In the ABA journal I just finished, there was a piece of interest to Denver traffic ticket lawyers and those facing tickets alike. It was primarily about little guys (laypeople without lawyers who had been wronged) facing up to larger entities and coming out on top. This is something that pretty rarely happens in the expensive and confusing criminal justice system. One was about a guy in Pennsylvania who managed to "foreclose" on Wells Fargo because they had failed to file some sort of paperwork correctly. The other was a guy who beat a speeding ticket that was issued by one of those speed traps that catch people around school zones and congested areas once in a while.
Basically, without the help of a Denver traffic ticket lawyer, this guy was able to prove that the camera didn't show he was speeding. The way the system works is it takes two pictures with cameras a set distance apart. If your car moves too far for the interval, and is deemed to be going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, it's flagged. Then an employee with the city looks at it, and decides if there was a violation. Then you get a ticket in the mail.
Only in this case, the cameras didn't show the guy was going more than 10 miles per hour over. By comparing the distance he had traveled to a parked car to gain an estimate of how many feet, then diving that by the number of seconds elapsed between the frame captures, he showed that he was not doing 42 in a 30 or whatever. I'm not really sure whether to be more happy for the guy for beating the system, or annoyed that he had to do it at all. How many people end up in the same situation but just think the camera thing is an automatic 80 bucks out of there pockets? How many others get mad, but don't know how to contest it.
That's why it's good to hire a Denver traffic ticket lawyer. We know the ins and outs of the system, and the little ways the cops (and even the machines!) can make mistakes. We can help you as the little guy, because not every little guy is as determined and knowledgable as the guy from the ABA article
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Denver traffic ticket lawyer / long distance relationships
Sometimes you want your Denver criminal defense attorney to give you a lot of attention and make sure your case is handled well. Sometimes you probably want to be there at each stage of the proceedings, to make sure you don't get screwed over. But if you just got a $100 speeding ticket, especially if you don't live in Denver, you probably just want the stupid thing to go away. One way people get victimized by traffic tickets is because they feel it is too much of a pain, and too much of an expense, to drive all the way from Durango back to Denver (where they got the ticket) to contest it. Here's the thing though: with a Denver traffic ticket lawyer you don't have to.
You can call a lawyer over the phone and talk to him and see if it sounds like he'll do a good job. He can decide if it sounds like you have a worthwhile case, and also give you a quote. If you decide to retain him, we can take payments over the phone. Then you'll fill out and mail (or fax) some paperwork to the court designating your Denver traffic ticket lawyer as your agent (that's lawyer speak for a person authorized to speak and act on your behalf). Once that's done, the attorney can pretty much take care of everything for you. He can enter a plea of not guilty, pick up discovery in the case, talk to the prosecutor and try to get it dropped. If that doesn't work, your Denver traffic ticket lawyer can go to trial without you. It's true that you won't be able to testify. However, usually the defendant's testimony isn't really all that helpful at a traffic case. The case is more about what the officer observed, what the condition of the road is, and whether the equipment the officer was using was in working order (like the radar gun or the laser speed checker). So if you live far away and want to contest your Denver traffic ticket, call a speeding ticket lawyer and let him take care of it.
You can call a lawyer over the phone and talk to him and see if it sounds like he'll do a good job. He can decide if it sounds like you have a worthwhile case, and also give you a quote. If you decide to retain him, we can take payments over the phone. Then you'll fill out and mail (or fax) some paperwork to the court designating your Denver traffic ticket lawyer as your agent (that's lawyer speak for a person authorized to speak and act on your behalf). Once that's done, the attorney can pretty much take care of everything for you. He can enter a plea of not guilty, pick up discovery in the case, talk to the prosecutor and try to get it dropped. If that doesn't work, your Denver traffic ticket lawyer can go to trial without you. It's true that you won't be able to testify. However, usually the defendant's testimony isn't really all that helpful at a traffic case. The case is more about what the officer observed, what the condition of the road is, and whether the equipment the officer was using was in working order (like the radar gun or the laser speed checker). So if you live far away and want to contest your Denver traffic ticket, call a speeding ticket lawyer and let him take care of it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Denver traffic ticket lawyer / don't do nothing
Getting a speeding ticket is a pain in the neck. It is understandable that you would just want to ignore it after it happens. You do have a number of options for working through your ticket, including hiring a Denver traffic ticket attorney. Although that is obviously the course of action I would recommend, because traffic ticket attorneys can get results, not everybody feels they can afford one. And that's also a position I understand, because no matter how down on your luck you are, the court will not appoint you a Denver traffic ticket lawyer. That's because technically a traffic ticket is violation, or a civil case, not a criminal offense. Whether you decide to pay the fine, contest it, or hire an attorney to help contest your ticket, my biggest piece of advice is what not to do: don't kick the can down the road.
You see, traffic ticket cases have very quick timelines. The state does not want outstanding and unpaid tickets sitting on their desk for months. They want to get the money so they can pave potholes, pay their cops, and buy new pens for the mayor's office. That means you generally have just three weeks to respond to the traffic ticket. If you crumple up your ticket and put it in the glove box and forget about it, you will get the unpleasant surprise of another mailing from the city, this time with a bill for double the amount. If you still do nothing about it, the state can do all sorts of things you would probably rather not think about. They can suspend your license, so you can't drive to work. They can get a judgment against your car, which means they can ultimately boot or even tow it away until you pay. If they find you in default, it can be sent to collections, which will result in additional fees and harm your credit rating. All the time, your headaches and expenses over this unnecessary situation will increase.
Additionally, if you do decide to fight the ticket, your Denver traffic ticket lawyer's options in fighting the ticket will be significantly decreased. You may have had a case in the first place, but frequently the additional fees for failure to pay, failure to appear, and driving with a suspended license exist even if the initial speeding ticket was bogus. So dealing with your speeding ticket may be a big pain in the neck, but it will be much, much worse down the road. Pay now, fight it now, or hire a lawyer now.
You see, traffic ticket cases have very quick timelines. The state does not want outstanding and unpaid tickets sitting on their desk for months. They want to get the money so they can pave potholes, pay their cops, and buy new pens for the mayor's office. That means you generally have just three weeks to respond to the traffic ticket. If you crumple up your ticket and put it in the glove box and forget about it, you will get the unpleasant surprise of another mailing from the city, this time with a bill for double the amount. If you still do nothing about it, the state can do all sorts of things you would probably rather not think about. They can suspend your license, so you can't drive to work. They can get a judgment against your car, which means they can ultimately boot or even tow it away until you pay. If they find you in default, it can be sent to collections, which will result in additional fees and harm your credit rating. All the time, your headaches and expenses over this unnecessary situation will increase.
Additionally, if you do decide to fight the ticket, your Denver traffic ticket lawyer's options in fighting the ticket will be significantly decreased. You may have had a case in the first place, but frequently the additional fees for failure to pay, failure to appear, and driving with a suspended license exist even if the initial speeding ticket was bogus. So dealing with your speeding ticket may be a big pain in the neck, but it will be much, much worse down the road. Pay now, fight it now, or hire a lawyer now.
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