Macdaddy Spin Off Thread

Joel

Joel

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
Winston-Salem, NC
I understand fighting tickets and don't disagree with the practice. Personally I have never done it but my dad, brother and plenty of friends have.

For those who do it for insurance reasons, does the savings on your insurance premiums offset the lawyer's fees? Just curious. And if you don't mind posting what the lawyer costs vs. the increase in insurance rates I would find that interesting too.
 
DUI for me soon after College, Lawyer Fee $500, Increased Insurance staying with State Farm was going to jump from about $400 every 6 months, to $1800 every 6 for 3 years. I opted for Joe Schmo Insurance @ $800 every 6 for 3 years then went back to State Farm.

Oh and the Lawyer didn't do crap for me.... I got him cause that what the everyone said "You're suppose to do" :rolleyes:
 
Ive paid a total of anywhere from $135 to $275 for a lawyer and all related costs, but my insurance has never gone up, and these things aren't on my record.

Mine were all speeding tickets, 6 tickets, 4 counties.
 
Oh, another... Busted for 95 in a 65 in Georgia

Paid the fine, then 6 months later got a notice from NCDMV that my license was being suspended for 6 months and to surrender it. Called the DMV and scheduled a hearing to get Limited Driving Privileges seeing as I was a single dad with custody of my Child and I needed to drive to work and the store to care for her. He denied me even limited driving. At that point said fine, called a lawyer, got my limited driving privileges with in a day ($500). and my Insurance went up about $50 every 6 after that. not sure how long it'll stay though... It's still there, 2 years now.
 
When I moved to NC, I got 3 tickets in a 2 month period, and never thought to get a lawyer....my previous state was pretty much man-up, pay the fine and carry-on. When my insurance renewal came back, the rate tripled.

I was paying about $140/6months for basic liability on my CJ, bumped up to $420. That's $280 increase/6 months, $560/year. Figure the lawyer usually doenst drop the cost of the ticket, just changes the charge to something insurance doesn't see, so don't consider the court cost/fee/fines. I could have probably used the $560 from year one to pay for 3 lawyers to work the tickets, then would have saved $560+ inflation for year 2, 3, 4, and 5. And my girlfriend/wife wouldn't have got dropped from her insurance once we got hitched :bounce2:
 
It never crossed my mind to get a lawyer for a traffic violation, so I just paid my fines and went my merry way, if the insurance went up, I never really noticed it, but then again, it's been years since I've received a ticket.

With that said, I've been pulled over several times and just received a warning from the officer, seems a military ID carries much weight. And before anyone ask why I show it, it's because my home state allows me to drive with an expired license until 60 days past my release date;)
 
If you get a speeding ticket, its almost always cheaper to get a lawyer. Even if you know you were wrongly accused! I have had many tickets over the 16 years I have been on the road. The first few times, I did not get a lawyer. Insurance sky rocketed for 3 years each. Finally broke down and got a lawyer and have not recieved points for any tickets since. Most of the time they can get the charges changed to improper equipment which is not a moving violation. Every county is different. Some DA's will drop charges in person and are very nice people but some are total "A" holes and wont even talk to you. Dont get a ticket in Sanford! The DA man there made me wait all day just to tell me NO! I sat there all day in court and watched every lawyer ask for inproper equipment on all their clients. He accepted every one of them with no questions asked. I got up there without an attorney and asked in the same words they were using. He shut me down by telling me I had to go get a speedo calibration. I said OK and left. When I got home, I called an attorney. He said to send him $150 and he would take care of it(which included his time, the court costs, and the fine). Long story short..........It got dropped to improper equipment! It would have cost me prolly more than that to get a calibration. Thats not counting all the time I spent in court. I didnt even have to show up for court once I got an attorney.

Word of advice......Always get a lawyer!
 
I got a speeding 75 in a 55 , in a work zone, with an open container...lawyer $200....all charges dismissed..court cost $80 if I recall. No insurance bump, money well spent. If OJ can get off murder, I'm hiring an attorney every time I think I might need one. The whole thing is a freaking racquet...period.

P.S. if you really want to piss an officer off tell him he's a glorified tax collector...I did this when I was WRONGLY accused of speeding and beat that charge too. I will say everytime I've been pulled I have admitted guilt right off the bat, but not that time.
 
This has been fairly interesting for me to read. I wouldn't have thought to do hire a lawyer unless I was going to lose my license.
 
I got one word for you......Mouthpiece.....Thats what I call lawyers. It seems that DAs and judges dont speak my language. But lawyers are great translators.(yes i speak english, I CAN TYPE IT TOO) Just get a mouthpiece .

If you hire an attorney for a DWI, You will still lose your liscense(IMO..YOU SHOULD)
HOWEVER, Your mouthpiece probably saved you some money, jail time, and embarrasment in court. Have you ever seen someone in court try to be his/her own lawyer? They get embarrased alot, by the judge and DA. Not pretty!
 
when i got my tickets my girlfriends father just happened to be the family lawyer.. he waved the fee's and just had me pay court costs.. which i woulda payed if i had accepted the ticket anyways.

he was paying me back for driving her to school every day cause she didnt have a car.
 
DUI charge mouthpiece or not mandatory loss of license for 1 year & 24 hours in jail or community service, drunk driving school & AA. Your mouthpiece will however get you a restricted license & keep you from being the proverbial fool.
 
Typical lawyer fees for typical speeding ticket (less than 15 over) - approx. $250.

Depending on your current rates/value of the insured vehicle, you'll save the $250 within the first year.
 
I got pulled over in South Dakota for a busted tail light. When the cop pulled me I gave him my license and registration and when he came back to the jeep he says my license was suspended. I had no idea that it was and because I had just recetly moved I could not find my insurance info which did not help the situation. So I get put in handcuffs and taken to the clink the jeep gets towed and put in the impound. The charges were driving with a suspended license, no proof of insurance, no seat belt, no front license plate, and impaired vision due to stuff hanging from the review mirror.

Needless to say this would have cost a friggin fortune in insurance spike and the tickets alone. So yes I got a lawyer and it ended up only costing me around $300 but I still didn't get a license back on the bright side I didn't have to stay in jail for more than a couple hours. It did however take 3 months of different court dates and what not to get it all taken care of. The cops in South Dakota are bored and do basically anything to get someone (bastards). I also got a speeding ticket for doing 100 in a 55 that almost landed me in jail for a LOOOONG time but since I was in the military and had a military emergency; the officer knocked it down to 75 in a 55 and gave me an excort back to the base so I could get the part to the B1 maintenance crew, so they could get the plane in the air.
 
My parents have a lawyer so I never had to pay anything in lawyer fees. The court cost I always had to pay, and since I was still a "new" driver, insurance would have killed me. So it was worth it for me, just court costs, 1 defensive driving class, and then the hanging from my parents :handed:
 
Roughly 10-11 speeding tickets and one driving on a revoked liscence within about three years, then one more after that. No speeding tickets in over six years now, though! :D I got a lawyer for almost all of them. The first and last ones, I used favors from a friend in the DA's office. The worst period I had was two outstanding tickets, then getting pulled for 64 in a 45 on a revoked liscence. The liscence should not have been revoked, I had taken care of that issue, but the clerk of court dropped the ball on that one. It was, however, expired. Either way, the lawyer had my liscence back by 4:00 that afternoon, and the ticket that was causing the problem had been reduced to a 5 over charge. It's the first, and I believe only, ticket that actually stuck. I had maybe one point on my insurance by the end of this period of my life, and no rise in rates. IMO, lawyering up was well worth it. I wasn't a bad driver, I just liked to move with a sense of urgency when traffic was light. And for a while there, I got caught a lot. Two tickets were while I had a radar detector! Anyway, if I get another, I will use a lawyer.
 
Here's how it works in NC. I've been there done that. For your first violation, GO TO COURT! Talk to the DA and he/she will automatically reduce it to 9 over. They do this for everyone up to something like 30 over, (unless you were in a school zone, then you're screwed). You go before the judge and plead guilty to the reduced charge. You will get 1 drivers license point and NO insurance points. (There is a difference). You pay $120 in court costs plus a $10 fine. For your second violation, GO TO COURT! Do the same thing as in situation 1 and when you go before the judge plead guilty and then ask for a preyer for judgement. This will net you just $120 in court costs and probation for 3 years. Should you get another ticket within those three years the Prayer for judgement ticket will show up too and your insurance will go up. With 7 tickets in 5 years or so I was paying $250 a month for full coverage insurance on a '04 odyssey minivan and liability only on a '84 toyota hilux. I'm now down to $160 a month for those same two cars and have added liability only to a 1997 4runner.
 
Mr. twisted, I lived in South Dakota in the town ship of Brookings for 2 years my daughter was born there I have a few friends there that are officers of the law & I will thank you sir NOT to condemn an entire police force for one that is doing his job remember ignorance is NO excuse to the law the officers I know up there take their job seriously just like you & I do & that is no reason to condemn someone as a bastard especially if you have no clue if their parents were married when he was born
 
I've had two tickets greater than 15 over, which I had a lawyer handle and had one more I took care of as a PFJ. Then I got another ticket for greater than 15 over. At this point I realized my stupidity for using the PFJ, since I would take on both tickets/points in full and immediately got my lawyer. The $310 I paid the lawyer was less than the insurance increase for one month I would have received as a result of the ticket had I not gotten a lawyer.

My lesson learned, never risk it ALWAYS get a lawyer.
 
Jeff B said:
DUI charge mouthpiece or not mandatory loss of license for 1 year
Click to expand...


Not if the charges are dropped ;)

Itll take a good lawyer (not the $300 letter in the mail type) but depending on the circumstances it may be worth it.

And please spare me the grief, I do not condone drunk driving but that law can be manipulated like any other. breathalysers have a strong dependency on time since consumption, I know a guy who got pulled for an open container and the cop was in the breath van. He was made to blow instantly and even though he had consumed a total of 4 oz of beer he blew .09...had he refused the breathalyser in SC that is an automatic guilty plea
 
Back
Top