Great Email I got from Attorney Al Robert Jr. http://ajr.tumblr.com/
Somebody asked me today what happens when you miss a traffic court date and I realized that some people might appreciate some traffic court pettifoggery. If you are one of those people, continue reading. . .
First things first, the easiest way to avoid dealing with traffic court is to avoid getting a ticket in the first place. This Lifehacker article is actually pretty helpful in this regard and is worth a read: http://lifehacker.com/208611/how-to-beat-a-speeding-ticket-or-at-least-better-your-chances (the idea about asking to see the radar and then contacting the cop at a later date is too much to me, but your mileage may vary). In short, if you are going to get a ticket, you want to be entirely forgettable.
When you get a ticket, you have two options for fighting it: (1) do it yourself; or (2) get the help of an attorney. It’s almost a right of passage for young attorneys to be sent to traffic court to deal with speeding tickets for firm partners and for regular clients. There are plenty of attorneys who will handle a speeding ticket for you for a fee and you can find them at the courthouse on the day of your hearing, if necessary. Just ask somebody in a suit if they know of an attorney that can help you that day. I’d expect to pay $100 or $150 for a lawyer to handle something like this, but you can also check Craigslist's legal services (http://neworleans.craigslist.org/lgs/) because there are often new attorneys offering to handle traffic tickets for free (or for a nominal fee like $25) as a means of building a practice. There must be some book out there that recommends this. By the way, I hope it's clear that I'm not looking to handle any tickets--this is totally FYI.
Regardless, if you get an attorney to handle the ticket, you generally will not have to go to court and they will almost always get the ticket reduced to a non-moving violation (that doesn’t go on your record and result in increased insurance rates) or, occasionally, they can get the ticket dismissed entirely. If, however, you want the experience of handling your own ticket, or don’t want to spend the cash, it’s pretty easy to handle the process on your own.
In this regard, it’s probably worth mentioning that the primary purpose of traffic tickets is revenue generation for local governments. When you realize that the whole process is designed to part you with your money, it’s much easier to work up the gall to fight your ticket in the first place.
The basic process for fighting your ticket will remain the same in every traffic court. Generally, they are all arranged around the same process: (1) you can call in and pay your ticket over the phone (or on the web) and you don’t even have to show up in court (if you do this, the ticket will go on your record and insurance companies can use the ticket as a reason to increase your insurance rates, I think for up to three years in Louisiana); (2) you can show up on the day of the hearing and they will ask you if you want to pay the fine immediately and leave without waiting for your hearing (again, the ticket will go on your record); or (3) you can tell them that you want to fight the ticket. If you fight the ticket, they will generally give you a piece of paper (or a copy of your ticket) and tell you to go sit in the courtroom and wait.
At this point, you will likely have to wait for an extended period of time while the city attorney or assistant district attorney deals with other matters in the court. After you have waited for a while, you will typically be called to the front of the courtroom (or to a side office), either alone or with a bunch of other people, and the DA will advise that they are willing to reduce the speeding ticket to a non-moving violation in exchange for payment of a fine--usually equal to or a little less than the speeding ticket would have been. At this point, most people gladly accept the offer and pay the fine. This will keep the ticket off of your record and your insurance rates will not go up.
For those who are feeling lucky, you can tell the attorney that you don’t accept the deal and that you would like them to nolle pross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolle_prosequi) the ticket or that you would like a hearing. They will either tell you to go back to the courtroom and wait, or they will say they can nolle pross the ticket If they offer this, then that means that you don’t have to pay any fine and nothing goes on your record. I’ve had about five or six speeding tickets of my own (most before law school) and got them all reduced to non-moving violations or dismissed entirely. I’ve never had to go beyond this point in the process.
If you do push your luck and the DA doesn’t offer you a nolle pross, then I would just ask the DA for a new hearing date or tell them that your are willing to take the non-moving violation offer. Worst-case scenario is that the hearing goes forward and they cop is there to testify and you get found guilty. In this case, you have to pay the fine, plus court costs, and the ticket goes on your record.
Remember that it’s the burden of the DA and the police to prove that you are guilty. It is not your burden to prove your innocence. Accordingly, even if you were totally speeding, there’s nothing wrong with pleading not guilty. It just means that you are not willing to concede your guilt and that you are going to require the state to put on the evidence of your violation. The state doesn’t want to go through the hassle of this, which is why you can feel pretty comfortable that they will offer you the non-moving violation if you show up and plead not-guilty. They get their money without having to hold a hearing and you don’t have to worry about your insurance going up.
Finally, if you do skip your traffic court date, the court will almost-certainly enter an attachment, which means the next time a cop runs your plate, they are going to be required to bring you into jail and you will likely end up spending the night in OPP. Unfortunately, it happens all the time, so if you have missed a hearing date go to the courthouse and pay your fines.
That’s traffic pettifoggery, in a nutshell. If anything is unclear or confusing, let me know.
Thanks,
Al
