The Alternative Penalties and Diversionary Programs Associated with Traffic Violations

Interviewer: What are those different kinds of diversionary programs and things that they might have someone attend or be part of?

Acacia Law Group Lawyer: Basically, and this is the big one that applies - it's both California and Arizona, although it's called something different - is the traffic school. In California, it's after you are convicted, which means you have a right, you can fight it all the way and still get permission to go to traffic school. You attend the class, and the points don't get dismissed, the points go on your record. In Arizona, it's the same thing. There's a diversion program, where - I talked about this earlier, it's before court - where the case gets dismissed and you don't even pay the ticket, you just pay the course for defensive driving. That's one way to get it dismissed.

Traffic Survival School Requires Attendance in an In-Person Class for 8 Hours

The other thing is, although this will not take the points away, traffic survival school will save your license. It's mentioned once you reach 8 points, your license will be suspended for 3 months, but they give you the option to go to traffic survival school, which is different than defensive driving because defensive driving, you could probably do it in a few hours online. It's very easy, and you're done with it. Traffic survival school requires attendance in an in-person class for 8 hours, but, again, it is still a better option than having your license suspended for 3 months. The only other alternative punishment I mentioned is sometimes it's possible to negotiate a lesser violation that either has less points, or no points at all, which would, if it has no points, it's not going to affect insurance. There are various violations to reduce that do not get reported to the MVD.

For DUI Charges An Admin Per Se Suspension Of Driving License Goes Into Effect

Interviewer: With DUIs, are those handled both in criminal court and also with the DMV?

Acacia Law Group Lawyer: Yes. This is why I said there was a few suspension issues that are different. I'll go over them. With the DUI, unfortunately there's an [Admin Per Se] suspension that goes into effect. Basically, it's implied consent. Because driving is a privilege and it's not a right, they can actually tell you that you have to consent to the preliminary breath test, which means if you're above the legal limit of .08, then it goes into an automatic suspension for 3 months, and then you can apply for a restricted license down the road if you go to alcohol classes.  But, here's the thing, you do get a hearing. You're probably already terrified about the situation, but they hand you that temporary license that's good for 15 days, and you have the right to contest the hearing.  So, if you're close, if it's .09, or something, or if you don't think the stop was valid, or if there's some issues to argue there, then maybe you could request a hearing and try to disprove why your license should be suspended. You are entitled to that hearing  

The Main Issue With Civil Traffic Tickets is that a Defendant is Not Entitled to Reasonable Doubt Standards

Unfortunately, the big difference, as I've mentioned, with the civil traffic tickets, it is a civil issue, which means you're not entitled to the reasonable doubt standard you would have in the criminal case. Sometimes, unfortunately, which is the case, you're able to beat the DUI in criminal court - either brought a suppression motion, or find that there wasn't enough evidence to prove whether a person was impaired over the legal limit - but they were still able to get the suspension in through the DMV because it's a lesser standard. But it's always worth requesting a hearing.  Along those lines, I'm going to tell you also, if you don't follow the implied consent, then it's a 1 year suspension. My advice for this is if it's your first-time DUI, follow the implied consent rules, because you're going to be facing the 1 year if you don't, and also preliminary breath test results are not admissible at your criminal trial, anyways, so there's no reason to give yourself a 1-year suspension.