Speeding Ticket Defense Attorney in Commack, New York

The Law Office of Joel Salinger, P.C. can represent you in any New York State court and fight your speeding violation, which will save you points and money on car insurance. In most cases, we can go to court for you so you can sit back and relax as we do all the work.

What Results We Can Get for You?

For the vast majority of traffic violations in New York State, we can reduce your speeding ticket to a non-moving violation such as a parking ticket or failure to obey a traffic control device.

Traffic Violations Bureau (TVB)

The TVB is a special administrative court that has its own rules and procedures. Individuals, who are charged with traffic tickets in New York City, are required to report to the TVB for a trial if they plead not guilty. In the TVB there is no “plea bargain” process, so a traffic ticket attorney cannot go into court and negotiate a reduction of the charges with the prosecutor. Therefore, there are three main things we can do:

• We can represent you in court, so you do not have to show up

• We can push off the trial date, hope the police officer does not show up for 3 court appearances, and then make a motion for dismissal

• We can make a motion to reduce the speed by 5 MPH on the grounds that the radar or method used to catch speeders is not completely accurate. (Not all speeding is measured by radar and we understand the imperfect science of radar detection.)

If you have been cited with a New York speeding ticket, it’s time to call an attorney who specializes in New York speeding ticket traffic violations. Going it alone or using an attorney who doesn’t special in traffic law can be a mistake that you will live with for a long while. Depending upon the severity of the charges, New York courts can handle the ticket differently. Sometimes your ticket can lead to points on your license which can lead to increased insurance rates. Other motor vehicle violations like reckless driving can lead to fines or sometimes potentially even imprisonment. Occasionally, people feel they will go in and handle it themselves and that it isn’t a big deal. However, often it is actually cheaper in the end to hire an attorney who can deal with your New York speeding ticket more effectively. Here is why:

If you elect to answer for the ticket or charges on your own behalf, you very likely may not be able to negotiate as good a deal as an attorney who knows how to beat your NY speeding ticket.

What happens next is that you often:

A) End up paying higher fines and/or

B) Get more points on your license which jumps your insurance rates

Here is what frequently occurs:

You get a ticket for speeding, and they want $600 in fines and three points on your license. You agree to plead guilty, waiving any assistance of counsel, and get a “deal” of only having to pay $300 or $400 and get two points on your license. Sounds like a good deal? Not really when you consider that your insurance rates may go up every month for the next couple of years. Even if you negotiate what you think at the time is a “good” deal for yourself, let’s say you keep the points to a couple so that your insurance only goes up say $100-$150 per month – that is still potentially over $2000-$3000 over the next few years when you include the insurance spikes, court fines, and administrative fees. Not such a good “deal” anymore when a lawyer who does this for a living can often get you no points or structure a true plea DEAL where you may pay a lesser fine upfront but avoid triggering the points and save thousands on your insurance – and all for often a fraction, of the cost. So which would you rather pay a couple of hundred dollars now to get a lawyer to fight your NY speeding ticket or a couple hundred extra every month for the next couple of years in insurance premium hikes?

You may not know it, but when you get a moving violation, you enter the complex bureaucracy of your local municipal or county traffic court where negotiation is very often the rule as opposed to the exception. Most people do NOT know this which is why a full 90% of traffic offenders make the mistake of paying their ticket rather than fighting it in court or having an attorney help them.

Aside from the points, a speeding conviction may lead to your license being suspended or even revoked. Some judges elect to suspend drivers for just one 8-point or 11-point speeding conviction. Others may wait for two speeding convictions. Three speeding convictions within eighteen months will result in an automatic and mandatory 6-month license revocation.

New York Driver Responsibility Assessment

With every moving violation (even repeated minor infractions) that you are convicted of, you can expect more points to be added to your license. If you get 6 or more points within an 18-month period, the DMV will fine you a surcharge known as the “Driver Responsibility Assessment.” For drivers with 6 points, the fine is $100 and it must be paid once a year to the DMV for 3 years. An additional $25 per year for three years will be added to the Driver Responsibility Assessment for every point over 6.

Taking a Driver’s Safety Class to Reduce the Points on Your New York License

Contrary to popular belief, taking a driver’s safety class in New York does not actually remove points from your driving record. This means your auto insurance company will still be able to see the points and increase your insurance rates accordingly.

What the driver’s safety class does is give you a credit of up to 4 points for tickets you have already received at the time you take the class, thereby expanding the total number of points you’re allowed to accumulate before your license gets suspended.