Cheap Vehicle Insurance, When Should You Get a Traffic Ticket Lawyer
What Does a Traffic Ticket Lawyer Do? For a flat fee, a traffic ticket lawyer handles the process of navigating your citation through the bureaucracy of municipal, county, and/or state courts, and represents your interests every step of the way. But this usually does not entail arguing before a judge or jury in an effort to establish your innocence. After all, the vast majority of traffic tickets involve people who did in fact commit the infraction.
The goal of every traffic ticket lawyer is to minimize the financial and criminal impact of your violation. Once a traffic ticket goes on your criminal record, auto insurance companies will be made aware of it — and they will generally jack up your premiums for the ensuing years. Plus, a traffic violation can have negative ramifications for the employment status of some people (like couriers or bus drivers, for example).
So if there’s a way that your traffic ticket lawyer can get the court to dismiss your moving violation altogether, he or she will do so. Your ticket can get often dismissed if your attorney discovers a significant error on the ticket itself, or subpoenas the issuing officer and he or she fails to show up for court.
But even if dismissal is not an option, a traffic ticket lawyer can usually keep the violation off your criminal record. He or she can plea bargain with the prosecutor and reach a mutually beneficial arrangement that benefits all parties. This tends to involve you paying the appropriate fine and/or some court costs and either agreeing to take a state-certified driver’s education course (at your own expense) or submitting to a probationary period (of anywhere between 3 and 12 months), during which you promise not to commit another moving violation. Although this agreement may cost you some money up front, it almost always saves you money in the long run, once you factor in the increases you would incur in your auto insurance premiums.