Don’t Pay Your Traffic Ticket, Hire an Attorney and Save Money

General information, not legal advice. This post describes how traffic stops, accidents and traffic court work in general. Every case turns on its own facts, and reading this post does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own ticket, call The Traffic Ticket Attorneys at (310) 455-6810 for a free consultation.

People usually consider the speeding ticket as a hiccup during the day. Most people who are caught and given a speeding ticket prefer to pay it – thinking that contesting it is too much trouble and a time drain. After all, most of us lead lives, which require 48 hours crammed in a 24 hour day. However, the decision for paying and forgetting the fine should be done only after you understand and see the whole picture.

Paying the ticket is not something to decide on the spot, even if the officer says that it is in your best interest. First and foremost, after you get the ticket (and preferably the officer left) record all the circumstances in writing – you will not remember 75% of it after one hour – and try to get as much evidence for you as possible. If you can, draw a diagram and/or take photos and describe who was where when you were flagged down; where was the officer when he/she would have identified you as speeding, the signs around you, the traffic, the weather, the road, everything.

Then, armed with all information – either go through the law books regarding traffic offenses and see if you can struggle out of the ticket by showing inaccuracy or any other reason as such – or hire an attorney to do so for you. In case you want to be sure you are doing the right thing by fighting/ contesting the speeding ticket, find out how much the insurance company would raise their premium after this conviction and calculate the total cost over three years. You also, find out how much (if any) surcharge the State imposes on you for the mark on your license – then work it out whether it is better to contest it or pay it.

The cost of the ticket, when seen from all the angles might startle you. What you would think is a mere $200 would come out to be some $600-800 per year in terms of insurance and surcharge costs.

At this point, the best thing to do is hire an attorney. Specifically, a traffic ticket attorney. Traffic ticket attorneys have years of experience dismissing cases just like this. All speeding ticket, red light tickets, and other moving violations are scenarios perfectly fit for a traffic ticket attorney. Don’t rely on a criminal attorney or other to be able to dismiss your ticket. Find an attorney with years of experience dismissing traffic violations and you will be happy.

The direct costs of paying the ticket are very high and not worth in the long run. There are the costs of fringe benefits as well, which cannot be counted directly here. Something like your company would not trust you with the company car and either not give it to you or insist that you hire a driver for it. The list goes on. Hence, the cost of the speeding ticket is far more that the meager $50-100 upfront cost.