Some people make the choice not to pay a traffic ticket. They assume that it may catch up with them one day, but assume that they will only be made to pay the ticket. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for an Ohio woman who failed to pay a ticket she received in June 2014.
While for many, a traffic citation is annoying, for the northern Ohio woman, it was simply not in her budget. In the jurisdiction in which she was cited, the woman would have been made to pay the fine, court costs and other fees, totaling $190. Raising her son and supporting herself on $1,800 a month made coming up with close to $200 impossible.
As a result of failing to pay her ticket, the woman was taken for quite a ride over three years. Her driver’s license was ultimately suspended, resulting in two citations for driving under suspension, she was faced with hundreds of dollars in fines, and she even spent a night behind bars. All this over a traffic citation.
The woman’s case has prompted reformists and advocates to speak up. For some low-income families, a traffic ticket can quickly spiral into consequences that don’t fit the crime. At a certain point, people face license suspensions which can severely impact their ability to work, attend appointments or even take proper care of their children.
Judges, say reformists, need to come up with a way to forgive fines and fees for low-income offenders. There is something wrong, say some, when a simple unaffordable traffic ticket snowballs into multiple charges, suspensions, exorbitant fines and nights spent in jail.
If you receive a traffic citation in New York and wish to fight the charges, reach out to our team of experienced attorneys. We will review the details of your stop and subsequent charges and advise you of your legal options.
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.
Feifer & Greenberg, LLP, 15 Maiden Lane, Suite 601, New York, NY 10038, (888) 842-5384
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