Menu
Menu
We were able to help a client out with an unsafe lane change ticket today. The charge was dismissed.
My client explained to me he really didn’t think he did anything wrong. I sympathized with him. Traffic tickets like this one are sometimes difficult to accept and to adjudicate because the concept of “unsafe” is subjective.
With speeding tickets or red light tickets, a motorist might disagree with an officer but one of the two must be right (and the other wrong, of course) about what happened. In those cases, the light was either red or it wasn’t, and the speed of the vehicle was either over the limit or it wasn’t. There are plenty of other factors in play in cases like those but they are different from a subjective charge like unsafe lane change.
With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, the motorist and officer can agree 100% on what occurred but still disagree on whether what occurred constituted a violation.
With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, I feel there’s unofficially an extra burden on the issuing officer. He needs to do more than testify to what he saw or recorded. He needs to offer testimony as to why what he saw or recorded constituted a violation of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law. With measurable offenses like speeding and red light, this is self explanatory.
Today’s case was won based on the officer’s inability to offer sufficient testimony with respect to “why” the lane change described was deemed “unsafe” and worthy of a traffic summons. The officer merely testified that my client changed lanes “unsafely”. He offered nothing with respect to why or how the movement was unsafe. How close was my client to another vehicle? At what speed was he traveling? Did he signal? What was traffic like? None of these questions were answered.
I knew right away the officer’s testimony wouldn’t be sufficient for the charge to stand. I made a motion to dismiss and it was granted.
Submitted by NY traffic ticket attorney Matthew Greenberg
We have organized a statewide network of attorneys. In our network are both attorneys who work for Feifer & Greenberg and attorneys who work for other firms that regularly provide of-counsel representation to our clients. This statewide network allows us to match clients in a particular county or court with local attorneys who regularly appear on similar matters in the same county or court. It enables us to help clients anywhere in New York State and in our opinion provide particularly effective and affordable representation for our clients. Local attorneys can draw on their particular local experiences and, with travel time and expense removed from the equation, help us keep our legal fees low.
We recommend fighting almost all tickets. Even if the current NY traffic tickets aren’t particularly harmful, you have an incentive to keep your record clean for the future. Convictions quickly lead to surcharges, insurance increases and other complications. You should strongly consider any decision to pay a ticket without fighting.
Our lawyers are experienced, prepared attorneys who understand the nuances of fighting traffic tickets. Experience, preparation and good decision making help us to help our clients avoid points, surcharges, insurance increases and the other negatives that can easily result from a traffic ticket.
Please note that our website is an Attorney Advertisement. We do not recommend that anyone substitute anything they read or learn on the internet for personal legal advice from competent legal counsel.
Feifer & Greenberg, LLP, 15 Maiden Lane, Suite 601, New York, NY 10038, (888) 842-5384
© 2023 | Privacy Policy
