a lawyer can always help...
my cousin was bragging that he was tailgating someone at ~70mph in a 25mph zone and he got 9 points for it...he hired a lawyer (i don't remember how much it cost him, but it was in the area of 1k-1.5k) and he got it lowered to no points and just a fine. I don't know how his record was before this either..
As for me, i've only been to court once (I was speeding in the rain, lost control in a corner and totalled my car)..got a "wreckless driving" violation (2 points I think). I talked to the prosecuter (had to wait in a 2 hour line), and because of my clean record I got the points taken away and only had to pay a $130 "no points" ticket
My insurance didn't go up by much either ($2500/yr to $2600/yr ... NJ sucks).