Traffic Offenses are trivial- unless they land you in jail!

I just got a summons to show up at court to deal with a traffic ticket. I don’t feel like going; I’ll just plead guilty and pay the fine. What’s the worst that can happen?

So, you’ve been charged with a traffic offense and now that cop who wouldn’t let you off with a warning has left you with a nice ticket for several hundred dollars and the option on the back to pay it by mail or online with a guilty plea, or the option of asking the court to schedule a summary traffic trial so you can defend yourself. Who has time to go to deal with a ticket? I’m going to lose anyway because the government just wants to meet its ticket quota and I have better things to do.

Well, what you don’t know about traffic is, it’s not just an inconvenience while you’re driving home. That ticket you were just issued could be the first handful of ice and snow that eventually becomes the snowball you can’t get out from under. Traffic citations are oftentimes insignificant little annoyances that you deal with by paying a fine and going on your way. The problem is that people just don’t understand the ramifications that our massive traffic code has on their life. Maybe you got arrested for speeding one too many times. Maybe you forgot to pay for your license and registration. Maybe you drove without insurance. Maybe you’ve accumulated enough points in year for your license to be suspended. Well, everyone has to work right? I have to drive to get there, so what happens when you get pulled over with a suspended license? Another fine? OK so what its just money.

Well, the problem people start to face is that these little annoyances result in license suspension. If you get pulled over with a suspended license you’ve just landed in quicksand. While driving with a suspended license isn’t an automatic jail sentence, it is a several hundred dollar fine and, more importantly, an extension of the time you have a suspended license! Now when you urgently have to be somewhere and you have to drive because there is no other option, and you get pulled over, you’re starting to look at mandatory jail time. Mandatory jail time means your local magistrate who hears your traffic offense has no choice but to sentence you to jail time. Does that mean you’re actually going to serve time? Not necessarily. But it does mean you need to get an attorney ASAP.

And just to add on; if you’ve been convicted of a DUI and you get pulled over for having a suspended license DUI related. Get an attorney immediately. A traffic conviction for this offense carries mandatory jail time on the first offense. It also continues to expand the time you have to deal with license suspensions. I’ll elaborate more on this in my next blog posting.

At this point, my hope is that you can see the trouble our traffic code can land you in. Even though it’s a summary offense and not as serious as being charged with a crime, it can become just as serious if you aren’t careful.

So, I just got a summons to show up at court to deal with a traffic ticket. What should I do? My best advice is to call me ASAP. Pietropaolo Law can be reached at 412 407 3880 by call and text. No matter how annoying and stupid a traffic citation can be, lets make sure it stays that way. Stupid and annoying is a lot better than facing years’ worth of license suspensions and potentially, time in the jail.

Be safe, be smart, and be prepared,

Domenic Pietropaolo, Esq.