay, tell the judge and it is up to the judge whether to give you time to pay.

You can certainly ask, but it is not likely that you will be given a payment plan. However, if you plead your case to a Judge, you could ask for PBJ or a reduction in the amount of the fine. The DMV website has some good information on fighting traffic tickets: http://www.dmv.org/md-maryland/fighting-your-traffic-ticket.php

If ou request a trial, you'll postpone the need to pay for quite a while --until your court date, which may be two or more months away. In addition, it takes ten days or so following court for a failure to pay fine to cause the MVA to take any action against your license (which would be suspension of your license until you pay). Therefore, even if the judge left the fine at $160.00, you will have a fair bit of time if you start saving now to raise the money to pay it. In most cases, the judge will cut the fine down considerably, however, so you may end up paying much less if you go to court.

Request a trial within 30 days of the citation. If the officer does not appear the charge should be dropped. If you are found guilty you can request te to pay any assessment . You should also request probation before judgment which will not involve the assessment of points.