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The NYPD traffic ticket fixing scandal that’s been in the news most of this year took another step forward Friday as 16 officers were arraigned on criminal charges in the Bronx in conjunction with the scandal.   Hundreds of officers have found themselves involved in the scandal to some extent.  While the vast majority of officers will be dealt with administratively by the NYPD, the 16 arraigned Friday are charged with activity that rose to the criminal level.

Eleven of the 16 were charged with fixing tickets.  All 16 were charged with a official misconduct charges ranging from destroying summonses to accepting gifts or forcing other officers to perjure themselves in court.

Many officers not directly involved with the scandal were at the scene to protest the entire investigation.  The crowd of officers backed their colleagues while voicing their displeasure with NYPD officials who pushed ahead with this investigation in the first place.   Officers referred to the investigation as a “persecution”, not a prosecution.  Chants of “Ray Kelly, hypocrite” and “innocent, innocent” were heard from the crowd.

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Pat Lynch said the investigation focused on rank-and-file cops and spared higher ranking officers.  One sign at the scene read “just following orders”, a reference to the fact that many of the subjects of the investigation claim they were simply acting on a request of a superior within the department to help make a ticket go away.

In general, officers feel it is quite unfair to suddenly unleash an investigation of this scope and levy criminal charges for fixing tickets which was as much a part of regular police work as issuing a ticket itself.  Ticket fixing was traditionally seen as a courtesy, not a crime.

According to Commissioner Kelly, ticket fixing activities  “are crimes under the law and can’t be glossed over as ‘courtesies’ or as part of an acceptable culture.”  He added that “those who try to rationalize them as such are kidding themselves.”

The accused accused officers were shown some courtesy and given the opportunity to turn themselves in overnight as a way of dodging the media and delays in fingerprint processing.  This didn’t seem to mean much to the officers who feel, as one put it, that “this whole thing is a bunch of bullshit”.

Scott Feifer, Esq.

Here are some stories of interest pertaining to traffic tickets and driving related issues outside of NY.

October 15, 2011
In 2003, 3,815 aggressive driving violations. In 2010, 23,180. Aggressive Driving On the Rise In Florida

September 18, 2011:
Missouri Child Passenger Safety Week. Aggressive Enforcement Of Child Safety Restraint Violations

August 25, 2011:
Houston follows Los Angeles and ends red light camera program.  Putting An End To Red Light Camera Enforcement

July 19,2011:
Carmageddon in California wasn’t as bad as expected. Nicely Done, California Drivers

July 15, 2011:
New Illinois law makes it the 15th State to require every person in car to wear a seatbelt.  Illinois Seat Belt Law

July 5, 2011:
South Carolina forms Commission to examine automated camera traffic tickets. South Carolina Camera Tickets

July 1, 2011:
California changes law with respect to driving school and ticket dismissal. New California Driving School Law Closes Loopholes.

June 28, 2011:
Nevada ahead of the game in preparing for self driving cars. Nevada Thinking About A World With Self Driving Cars.

June 23, 2011:
Possible national bill to ban driving while using a cell phone. National Cell Phone Bill Proposed

June 17, 2011:
Examples from a few states of some of the issues surrounding camera tickets. Camera Ticket News From Around The Country.

June 15, 2011 Traffic Ticket helps police catch carjacker. Traffic Ticket In Getaway Car Is The Clue.

June 9, 2011
Mahwah, NJ Traffic Tickets Issued Electronically With New System.  Mahwah, NJ Traffic Tickets

June 8, 2011:
Texas Traffic Ticket Information Now Available Online.  Texas Traffic Tickets

Governor Cuomo signed a new law over the summer to crack down on texting while driving.

In August, the first full month after the new law took effect, Police issued 1,082 tickets.  According to NY State records, this is up from an average of 427 per month from January through June.

Cuomo commented that “We were serious when this law passed. Texting while driving is illegal and the law is being enforced, so don’t do it,”

Whether it was a coincidence or he knew it was a Doors (Roadhouse Blues) song lyric, he added “Keep your eyes on the road and your hands (up)on the wheel.”

This summer’s new law changed what was a “secondary” offense  (could only be issued after observing another traffic violation) to a “primary” offense .  Now, officers could stop motorists and issue a summons if texting was the only violation observed.

In NYC, records show 438 tickets issued in August, up from an average of 189 per month from January through June and up from 109 in August 2010.

With legal problems in general, there is no place for procrastination and tardiness.  When it comes to traffic tickets, it’s the worst course of (in)action you can take.

If you are issued a traffic ticket, your first steps should simply be to

1.  Quickly figure out what to do.  From our perspective, the easiest thing to do is call us and let us walk you through the decision making process via a short, free consultation.  We can’t vouch for any other advice or information you may receive, but whether you are speaking to an attorney or relying on a past experience or getting information from the internet or a directly from a court, you’ll want to first and foremost get reliable advice and figure out what your best course of action is.

2.  Do whatever it is you decide to do.

The only way you can really mess this up is by putting off the decision making process.  What if you wait too long and now you are forced to schedule a case for a less convenient time or are forced to do something in person that you previously could have done online?  Sometimes you’ll do your research and figure out that the plan is to delay or wait for something.  That’s OK.  What we’re talking about it putting off the process of formulating the actual plan itself–there is literally zero upside and only downside when you wait around and figure out what to do “later on”.

Once you have a handle on how you intend to proceed, make sure every step of the process is handled in a timely fashion.  Almost everyone who gets a traffic ticket is worried about the same things.  Big fines, big surcharges, losing a privilege to drive, losing the ability to earn a living and increased insurance rates are at the heart of most traffic ticket related concerns.  The only surefire way to suffer any or all of these consequences is to do nothing and miss deadlines, court dates, etc.

Traffic tickets in NY are handled by two different systems–the Traffic Violations Bureau (TVB) in NYC and a couple of other locations and the various local courts throughout the state.   In either system, it is imperative for a motorist who has been issued a traffic ticket to:

• Respond on time.
• Appear on scheduled hearing dates.
• Pay fines (if any due) on time.

Following through on these simple items above does not guarantee a successful outcome with your case.  However, failure to follow through with any one of these is a guarantee that there will be trouble in the form of suspensions, insurance issues, higher fines and surcharges, etc.

I could give a hundred examples of how simple failure to respond on time, attend hearing dates or pay things on time have led to a host of both expected and unexpected issues.  One day and one dollar late can be as damaging as ignoring things for a year.  I’ve seen people get arrested, lose their jobs, get denied employment they were on the verge of getting.  I’ve seen insurance go through the roof.  All sorts of bad things and situations that easily could have been avoided.

That’s the most frustrating part of procrastination related issues.  They are completely avoidable.

Traffic tickets are not always easy to fight or easy to beat and sometimes the consequences will follow no matter how hard you fight, how good your lawyer is, etc.  On the other hand, problems caused by procrastination and tardiness are completely preventable.  This isn’t groundbreaking stuff–just a reminder of how quickly and severely things can go bad when you put off making decisions and taking timely action on a traffic violation charge.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

According to the NY Post, an analysis of traffic tickets issued in 2011 by the NYPD has revealed the following:

• Elmhurst has the highest number of speeding tickets issued (2,094)
• Flushing has the highest number of cellphone charges (2,589)
• The East 60s in Manhattan see the largest number of red light tickets (1,480) and driving the wrong way down a one way street violations (359).
• The West 30s in Manhattan are home to the most failure to yield to a pedestrian tickets in NYC (no specific number cited).
• Cellphone violations are the most commonly cited in NYC (95,426). This is especially noteworthy considering these violations have gone from 0 to 2 to 3 points this year alone.  NY Cell Phone Violations Now Three Points
• Seatbelt violations were the second most commonly cited in NYC (90,062)
• As for individual Boroughs, Brooklyn saw the most traffic tickets issued (141,971), followed by Queens (128,098), Manhattan (115,428), Bronx (71,786), and Staten Island (27,388).

Overall, moving violations are down 6.4 percent from 2010. It may just be a natural dip in numbers that traditionally go up and down. Some suggest it may be directly related to the increased scrutiny on officers who issue traffic tickets in the wake of the NYPD ticket fixing scandal. I wrote a little about this increased scrutiny at the TVB and how it is potentially changing the behavior of officers and judges in court and the New York Times recently took a look at this as well. Perhaps officers feel their best chance to avoid trouble or poor reviews or lost vacation time is to simply avoid issuing any significant volume of traffic tickets.

Scott Feifer

I am representing a motorist who was pulled over for a two point insufficient turn signal violation.  He came to me with a receipt for repair of a broken turn signal and wanted to argue that this wasn’t a failure to signal (two points) but a mere broken light equipment violation (zero points).

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as bringing a receipt for a small lightbulb to show a TVB judge.  If an officer issues a ticket for an insufficient turn signal, his testimony in court must address how he determined this was not an equipment failure but an actual failure to signal by the motorist.  An experienced officer should testify that he/she checked the driver’s signals at the time of the stop and found them to be working properly and that the driver simply failed to use their signal prior to executing their turn or lane change.  If such testimony is offered, it can be much more difficult to convince the judge that your equipment failure was legitimate.

This particular case took an unexpected twist altogether.  My client never mentioned anything about his hazard lights, yet the officer actually testified that he knew the signal lights were working because he observed that my client’s hazard lights were on as he executed the turn in question.  We then successfully argued that hazard lights are inherently a sign to other motorists on the road to take care and keep their distance and thus superseded a turning signal here. The ticket was dismissed.

Two lessons here.  One, don’t expect to merely claim an equipment failure if your are charged with failing to use the equipment (your signal) in question.  The officer might have something else to say.  Two, you or your attorney should be ready to change course during the hearing if you hear or see something unexpected.  If an opportunity presents itself, such as the hazard light testimony here, know the law and be prepared to take advantage of the situation.

Andrea Casellas, Esq.

As many know, there is an ongoing “ticket fixing” scandal within the NYPD (NYC Ticket Fixing Scandal).  Unfortunately, a number of motorists and officers who had nothing to do with it are getting caught up in the aftermath of the scandal.

Officers at the Traffic Violations Bureau are now routinely watched by superiors and the Internal Affairs Bureau as they testify.  They are there to make sure that each and every officer follows through on the tickets they’ve written and doesn’t try to “fix” anything in any blatant or even subtle manner.

We don’t have a problem with an anti-fixing policy.   No one can complain about a system which is merely trying to elicit full and complete and honest and fair and true testimony offered by an officer who issued a summons.

But what happens when that honest and true testimony leads to a finding of not guilty?  Take for example an officer who issued a ticket to a motorist for making a turn from the improper lane and is asked in court by the motorist whether he observed a car blocking the proper lane.  The officer may candidly respond that he really couldn’t see from where he was and it’s possible there was a vehicle blocking the proper lane.  The judge may then make the right decision and dismiss the case.   It’s now possible that this officer, if it’s a courtroom under observation, may potentially have to answer questions about the dismissal.  Why didn’t you say this?  Why did you say you didn’t remember that, or weren’t sure about the car?  Do you know this motorist?  His uncle?  What’s going on here…

Now we do have a problem.  Honesty can potentially be considered suspicious.  How will the officer answer the next time he’s in the same position?

The effect of this monitoring potentially extends to the judge as well.  These judges preside over cases with the same officers week after week, year after year and they get to know the different officers well.  They are understandably sympathetic about the extra scrutiny these officers, most of whom have done nothing wrong, are under.  Will this affect how they rule on a questionable case in a courtroom under observation?

Three times recently, we completed cases for clients where we were certain the charges should and would be dismissed outright.  Instead, clients were offered either a lower fine or a split decision (where the judge will find a ticket guilty while dismissing companion tickets issued together), essentially “consolation prizes” in lieu of complete dismissal.  We’ve also tried cases recently where the judge denied motions or otherwise assisted the motorist in ways not previously expected. No one can say for sure if the fact that the courtroom was under observation was the reason for the questionable decisions, but it’s certainly fair to question whether this is all having some kind of unanticipated affect on the judges.

All this said, procedure and the atmosphere in general at the TVB changes constantly.  Our job is always to keep on top of what is happening at any given time and take the actions and decisions necessary to maximize our client’s chances of success.

Scott Feifer, Esq.

New York State’s message with respect to distracted driving (texting, navigating your Ipod, talking on the phone, etc) is clear–don’t do it.

As mentioned a couple of weeks ago (More Points For Cell Phone Tickets In NY) , Governor Cuomo had set his sights on toughening existing distracted driving laws. Tuesday, it became official.

The Governor signed a new law that strengthens the enforcement against the use of handheld electronic by a driver while a vehicle is in motion. The legislation makes this action a primary traffic offense, giving law enforcement the power to stop drivers solely for engaging in this activity.

Until now, it had been a secondary offense and a traffic ticket for using a handheld electronic device could only be issued if the car was stopped for a primary offense such as speeding or red light or most other traffic violations.

The Governor also announced that the penalty for using a cellular phone without a hands-free device or using a handheld electronic device while driving would increase from two to three points through changes in state regulations. At the start of this year, this was actually a no point violation. In February it became a two point violation and five months later it’s getting a bump to a three point violation.

The law itself remains unchanged. We’ve discussed it before and you can read more about it here (NY Driving While Talking On Cell Phone And Texting While Driving)

The fines all remain the same. Traffic law enforcement and traffic ticket prosecution may indeed in most cases be more about revenue collection than safety, but this seems to be a simple straight forward attempt to get people to pay more attention and put their gadgets down while driving.

Scott Feifer, Esq.

Always follow through with your traffic tickets.

I am approached by numerous motorists every day for assistance on various NY traffic tickets and driving related matters.  I spoke with a gentleman recently who made the mistake of not properly handling tickets he received as a result of an auto accident.  He borrowed a friend’s car and there was an accident.  At the scene, the officer ran the plates of the vehicle in question and discovered that the insurance had been cancelled.  The driver was issued a ticket for driving without insurance despite the fact that this was his friend’s car and that he had no clue the vehicle was uninsured.

This gentleman believed that this was clearly the owner’s problem to deal with.  The tickets were simply given to the owner under some vague agreement between the two that the tickets would be “taken care of.”   The motorist considered this the end of the matter as far as he was concerned.

Fast forward two years and he is pulled over for a traffic violation and arrested for driving with a revoked license.  Since he never followed up on the status of his tickets, DMV Albany found him guilty by default and his license was automatically revoked by Albany for one year as a consequence of an uninsured operation conviction. He now not only had to pay all the fines and surcharges associated with the uninsured operation conviction (close to $1,000), but had to deal with a criminal misdemeanor charge of driving with a revoked license.

There may be ways for him to undo some of this damage, but it will cost a lot of money and take a lot of time and there are still no guarantees he escapes unscathed.  The much easier route would have been to simply handle the uninsured operation traffic ticket in the first place.  He could have argued he was what we call a “non-owner operator” and won his case and ended it all right there.

The moral is if a ticket has your name on it, it’s your responsibility.  Don’t just randomly trust someone to handle it.  Follow through on anything and everything issued in your own name until the matter is concluded.

Submitted by Andrea Casellas, Esq.

I am often asked, “why should I hire an attorney?”.  My general response is that we know the officers, the judges, and what the officer is required to say in order to meet his or her burden.  Thus, we know when the officer has made a mistake.  An unrepresented motorist must rely on the judge to catch any mistake and will never know if a mistake is in fact overlooked.  I have often found that knowing the judge’s individual style can mean the difference between a guilty and a not guilty.

I tried a case recently for disobey traffic device ticket.  The officer testified that the sign said “No Left Turns”.  However, thie particular judge presiding always wants an exact description of any sign the motorist is accused of violating.  Any mistake will warrant a dismissal of the ticket.  It in fact took only one question to give her that reason.  The officer mentioned pavement markings as well as a sign that he testified directed all traffic to proceed straight.  However, such signs are not just words alone and have a graphic as well.  Since the officer did not testify to the graphic in his original testimony, the ticket was dismissed for an inadequate description of the sign.

Knowing the particular quirk of this judge gave me all the ammunition I needed to make a winning motion on this ticket.  With other judges, I would have known I’d have to keep digging for something else.

Andrea Casellas, Esq.