Infraction Protocol

Jennifer Witt
Infraction protocol

Protocol once you hire Witt Law Group for your traffic infraction:

1) You will provide information regarding the date of infraction, your date of birth and full name, whether you have a CDL, the location of where you were cited, and the ticket number (if you know it) to the attorney or staff at Witt Law Group.

2) Our office will file a Notice of Appearance with the relevant court and prosecutor in the county or city where the infraction was alleged to have been committed. This tells the court and prosecutor that you are being represented by an attorney and all correspondence and discovery should be mailed to our office.

3) A court date is set for us to challenge the ticket. The hearing date is typically set 45 days or more from the date of the infraction. Your attorney can move that date when needed. If you receive a Summons from the court regarding your court date, you do not need to appear unless your attorney tells you to do so. If you have a question about this, call our office.

4) Wait to hear from your attorney. Make sure the office has your current phone number!
While waiting a month or two can be hard for some people, there really is nothing happening until the week before your hearing. Discussions between your attorney and the prosecutor will only happen the week before your hearing (and, in certain courts, the day of your hearing) because the prosecutor is too busy. They have a stack of hundreds of infractions and, rarely, will a prosecutor have the time to pull your case out of the pile before it’s on the front burner. So, sit tight and know that your attorney will call you the week before court as soon as he or she gets word of an agreement to dismiss or another offer for you. Again, make sure we have your current contact information.

5) When your attorney calls, you will be asked whether you want to contest your ticket (assuming the prosecutor hasn’t already agreed to dismiss it). Most of the time, this can happen without you going to court. Sometimes, your presence may be needed. There may also be another offer from the prosecutor in which you pay a fine but the infraction is reduced to a nonmoving violation that, ideally, will not be reported to your insurance company (so your insurance rates won’t go up). Please note, we are not permitted to guarantee this because the Legislature and DOL are always free to change the rules but, so far, this has worked 99% of the time. Your attorney must get your approval to determine which route you want the case to go.

6) On the day of your hearing, the attorney will act on your behalf and follow the plan that you discussed over the phone. Occasionally, if something has changed (perhaps you have more history than you initially let your attorney know about), the hearing date can be moved to a later time. This gives your attorney time to speak with you about new discovery or review new offers from the prosecutor. The normal protocol is to resolve the case on the initial date set for the hearing and we try to avoid re-setting the hearing. If we were unable to reach you during the week prior to the hearing, we will have to move the court date.

7) Within a few days after the hearing, you will hear from our office. Typically, this will be done via email so make sure you provide us an email address that you check regularly. The results of your representation will be conveyed to you and what, if anything, you need to do for follow up. If you need to send a check for a fine, you will be instructed on how to do that and where the check should be mailed. Since we handle a high volume of infractions, it is normal to hear from us within a week of your hearing. However, if you are eager to know the results on the day of the infraction hearing, please let our staff know that you’d like a call that evening. We will do our best to accommodate. Also note, that the resolution email will be sent only once. If you miss the payment deadline, any deal that was made will be revoked and you will be found committed on the original infraction. 

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