Andrewlegal's Blog

Traffic Tickets March 19, 2010

I just got a call earlier today from a person whose son got a traffic ticket a few weeks ago and then negleted to take care 0f it.  Of course it then turned into a warrant and he was stopped again. Fortunately he had an understanding police officer who did not arrest him or impound the car. His parents were called and they drove him home as his license was not valid and he did not have insurance. She wanted to know if she should just pay the warrants and the tickets and be done with it. I told her to pay the warrant fee to have the warrant lifted and her son could get his case back ont the court’s docket to be resolved, but not to simply pay the tickets. She was unaware that some tickets carry additional penalities for example a no insurance ticket conviction will have consequences like DPS surcharges on your driver’s license that will be much more expensive than just the ticket fee itself. Likewise possession of drugs calls for a license suspension upon a conviction for certain offenses such as possession of pot, or minor in possession of alcohol whether there is a car involved in the incident or not.  For example if you are under 21 y/o and get a conviction for possession of alcohol your license to drive can be suspended even if you were not in a car when you got the ticket. There are many other instances where a person can get his license to drive suspended.  Likewise not showing up for court get result in a warrant for your arrest not to mention possible problems later on when you try to get your registration or license renewed. Too many moving violations car get you tagged by DPS as a habitual violator and again a license suspension can result. Thus the moral of the story is to get the tickets taken care as soon as possible.  Better to get a lwayer and pay a little money now than to ignore it or handle it yourself and pay a lot of unexpected fees later.