advice about getting legal advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m asking how to best procure legal advice, starting with whether I need any.

I got a speeding ticket last month (two, actually, simultaneously: twice the legal limit, 71 in a 35-mph zone, plus changing lanes without signalling). I’m guilty of both, I suppose, and you don’t care about my rationale (I was on a three lane superhighway-type road, not an urban school district, that shortly became 45-mph, and shortly after a 55-mph road, without the road changing–anyway the point is, I certainly exceeded the limit.) T\The cop who pulled me over was mightily cheesed off–he kept me sitting my car for almost 45 minutes while he presumably checked my plates in every state of the country and a few foreign nations, and came up with nothing.

So he decided to impose the most he could do–the two moving violations, plus a mandatory court appearance. (I asked him, “Can’t I just pay the fine by mail?” and he sorta smiled, “For twice the speed limit? You got to spend a day in court for that,” like that was part of my punishment.)

Anyway, my question, for those of you who’ve gotten speeding tickets on an otherwise clean record (my last speeding ticket was over a decade ago): do I need an attorney to plead guilty? IOW, will I get a better deal (fewer points on my record, a lower fine, etc.) if an attorney argues it, or am I wasting my money in your view?

If you feel an attorney is needed, how shall I look for one? There are plenty of attorneys in the NYC region who advertise that they do speeding cases --I’m guessing that these are mostly repeat offenders or DWIs, but maybe not. Do I want one who practices close to where my case will be heard? Or one close to where I live, so I can confer with him conveniently? (I got the ticket about 40 miles from where I live, and the court is there, not here, in another county.) Is there anything I need to ask this attorney, other than “Is there an advantage to hiring you here, or should I just take my medicine?”

2

IANA lawyer, but I do use them for traffic related “events”.

You want one local to the jurisdiction of the court. You can deal with the atty entirely via phone, but he/she needs to deal with the court face to face. Knowing the specifics of how this particular kind of case plays out in front of that particular judge / prosecutor is a key factor in the outcome.

IME, for minor offences an attoryey is real handy for converting your typical 15mph over the limit ticket into a parking violation in exchange for $150. The savings on your insurance more than pays the lawyer’s fee.

Agaim IME, not an expert, … I think you’re screwed on doing anything other than pleading guilty & paying the fine for the speeding. I think you’ve got a decent chance of getting the other one dismissed as blatant “piling on”.

As you say, the first practical question to ask anyone your consideringhiring is “is there any point in trying?”

3

Do this http://www.ticketassassin.com/fight.html

but really…is it worth it, is the correct question.

4

Many areas have a service where you pay a small flat fee (was $20.00 for me a decade ago) for a half-hour consultation, and a lawyer will be assigned to you from a pool who have agreed to serve in this capacity. The lawyer will listen to your story and advise you on the best course of action; for a regular fee, he or she may take your case. This is IMHO the cheapest way to calibrate your own ideas of what is and isn’t going to fly in court. The lawyer will have a pretty good idea how cases like this typically go and if there’s some kind of deal you should cut, or how you should fight it if that’s the case. I just looked in the yellow pages under legal advice. I was entirely happy with the help I got.

5

My personal experience is that when I took a speeding ticket to court, the overburdened assistant prosecutor was offering everyone a standard deal, just for showing up: Plead guilty to speeding at X-10 mph. IOW, if the ticket was for doing 60-69 in a 45 zone, They’d agree to let you plead guilty to doing 50-59. Lower fine, possibly fewer points, no hassle for them putting the officer on the stand. I took the deal.

I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice, It is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. This is idle anonymous chat.

Consult a lawyer who specializes in traffic offenses to get a sense of the likely expense, and whether there are any collateral consequences, like points, that the lawyer might be able to help with.

6

Might be - depending on the fine, the points associated to the ticket, and their impact on future insurance rate increases.

In Virginia, there is a law that involves truly brutal fines for exceeding a certain speed limit. As in, a thousand dollars or more for a straightforward 15 MPH over the speed limit or some such. The fun thing is the fines only affect Virginia residents. So out-of-staters can speed with near-impunity (well, they’d get a ticket for a few hundred perhaps but not "miss-the-mortgage-payment insane). For something like that, even if you knew you were guilty as hell then damn straight, get a lawyer and see if you can get it reduced. A friend did so and the net wallet impact was “OUCH - DON’T DO THAT AGAIN” vs. “BEND OVER - YOU WILL MISS YOUR NEXT TWO HOUSE PAYMENTS”.

7

Did some googling; this law appears to have been repealed a year or so back. The point is still valid: it may be worth involving a lawyer to try to get the charges reduced.

8

But still doesn’t the whole thing revolve around cost? Guilt has been decided, so it really comes down to will the atty fees be less than the bump in the insurance rate?

9

I’m Finnish. Not only is 20mph over the limit an automatic ban from driving for a minimum of 6 months… the fines are progressive. My idea of a fine that’s worth bothering might have a couple more zeros :wink:

10

The last time I was in traffic court the preliminary round had an ALJ offering everybody a pretty similar deal for similar offenses. I sat there watching this for, like, three hours.

The people represented by lawyers were done first. They seemed to be getting the same deals, but they were all done within the first 15 minutes, and if they sent a lawyer, they didn’t have to show up at all.

The only reason I bothered to sit there and not just pay the fine was, I was innocent!

11

There’s also the question of points on your license.

12

I would think for that much over the speed limit, it’s worth calling a lawyer. In NC, the last time I checked, you could get your license suspended for just 15mph over. So this situation may be different from getting nabbed for 10mph over, going in and pleading to the most minor infraction.

On the other end of the spectrum, in NC you can do a Prayer for Judgment Continued if you have a clean record and the offense isn’t too egregious. That means no insurance consequence and no fine, if you don’t get another ticket within three years.

So it really depends on whether your state views this as a serious infraction, you might need a lawyer to protect you from harsh penalties, or you might make use of a lawyer to avoid any liability at all. So call a lawyer! If in doubt, Google your state bar association - they will be able to steer you in the right direction.

(Nothing in this post should be construed as legal advice!)

13

I was going to say something like that.

Regardless of whether or not you hire a lawyer, don’t go in blind. The offense you are charged with, depending on the state you live in, is possibly more than just speeding—you might qualify for “operating to endanger” or somesuch.

Your state government should have the text of all its general laws online somewhere. Study them carefully. If you choose to plead guilty, you want to know exactly what you’re pleading guilty to, and what the penalties are.

Also, you should at least call a lawyer or two in your area and see what they have to say. They generally don’t charge anything for a quick conversation so you can get an idea of what your options are.

P.S. At least in my experience, traffic court is often more about personalities and attitudes as laws and facts.
Therefore,

A: Polite, “I’m a good citizen” behavior always. Don’t dress or act in any way that might label you as a jerk or rebel.

My opinion is that if you wear a suit, they know you dressed up special just for court. However, a pair of khakis and a conservative sweater (I’m male), and you look like a calm, easygoing guy who dresses like that all the time.

Also keep in mind that the prosecutor, magistrate, judge, and police officer(s) likely have all known each other for a long time. Therefore, never say things like “that lousy cop was rude to me while conducting his revenue trap.” You don’t want to insult someone the magistrate has likely had coffee with last week. Better is something like “I think the officer may have been mistaken and didn’t notice (insert your defense here).”

In summary:

As someone who has had to deal with traffic tickets and related issues in the past, I will repeat myself because I can’t stress it enough:

You owe it to yourself to make yourself full aware of all your options and their consequences.

It’s not just points on your driving record or the insurance companies grabbing some of your money. You really might be facing the possibility of traffic school or license suspension. I could be wrong—don’t take my word for it—but do study up.

14

I agree with Unauthorized Cinnamon.

While I agree with most of Chris Luongo’s post, I disagree with this portion. While it’s acceptable to wear a sweater and khakis to traffic court, no judge is going to be displeased that you “dressed up” for court. It shows respect for the judge and for the process and that you’re taking the matter seriously.

15

And whether you want to spend time in court.

If you are willing to spend time in court, chances are good that you can beat the ticket. Cops are not nearly as knowledgeable about traffic laws as they are in other areas of law. This is partially because tickets are rarely challenged in courts and cops don’t often have to defend themselves. Police will either make legal mistakes while issuing the ticket or they will forget the circumstances surrounding the ticket when they show up for court - because they rarely expect to go to court. And unlike in a drug possession cases, the cops are less likely to lie about their legal mistakes, either because they don’t know the law or they simply don’t care enough to lie.

From what I’ve seen, if you are willing to put in the time it takes to challenge a ticket in court then a traffic lawyer can often get you an acquittal. The people who often fight traffic cases are those whose job depends on them having a clean record, like cab drivers for example.

If you want to fight the ticket, odds are that you can beat it with enough time and money. If you don’t want to put in the effort, then just show up in court and try to get your fine reduced.

16

In other jurisdictions, you might not have a Prayer. :smiley:

17

Nth-ing that it kind of depends on where you are and what sort of thing you’re charged with. If what you are accused of is something above just a traffic ticket (an infraction or violation or something like that, depending on where you are), like a misdemeanor or even a serious ticket that can result in suspension, you definitely want to think about a lawyer to prevent something more serious than just a fine.

Even if it is “just” a fine, then there’s points to consider. And, for example, in New York you can almost always plea bargain to a local, non-moving violation, so you will pay a higher fine but get no points. This may or may not be worth it to you, considering your insurance and their willingness to bump up your rate, whether you have or expect to accrue additional points later, and so on. This can, in some places (like New York) be done without a lawyer, typically the prosecutor (or cop, if you’re in a place where cops prosecute their own tickets) will meet with you right before your case comes up. They generally like to do this because their town gets more of the money, so it’s in some ways a win-win.

In short: it is highly situational depending on what level of misdeed you are accused of and where you are.

And of course, IANAL and TINLA.