Interviewer: What about minor traffic tickets, like speeding or failure to stop at a stop sign? Is that even worth hiring a lawyer?
Acacia Law Group Lawyer: It is, and the reason being is that everything affects points on your record. In Arizona, if you get 8 points on your record, then you are required to attend traffic survival school, or your license will be suspended, and you can only go to traffic survival school once every 2 years, which means if that's not an option your license will be suspended. Then, if you get another ticket after that, that could be suspended for 6 months. The points do add up, and you can only go to defensive driving school once to remove one ticket, but after that, it's just going to start adding up, so by hiring an attorney, at least you have a chance to fight for your rights and prove an error in the ticket.
An Attorney Can Negotiate a Traffic Violation Down to a Lesser Offense that Either has Less Points or No Points At All
You can even negotiate like commercial drivers - to a lesser offence that either has less points or no points at all. There's always things to challenge a traffic ticket on. For example, one thing I commonly use is jurisdiction. Sometimes, in Arizona, if the officer writes the ticket right on the border of a city, then doesn't testify to the correct spot at the actual civil traffic hearing, I can get the case thrown out on that alone because there is no proof that we belong in that exact court.
The Common Penalties Associated With Traffic Offenses in Arizona
Interviewer: What are the typical penalties for various types of traffic offenses, from the minor to the serious?
Acacia Law Group Lawyer: That depends, obviously. I'm going to specify more in Arizona because that's where it's located, but in California, for example, the fines can be very high. One benefit that California has is that you could still attend traffic school even by going to your trial and losing, or seeing if the officer shows up, and therefore try to get dismissal if the officer doesn't show up. In Arizona, it doesn't exactly work that way. A lot of times you lose your right to go to defensive driving school by requesting a hearing, but that's not always the case. The judge can still allow you to do it. The penalties basically would be, for speeding, it could be about a $200 fine if you're not electing defensive driving, or if you're not eligible, or sometimes it could be up to over $1000, and for criminal ... There's a range of penalties. Generally, for first time offenses, it's about $200 for regular speeding or failure to obey stop signs, red lights get up a little more, and then criminal speeding can be about $500 or more, depending on how fast you were going.
In Arizona, Driving a Vehicle on a Suspended License Constitutes Class 1 Misdemeanor Charges
Interviewer: What happens if I were to get pulled over and my license were already suspended?
Acacia Law Group Lawyer: That's a serious problem. In Arizona, if your license is already suspended, you're facing a class 1 misdemeanor, and they're going to potentially impound your car, and you get some fines and also further license suspensions down the road. What's going to happen is, obviously you're not allowed to drive at that point, and that you're going to have to arrange other transportation and go to court. Now, there are ways, depending on how your license got suspended, to get that dismissed down the road. If you get it reinstated right away, if you just pay your unpaid tickets, or there are lesser violations to negotiate that aren't criminal, such as just not having a license in possession would be a civil offense.
