North Carolina Traffic Tickets – What an Attorney Can Do For You

If you get a traffic ticket in North Carolina you likely have several thoughts running through your mind:

“What was that cop thinking?”

“How much money do they make out of that speed trap?  This is b^!!%#!^!”

“How is this going to affect my insurance?”

“Will I lose my license?”

“Am I going to have to go to court?”

I can’t help you much with the first two, but the other ones I might be able to tackle:

How is this going to affect my insurance?

Moving violations (a somewhat arbitrary designation given by statute to certain offenses) carry two different kinds of points in North Carolina – DMV and insurance points.  Let’s talk insurance points first.  For every point you receive from a conviction, your auto insurance premiums can increase.  One point raises your rates by 30%.  Two points 45%. Three points 60%.  And it gets higher.  Each conviction, depending on what you are convicted of, can give you multiple points. And in a three year period, they are cumulative, so if you get one point from a conviction, and then 2 points from another a year later, you’re going to have a period with 3 insurance points!  That’s bad news.

So what can an attorney do?  My job would be to get the ticket reduced (or if possible dismissed) so that your insurance points will be either zero, or at least less than what you’d get with the original charge.  Do you know how to do that?  Do you know what offenses give you how many points?  If you don’t, you could probably use an attorney.

Will I lose my license?

Maybe.  It depends on what you are convicted of.  Only certain convictions result in a revocation in North Carolina.  Mostly what we see are convictions of speeding 16 or more mph over the limit in a 55 mph zone or higher, and convictions of driving while license revoked – those can result in a license suspension.

So what can an attorney do?  In the speeding case, we can try to get it reduced to avoid the revocation.  In the driving while license revoked case, that’s a bit more complicated, and may require looking at past convictions to try to clean you up. If you don’t know how to do that, you probably could use an attorney’s help.

Am I going to have to go to court?  

            That depends on the charge.  On most speeding charges in North Carolina, a court appearance by the defendant is not necessary.  In cases that are deemed “misdemeanors” (once again, another arbitrary designation, but mostly it’s speeding 16 mph or more over…) it will say on the ticket that your appearance is mandatory.  What that means is someone has to appear for you, which means either you or a licensed attorney representing you can appear in court for you.  In other words, someone has to come to court and take care of it and you can’t just pay it off.  Not that you would ever just pay off a ticket without talking to an attorney first.  That is almost never a good idea.

So what can an attorney do?  We can keep you from taking time out of work, traveling to court, wasting a day (or three? Or more? ) trying to figure out how this process works.  If your time is valuable, you can probably use an attorney.

I hope that information is helpful.  If you have a speeding ticket in North Carolina, call me; maybe I can  help!