Sunday, August 24, 2014

CAN I FIGHT A TICKET WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY?

Traffic Court, Leave It To The Professionals


Many drivers have the false impression that representing themselves in traffic court is easy.  This is usually not always the case.  There are many legal arguments that can be made to help swing the scales of justice in your favor.  Making the wrong argument or presenting the argument at the wrong time could be fatal to your case.

The Tale Of The NY Supporting Deposition

Recently I spoke to an individual looking to hire my law firm after he handled his case on his own.  He had pushed his, made a critical mistake, and wanted a lawyer to undo it.

The driver was issued a speeding ticket.  At the time the ticket was issued, he was not given a supporting deposition.   He had read somewhere that he should demand a supporting deposition and the failure to receive one in 30 days would result in his ticket being dismissed.

Armed with that information, he did just that.  He demanded a supporting deposition and waited for the court to issue a pre-trial conference date.  When his day in court arrived, more than 30 days later, he was not served the supporting deposition.  Accordingly, he met with the officer and vociferously argued that it should be dismissed.

The officer promptly withdrew the ticket and told the driver to wait.  A short while later, the officer reappeared and issued a new ticket to the driver with a supporting deposition.

Although the ticket was withdrawn, it was not prejudicial given the fact that the supporting deposition was not served.  The officer had the right to re-issue a new ticket with the proper paperwork.

Now, the driver was back to square one and he did not have any negotiating leverage to resolve his case.  Further, he had enraged the officer and was perceived as extremely adversarial.  Accordingly, the officer had refused to further negotiate the case.  The driver was looking at a trial situation to resolve this case.  

The driver was not familiar with how to conduct a trial and was looking for legal counsel to bail him out.

We Can Help

If the driver had contacted our law firm in advance, we would have been able to either dismiss or significantly reduce his ticket.  If you are in a similar situation, don’t hesitate to call and hire our law firm.  Give us a call today at 800-893-9645.