How to Beat a NYC Traffic Ticket
It is imperative that you fight a traffic ticket you receive in NYC. In NYC, traffic courts are administrative tribunals and, in general, plea bargaining is NOT allowed. Therefore, any ticket which you receive must be fought or you will receive points on your driver’s license and a fine. In many cases, you will receive a driver assessment, which is a tax for being a bad motorist.
This tax is in addition to the fine you pay when found guilty by the administrative law judge. By simply paying a ticket, you are pleading guilty to the charge. Then the points will stay on your license for the longest possible time period. This will affect your insurance premiums and could lead to the suspension or revocation of your driver’s license.
By hiring a competent lawyer you can greatly reduce your risk of having higher insurance, paying fines, paying a bad driver tax and of losing your license.
A good attorney will know how to defend you and present your case in the best light to the judge. A good lawyer is familiar with the rules which the police officer must prove in order to establish his prima facie case against you.
A prima facie case is the elements which an officer must state on direct testimony in order to establish a moving violation charge against your. For instance, let’s suppose you receive a red light ticket, which is section 1111D1 in the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law. A police officer must state on direct testimony that he tested the traffic light at issue before and after the traffic stop. He or she must state that the traffic light at issue was working properly at both times.
The officer must describe the light at issue as having circular disks or arrows. The officer must describe the traffic lanes and whether there is a stop line or a cross walk in front of the traffic light. The officer must state that he or she saw the motorist approach the cross walk while the light was in its red phase and pass the traffic light. The officer must state the appearance of the motorist’s vehicle and then how he or she identified the motorist.
That is that the motorist produced a valid NYS driver’s license. A good lawyer will know that an officer has missed testifying about an element of the prima facie case, and will move for a dismissal of the charge against the motorist if the People fail to establish all the required elements of a charge.
A good lawyer knows all the prima facie case elements for all VTL or Traffic Rule violations of which a motorist can be accused. A good lawyer will know which judge values which prima facie case elements
more than others.For instance, some judges will not care if a {police officer|cop} fails to describe the shape of the traffic light’s actual light bulbs as circular or arrow shaped. Other judges will dismiss if an officer forgets to do this.
As you can see a good lawyer is imperative in NYC to fight traffic tickets. Unless you want to study the law on the elements for which you have been charged and spend a week or so at DMV court studying the judges for their particular requirements to prove a case, it is better to hire a competent lawyer.
Michael Spevack is an NYU School of Law Graduate and for over a decade has been a lawyer in the taxi industry in NYC. He fights traffic tickets on behalf of some of the largest taxi garages in the City and is now available to the public to fight tickets. Call him at 1-866-LAW-MIKE (529-6453) or 212.754.1011 or visit his website athttp://www.traffic-summons.com
