How Do You Get A $1.4 Million Speeding Ticket?

A Chatham County resident wants answers after receiving a $1.4 million speeding ticket after being pulled over in September.

Connor Cato was driving home on Sept. 2 when he was pulled over by Georgia State Patrol for driving 90 in a 55-mile-per-hour zone.

Cato says he knew he was going to get a super speeder ticket, but he never anticipated the fine would be over $1 million.

“‘$1.4 million,’ the lady told me on the phone. I said, ‘This might be a typo’ and she said, ‘No sir, you either pay the amount on the ticket or you come to court on Dec. 21 at 1:30 p.m.’”

THIS IS HOW AND WHY CONNOR GOT THE HUGE FINE

• Explain the fine placed on super speeder tickets in the city of Savannah.
  • The fine for a super speeder ticket is set by the judge at the court appearance. The balance reflected in the e-citation is a placeholder, not a fine. Anyone who is caught speeding 35+ miles per hour receives the placeholder because it is a mandatory court appearance.
    
    
• Why is the set amount for drivers caught going over 35mph $1.4 million dollars?
  • The balance reflected in the e-citation is a placeholder. Superspeeders are required to go to court. The system automatically puts in $999,999.99 as the base amount plus other costs since the only way to resolve the ticket is to appear in court.
    
    
• How long has the practice of putting fines of that amount on speeding citations been enforced?
  • The balance reflected in the e-citation is a placeholder, not a fine. The amount is not enforced. This has been in practice since 2017 when a new system was put into place.
    
    
• What is the fine usually told to people when they appear in court?
  • The amount of the fine is determined by the judge during adjudication and cannot exceed $1,000 plus state-mandated costs.
    
    
• What’s the GA statute that allows the court to apply a fine that large?
  • The balance reflected in the e-citation is a placeholder, not a fine. Depending on the case, the judge can determine what penalty to impose.
    

The City did not implement the placeholder amount in order to force or scare people into court. The programmers who designed the software used the largest number possible because super speeder tickets are mandatory court appearances and do not have a fine amount attached to them when issued by police. Recorder’s Court is working on adjusting the language in e-citations in order to avoid future confusion. – City of Savannah spokesperson