Monday, August 4, 2014

Should you hire an attorney for a traffic ticket


www.kisslinglaw.com

This is the $100,000 or $1000 question.  In most cases the answer is yes.  Even if you could handle it by yourself, every day I see individuals handle their cases wrong which will end up in their insurance rates increasing.  By the way, may police officers and insurance agents give bad advise as to what you should do.  In addition, even if you do handle your case correctly, the clerk may not do their part correctly and cause a problem with your drivers license or insurance coverage or rates.  While fixing this kind of problem is easy for an attorney, it would be a nightmare for a non attorney.

Here is a very good article on why you should hire an attorney:

Do you really always need a lawyer for a traffic ticket?  From a practical perspective, the definitive answer is probably.  It is shocking how many completely misunderstood issues surrounding how speeding and stop sign cases there are.  To start with, every county has its own rules. In fact, different prosecutors each adhere to their own personal guidelines.  Short of going to court every day and observing each prosecutor, the defense attorneys, and the judges there is likely no way to build up enough institutional knowledge to know whether you are handling your case in the best possible way.

PJCs (a prayer for judgment continued) can be great, but, used improperly, they can be quite harmful.  Even when their use isn't harmful, sometimes they are not required.  Since you only get one prayer for judgment every three years per insurance policy and two every five years for DMV purposes, you want to be very careful not to waste them.  A good traffic lawyer knows when to use them and when not to use them.  For example, in cases where a client has a commercial driver’s license, or CDL, a PJC on a speeding case does absolutely nothing to benefit the client.  Our lawyers are extremely stingy with our clients PJCs. 

Once one case is handled incorrectly, driver's license problems tend to snowball.  It can be complicated for even the best traffic lawyer to fix traffic violations at that point.  It can also be very expensive.
Having a good traffic lawyer from the beginning will likely save you time and money.  It will also likely prevent anything unexpected from happening to your driving privileges.  For example, lots of police officers will tell the people that they have ticketed that they can simply pay off their ticket through the mail.  Some people follow that advice.  Well, if that ticket was for 15 mph or more over the speed limit, the hapless soul who mailed in that ticket will be quite surprised when they find out the DMV will revoke their driver’s license for 60 days.

This all being said, you should at a minimum consult an attorney before you do anything.  You can the make an informed decision on whether or not to hire an attorney.     Most good attorneys will let you know if you do not need an attorney and you can handle it yourself.  In addition, you should always consider the cost of taking time off work to go to court and wait around all day at the courthouse.

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