THREE QUESTIONS TO ANSWER WHEN YOU RECEIVE A TRAFFIC TICKET

When motorists are given a traffic ticket they are often faced with a three step dilemma:

1) Should I fight the ticket?

2) Should I fight the ticket on my own or hire someone to fight the ticket?

3) Who should I hire?

Sometimes it is not worth fighting the ticket. This is often the case when the individual driver is not on an insurance plan. For example, someone who lives in a city and does not own a car, but merely rents a car from time to time. If there are no consequences to an insurance plan then a low level ticket is likely not worth fighting (if the driver has an otherwise clean driving record). If the only consequence of a conviction is a fine, then for all practical purposes, it is a parking ticket or camera ticket. It does not make sense to pay an attorney a few hundred dollars to fight a ticket with a fine of a few hundred dollars. It may not make sense to fight it on your own either. Going to court can take hours off an otherwise productive day.

However, most motorists are on an insurance plan. The insurance premiums will go up with a serious moving violation on the driving record. In fact, the yearly premiums can increase by thousands of dollars a year for 3-4 years. In such a case, it is almost always prudent to fight the ticket. In the worst case scenario, the violation will be reduced to a violation with less points that will have a lesser impact on your insurance.

Whether to fight the ticket on your own or retain an attorney is another question. There is no easy answer and a lot depends on the specific circumstances of your case. What is the nature of the violation? How far are you from court? Do you know the court personnel? Do you have the few hours to spare? How comfortable are you in court? Will an attorney get you a better deal? Does an attorney have a method of getting the ticket dismissed entirely?

All these questions have to be evaluated before making a decision on whether to go at it yourself or retain counsel. In my (subjective) opinion, it is almost always worth it to hire an attorney. Attorneys can typically do better than non-attorneys and since the attorney can appear in court in your place, you also save yourself the time and hassle of going to court.

Once a decision has been made to retain an attorney, the question then becomes who to hire. The first step is to find an attorney whose entire law practice is dedicated to defending traffic tickets. This rule applies equally to all legal matters. Retain an attorney whose sole area of practice is the legal issue that you need help with. After you eliminate attorneys that do not practice exclusively traffic ticket defense, you may still be left with options for multiple attorneys. At this point you look for experience and reviews. Talk to a few and see which one makes you feel the most comfortable.

Simply hiring the attorney who quotes the lowest legal fee is not a good idea. Like with any other service, you get what you pay for. If you would not go to the cheapest doctor or buy the cheapest material to build your home then you should not hire the cheapest attorney to help with your legal issues. The quality of the service provided can vary significantly. This is not to say that the most expensive attorney is the best for your case. There are phonies out there. You need to do your own research and figure out which attorney makes you comfortable.

What you should definitely not do is hire a non-attorney. Stay away from the apps, stay away from the ticket brokers, and stay away from anything that is not explicitly a law firm. Avoid any company with names like “ticket fighter”, “ticket attacker”, “nothing on your record”, etc. The quality of service of these vague anonymous entities are often poor and their information should not be relied on.

More importantly you may not have an attorney that is responsible for your case. Attorneys are required by attorney rules to provide a certain standard of service. This is in the background every time you hire an attorney. No attorneys want to run afoul of the rules and potentially lose their license. You as a client may not realize this, but to the attorney it is very important not to commit malpractice or run afoul of attorney ethics rules. This is one of the important factors contributing to the quality of service you receive.

When you are not hiring an attorney or even where you are not hiring an attorney directly then it is impossible or very difficult to make a claim against the company you hired or against the attorney that the company hired. If the person working on your case does not have to worry about malpractice or complying with attorney rules then you can expect a diminished quality of service.

In conclusion, if you get a traffic ticket and you do not want your insurance premiums to go up, the smartest thing to do is to hire a quality attorney who specializes in traffic ticket defense.