This is the last part of a twelve part series of
avoiding or fighting a traffic ticket. Over the past month I have been giving
you six points on what to do to avoid a traffic ticket, then six points to
fight a ticket once you do get one. Last week in the part 5 topic I gave you
seven things you should do to testify in court and today we are going to
discuss five things to consider once you have finished with your trial.
Now that your traffic ticket hearing is over and
you won or lost, let’s now discuss what your options are. If you have won your
case, congratulations on winning. Hubris is a word that first comes to mind
that I encourage you not to become too smug or emboldened walking away from
this experience. Let’s face it; the system is set up for traffic violations to
make it difficult to get an acquittal or dismissal. If anything can be
attributed to you walking away from your ticket Scott free, it is luck if
anything else. Although we don’t often want to admit it, driving a lifetime
without getting a ticket is attributed more to pure luck than anything else: we
ALL speed ALL the time, we ALL don’t come to a FULL STOP at stop signs or after
a right on red ALL the time, we occasionally lose focus, get tired, become
distracted, etc. that sometimes we commit violations without even noticing it. AND
PLEASE DON’T TELL ME THAT YOU ARE THE REMOTE EXCEPTION AND DON’T. You are
kidding me and fooling yourself if you believe that, whether you are a senior
with 50 years of driving or a teenager with 5 months experience. If you do
insist on telling me this, I shall then make it my mission for either one of my
colleagues or myself, to wait for you on the highway or street until you do
make a mistake, just to make my point. SO be honest here and remember, you got
off this time, but next time . . .
If you lost, all is not lost, but you have some
serious soul searching to do. At this point you are down to some of your last
options if not your final one, and that is usually an appeal. In most
jurisdictions, the system is designed to make such an option a difficult
endeavor. In most places an appeal becomes a more expensive and an arduous
process, and make no mistake about this, this is done on purpose.
Regardless of where you are in the process, whether
it is an acquittal/dismissal, or you are found guilty and are ready for an appeal
or just to move on with life, I would consider the following after you are finished
with your ticket trial:
1.
If you walked
away Scott free, I suggest you get an extract of your driving record from DMV,
and check your credit report AND FICO score to insure that your insurance
company didn’t get ahead of itself and wacked you over the head. Regardless of
the verdict on your traffic ticket, insurance companies are not going to be
happy that statistically you were put into harm’s way by the police and given a
traffic ticket. Regardless of the verdict, you are now a risk that they feel
you should pay more for their coverage, and they are going to find any excuse
to put you in that risk pool. In some states, using a credit score to gauge
insurance risk is ILLEGAL, but in other states this practice is not, and others
allow just the FICO score. Remember that a credit report and a FICO score
report are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. The credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian,
Trans Union, etc.) have an insurance
algorithm they can compute that is part of the FICO formula. Make sure that
if your record is still clean, that you did not become part of that formula.
This suggestion also extends to whatever negotiated settlement you might have
made with the prosecutor/officer/court for a lesser charge or for remedial
driving classes you and/or your lawyer might have agreed to. Make sure the
punishment fits the crime not just in the halls of justice, but also on your
financial reports.
2.
If you were
found guilty, this is the time where you should consider if an appeal is worth
the aggravation. This is where you have to let go of your ego, pride, hubris,
insecurity, whatever, to take a hard look at what happened, and determine if
taking the steps to proceed forward are worth the sacrifices. This is where you
should admit that you perhaps did something wrong if you actually did, and make
a determination that regardless of what was done, if the punishment fits the
crime. Maybe you really were going 80 mph, but back in the 70 mph zone, and not
in the 40 mph zone before that, where the officer swore you were speeding. But
this requires honesty, tact, sincerity, and perhaps a bit of tough love to the
person you are supposed to love the most before you can love anyone else on the
planet, and that person is yourself. You got a ticket. You were found guilty.
It was probably really your fault and not the officer’s. Maybe you should start
admitting the truth. Soul search. Discuss . . .
3.
File your costly
appeal on time. Remember, states are going to make it hard to file one, and
usually it’s going to be expensive and must be done within a short window of
time. Some appeals panels like to pull the minutes of your guilty hearing and
charge you per word for the testimony. This can cost up to hundreds of dollars
for just a few minutes of words exchanged between you, the judge, and the
prosecutor/officer. Some like to give you just a small window of time to make
an appeal and then make the decision at your guilty trial FINAL. If lawyers
charge about $300/hour and up for their services, expect the court to charge a
filing fee for the same amount just to file your case in appeals court.
Remember that because of the recent economy, states are all BROKE, and them
charging you a ridiculous amount of money for your appeal is an excellent way
to raise revenue and filter out the junk appeals. Some will require you to
appear in your state’s capital, especially if the venue of origin was a local
court, and you now have to go to an appeals court. I do not know which states
exactly do this that most in some way probably do, but for argument’s sake, you
probably can take a day off from work and take a day trip to places like
Providence, Rhode Island, Annapolis, Maryland, or Dover, Delaware, maybe even
take a nice drive on the Garden State Parkway or Jersey Turnpike to Trenton,
New Jersey. I don’t know about you, but I come from New York City and live in
Los Angeles, so a trip to Albany on the State Thruway or to Sacramento on the Golden State Freeway is a far reach! I won’t even
mess with Texas or Alaska, two states that are really countries within
themselves!
4.
If you haven’t
hired one now, I suggest you stop being cheap and hire yourself a lawyer. Why
haven’t you hired one by now? Are you crazy? If you hired a lawyer perhaps you
wouldn’t be in this situation of being found guilty and ready for an appeal.
Why don’t you just talk to one? He or she can discuss your strengths and
weaknesses, your options, and your odds. In appeals court, a preliminary judge
if not the whole panel are going to be looking not necessarily at the merits of
your case, but more at whether statutory, procedural, or case law was broken or
unexplored in your case. The prelim judge or panel is going to be looking for
something extraordinary or highly unusual, something that perhaps will create
new law or challenges a present one. You
won’t stand a chance if your only argument is that you just feel that the judge
was wrong in his/her ruling. You are going to have to come up with
something better than that, and a lawyer is best equipped to determine what
those talking points are in your case. Please. If not now, will there ever be a
time? Grab a pair of legal ears to get the run-down. Even if it is too late it might
still be money well spent to learn something for the next time.
5. LAST AND
FINALLY: Guilty or not guilty, I’LL SEE YOU OUT ON THE ROAD FOR THE NEXT TIME. It
may be tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or ten years from now if I’m
not retired or promoted. If not me, it’ll be my colleague, successor, or one of
my subordinates. You’ll see me out on the road on an emergency cut-out, a
median turn-around, hiding in the bushes on the shoulder, marked or unmarked, or
God forbid handling an accident as you rubberneck on by if not involved in it yourself
as a result of the kind of careless driving I caught you doing that got you
here, whether the court agreed with me or not. If not one of mine or me, it’ll
be my friends from another jurisdiction, the state police on this side or over
the state border, or even the RCMP in Canada, or the Policia Federales in
Mexico. If its not one of us writing you a ticket at roadside, I promise to
keep in touch with you with photos of our shared memories from a red light or
speed camera with warm regards sent to you by mail. Would you like a post card
or a Hallmark? Do you have a Flickr account? What’s your profile on Facebook? We
now accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express, and Diner’s Club if
you additionally want a date with me, even Paypal and Western Union. Bring your
checkbook just in case. We take cash if you have been arrested on the spot. We
law enforcement are one big happy family, and like to keep records of our
shared memories. We are all grey or blue and bleed red to swear our allegiance
to our uniforms and the law. We look out for each other, and like the FBI’s most
wanted, we will be on the lookout for you. I hope your journeys are long,
healthy, safe, and fruitful. I truly do wish you well. This is nothing
personal, it’s just business. Next time, have your license, registration, and
proof of insurance at the ready, because the next time I will have a ticket
waiting on the nearest highway or roadway near you. And make sure you’re sober and
your car is clean and contraband free when I do. Take care now!
COMING
UP THIS WEEK: Is there such a violation as unauthorized/improper use of a horn?
AND: What’s the speed limit if there are no signs?
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