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Missed Your Court Date? It’s Worse Than You Think.

Written by jeffreyhoward on . Posted in North Carolina Law Blog.

Traffic Attorney
Oh, snap! It’s the Po Po!

This happens DAILY… Someone gets a traffic ticket, they drop it in their purse or man bag or whatever, thinking, “I’ll deal with that later,” and POOF it’s forgotten.  Then they get pulled over for something silly in a few months, their license is revoked, and they go to jail. WHAT?!?! How can this happen?

I get it. You think “it’s only a traffic ticket” and you don’t prioritize it. You’ve got lots of stuff going on.  

I’m telling you, though, you need to take this seriously. 

Even a mere speeding ticket can have a huge impact on your life.  Even if it’s just speeding, not handling the charge correctly can be expensive at best, or can get you jail time.  That’s right. If you are driving while your license is revoked, that can lead to a jail sentence. Seriously.

This often happens to folks who, for whatever reason, also haven’t updated their address with DMV, so when DMV sends their warning letter about the missed court date (Failure to Appear, or FTA) and impending revocation of their license, the person doesn’t get it!  So the built-in warning system that DMV has to prevent this doesn’t work because they don’t know where you are anymore! Driving With Licensed Revoked (DWLR) is a Class 2 Misdemeanor in North Carolina, and the sentencing guidelines allow for jail time.  I refer to this as “snowballing”, because what starts out as a simple thing to manage starts rolling down the hill and turns into a much bigger and more dangerous problem, just like the snowballs rolling downhill turn into snow boulders in cartoons.

And you’re probably not surprised to find out it’s more expensive to hire an attorney on a DWLR charge than on a speeding ticket. So if you had just hired me initially, you’d have been WAY better off!

This can happen to you!  If you have an Orange County or Chatham County ticket, and you don’t want to go to court (or forget to go to court!) you need someone to help.  Call me at 919-929-2992 and I’ll be glad to help.  Don’t let something silly turn into something dangerous.