Infractions

What are the impacts of a ticket?

Should you choose to defend your own ticket, one of the impacts is time away from work. Typically, an infraction calendar can mean that you sit in a courtroom for hours before it’s your turn. It is not unusual to miss most or all of a work day. If it is unpaid leave, you are missing out on that income as well as potentially paying the ticket.

If you contest the ticket and are found “committed” (meaning the court finds you guilty of the cited offense), you will have to pay the full amount of the fine. If you do not contest the ticket but ask the court to reduce the amount of the fine (mitigate), you will pay less but do not get a chance to defend yourself—you’re agreeing that you committed the offense. In either case, the ticket will appear on your history and it is very likely that your insurance rates will go up.

If you have a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), the tickets have a much greater impact and you can lose your license. For teens, an infraction will count as a “warning” and, after two warnings, your license is suspended.

Finally, be aware that your ticket may also lead to further serious consequences such as license suspension as a Habitual Traffic Offender (HTO). Additionally, If you were cited for leaving the scene of an accident, it is possible that the initial ticket is an infraction but, if a person was later found to be injured at the scene, that can become a criminal charge. Furthermore, if you were arrested for DUI (alcohol or marijuana-related) and also cited for an infraction, it is important for your attorney to review both of those cases. Occasionally, the infraction citation is used a pretextual stop for your DUI and greatly impacts the evidence collected on your DUI stop. Your criminal defense attorney will certainly want to analyze the infraction ticket in conjunction with the discovery on your criminal charge.

How can an attorney make any difference?

Often people want to contest their ticket but they don’t understand how to present their side of the case. Furthermore, they don’t know how to seek discovery, subpoena the officer, or properly cross examine the officer. It becomes overwhelming and extremely time-consuming. And, in most cases, non-attorneys focus on the wrong aspects of the case. It isn’t really about what the officer or you think about the ticket, it’s whether the State can prove you violated the relevant statute. There are many facets to analyzing the strength of the State’s case and most non-attorneys would have no reason to know how to do that. It really just comes down to experience.

As prosecutors and defense counsel, our attorneys have handled thousands of infractions. We certainly have experience on our side. When you hire an attorney at Witt Law Group, all of the stress and guess work disappears. In fact, in most cases, you only need to make a single phone call to our office and everything else is taken care of. No time off of work. No worries about discovery. No worries about your defense.

Whether it’s speeding, operating a motor vehicle without insurance, no tabs, improper lane usage, speeding too fast for conditions, negligent driving in the second degree, failure to abide by a traffic control signal, equipment violations (no mud flaps, broken taillights), skateboarding, defective exhaust, tinted windows, violation of restricted license, no seat belt, noise violation (speakers too loud), talking on a cell phone or use of an electronic device, littering, or failure to secure load—we handle them all!

If you would like further information about how a defense attorney can help you with your ticket, attorney Ryan Witt has a video with further explanation.

When a person hires us to handle their infraction, we want them to be familiar with our “infraction protocol.”  It will help you understand what we do and what to expect in the following weeks and months. 

Click here for our infraction protocol

We look forward to assisting you with you infraction!  Witt Law Group is a personal injury and criminal defense law firm with offices in Bremerton and Gig Harbor, Washington.