Caught speeding 111 Mph (179 km/h) in California. How can I settle the case with the court?

While speeding, normally an infraction, often does not require a court appearance, you were driving 111mph, which is sometimes considered Reckless Driving, a misdemeanor, a more serious charge, hence the mandatory appearance. You'd have to check your citation to see exactly what you've been charged with, but whether you were charged with an infraction or a misdemeanor, the point is that you have a citation and need to deal with it.

While it's phenomenally unlikely (I'd say impossible, frankly) that you'll be the subject of an international extradition over this, having this on your record may significantly complicate things in the future. A warrant for your arrest may be issued, which could cause you to be denied entry to the US in the future, or worse, your arrest after you land. Being detained for hours, if not longer, after a long international flight is not fun. The US government might also share your information with other countries, which could pose problems at immigration elsewhere. In short, it's best to clear this up the right way.

Even if you have no plans to return to the United States now, you never know if, five years from now, your boss might ask you to attend an important meeting in San Francisco. Will you want to refuse because there might be a warrant out for your arrest?

If you are unable to reach the court and hear a response to your letter requesting that they waive your appearance, your best bet is to hire a lawyer to represent you. I would search for traffic lawyers in the city where the court is located and call up several. Here's some basic information about how that works. They will take your information, assess whether they can help, and provide information about what will happen and their fees. It's worth contacting a few firms to find someone you feel most comfortable about. Most will offer a free consultation, so you don't have to commit to anything right away. For a situation like this, you want someone who handles a lot of traffic cases in that particular court, as they will have experience with the local procedures.

While a lawyer is an additional expense you will have to pay, it will be less costly in money and time than traveling all the way back to California yourself, and significantly easier than being arrested on a bench warrant. Your lawyer may also be able to request that the judge waive some of the additional fines for your failure to respond.

I got ticketed for doing 120 MPH in a 75 MPH zone. Except for the speed, everything else was safe; clear day, mostly empty interstate road, no lane change etc.. The cop who ticketed me was sympathetic but said that anything more than 30MPH over the speed limit triggers a "reckless" charge that includes a mandatory court appearance. Since I was a thousand miles from home, I got a lawyer to represent me; he pleaded me down, and including his cost, saved me a few hundred dollars off the fine, and probably thousands from insurance premiums, not to mention the cost and effort to show up at court so far from home.

In short, hire a decent lawyer and let them go to bat for you!

What you probably should have done, from the very beginning, was seek legal counsel. You signed a promise to appear when you were cited. Here in California, those are taken very seriously. You were leaving the country, and had a mandatory appearance. The court is slamming you with fines really just based on your failure to follow through and show up -- but an attorney could have shown up in your place, just the same. A bench warrant is the next thing to happen.

The "letter to the judge" approach is questionable if you asked the court staff -- specifically because all California court staff are strictly forbidden to give legal advice!!!

If you never planned to come back to the States, this wouldn't even be an issue. There are attorney services here that deal specifically with traffic issues and you probably would have had far fewer headaches if you'd contacted one before you left. Good luck in cleaning this up.

This is a legal issue and might have been better answered on 'law'

If this were Texas, and California is likely similar, a phone call or letter to the court, offering to pay the fine and an explanation as to why you couldn't appear will probably be enough. They aren't likely interested in extraditing, or making the OPs life miserable. They just would like the fine to be paid.

Offering to pay it, in return for dropping the warrant fees would likely get an approval. If not, then an offer to pay the fine for speeding plus the warrant fee will likely get approval.

Also, you cannot simply assume that a certain miles per hour over a speed limit is automatically a greater offense. The offense will be listed on the citation. I am not sure about California, but in Texas NO speed (as long as the citation is for speeding) is a jailable offense. (however, failure to appear in court is) but it's usually used in order to get the accused to pay the fine.

In some jurisdictions where speeding is a criminal offense, the accused is sometimes entitled to a trial by jury, and so in order to save the state the time and expense of a trial, they'd gladly accept a payment of the fine to save them the trouble.

If the offense really was escalated to a 'reckless driving' and considered to be ultra-serious then they probably would not have let the driver go with a simple signing of the citation.

I suggest writing to the judge and asking him how to resolve the situation since you are not an American citizen and are located thousands of miles away from California with no plans to return there in the immediate future.

The judge will in all likelihood make the necessary adjustments to the case and send you a new disposition.