Reckless Driving In NY

We’ve received a number of inquiries recently concerning reckless driving tickets. Here are some thoughts on the NY Reckless Driving law, including how it is enforced and how it typically plays out in court.

What is Reckless Driving?

Reckless Driving is set forth in § 1212 of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law:

Reckless driving shall mean driving or using any motor vehicle, motorcycle or any other vehicle propelled by any power other than muscular power or any appliance or accessory thereof in a manner which unreasonably interferes with the free and proper use of the public highway, or unreasonably endangers users of the public highway. Reckless driving is prohibited. Every person violating this provision shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Note how vague it is. Essentially, driving in a manner which “endangers users of the public highway”. Talking on the phone, eating a sandwich, driving with a broken headlight…any of these acts could arguably fit within the statute. It can be written as a catchall for almost any traffic violation or driving act/omission an officer believes he witnessed.

Note how serious it is. It’s a misdemeanor, not a violation. It’s a crime that results in a permanent criminal record. On top of that, it’s damaging to your license as it carries five points. I’m confident lawmakers never meant for this to be written as a substitute for any old minor traffic violation, yet that is exactly what we see on a daily basis.

Why would an officer issue a serious misdemeanor Reckless Driving ticket instead of an ordinary traffic violation upon observing a minor infraction?

There are three theories here.

First, some officers aren’t regular summons writers. They happen to see an infraction, pull someone over, yet aren’t sure what specific section of vehicle and traffic law to site. The officer may know however that Reckless Driving, a vague catchall, is good enough and will likely fit. Many of these officers who don’t regularly deal with car stops and issuing summonses might not even recognize how much more serious the Reckless Driving charge is.

Second, some NYC officers may recognize that for every Reckless Driving charge they issue they likely save themselves a trip to court. For ordinary traffic violations, the officer will be summonsed to the TVB to testify. For minor criminal charges like Reckless, it’s unlikely an officer will ever need to show in court. Most Reckless cases are plea bargained to a disposition before the officer ever needs to appear. This is specific to Reckless Driving in NYC.

Third, there must be cases where the motorist’s behavior after the car stop prompted the officer to write the more serious reckless charge. Arguing with an officer doesn’t help. While not every officer will be swayed one way or another by the motorist’s attitude, we have to acknowledge that officers are human and have discretion when it comes to what they issue. It’s fair to assume that in some small percentage of cases an argumentative motorist can drive away with a reckless charge where a more cooperative motorist would have been issued the simple traffic violation.

What does a Reckless Driving Lawyer do in court?

Luckily, lawyers aren’t the only ones who recognize that Reckless Driving is charged in many cases where a simple traffic ticket should have been issued. The Prosecutors and Judges see the same thing. In cases such as these we are typically able to get Prosecutors to agree and Judges to sign off on significantly reduced charges that result in damages no more severe than a parking ticket.

There is also the Reckless Driving situation where a motorist may have actually been driving recklessly. Trying to evade police, drag racing…these are situations where the charge may actually fit. In these cases, the Prosecutor and Judge may not be as sympathetic but a lawyer’s strategy remains the same–try to negotiate a significantly reduced charge.

If you’ve been charged with Reckless Driving in NY, just make sure you do your research and proceed carefully. While your outlook is good in the vast majority of these cases, the potential penalties are too severe to play around. When you are dealing with a criminal misdemeanor charge you should always consult with an attorney before proceeding.

Scott Feifer

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

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.

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.

We were able to get a Driving Off Truck Route ticket dismissed today at the TVB for a commercial driver client of ours.  In NYC, any truck with more than 2 axles and 6 wheels must travel only on a valid truck route and is permitted to drive off the established truck routes only when it is necessary to complete a “local pick up or delivery”.  The term local is generally limited to a 2-3 block deviation off of the nearest valid truck route.

Drivers should consult a current truck route map issued by NYS DOT so that they can carefully plan out the route they must follow in order to stay on truck routes.  Do not count on traffic signs to indicate which roads are and are not truck routes because there rarely are such signs.  Truck drivers simply must know the NYC truck routes before driving in NYC.

In today’s case, the motorist was aware of the truck routes and did stay on a truck route according to his most recent truck route map.  However, the issuing officer testified that the law pertaining to this particular location was changed approximately two weeks prior to the date that this motorist was pulled over.  His explanation was that this change in the law removed this particular avenue from the approved list of available truck routes, thus turning it into yet another prohibited street for truckers not making a pick up or delivery in the immediate area.

Fortunately, the judge sided with fairness and agreed with my argument not to convict the motorist for driving on a street that was in fact a valid truck route a mere two weeks prior to the incident in question.  Neither the maps online nor the statute books motorists may obtain at a local DMV were updated quickly enough to reflect the changes.  While our client was technically off a truck route, we made a compelling enough argument based on the fact that this driver did what he reasonably could do by consulting his most recent copy of the truck route map and planning his route accordingly.  The judge ruled that it would be an unfair burden on a motorist to require him to know the minute there are tweaks to an existing law like this, especially when the changes in question are not reinforced via signage on the road.

Submitted by Andrea Casellas, Esq.
Feifer & Greenberg, LLP

A good place to start when making the decision whether to fight or pay a speeding ticket is looking at the penalties you may face if convicted of speeding.   The worst thing you can do is simply pay a  ticket without any knowledge of the potential consequences.  We see too many people who call us after they pay and didn’t realize there were so many points involved or such high surcharges or even a license suspension.

1. NY speeding tickets will result in points on your license (from three to eleven depending on the amount over the speed limit), a fine and surcharge to the court, potential additional state surcharges, potential insurance increases and, depending on your record and the extent of the speed itself, possible license suspension.  Get a handle on all this first and foremost because you can’t effectively decide how aggressively to move forward without an understanding of the consequences.

2. Now look at what these consequences above mean to you.  You live in NYC and don’t drive much or live in New Jersey and can avoid driving in NY?  Perhaps losing your privilege to drive in NY doesn’t scare you as much as it would a commercial driver who must drive in NY to remain employed.  A wealthy individual may be less intimidated by high fines, surcharges and insurance than others.  The question here is how badly do you desire to avoid the consequences you are facing.

3. What will it “cost” to contest this, keeping in mind that “cost” refers to both money and time.  Will you need to attend court and is the court near or far?  Time off from work necessary?  Considering an attorney?  How much will the attorney cost and how much time and/or money might the attorney save?

4. What are your chances for success?  If you contest a traffic ticket, there is some goal.  Of course we all want a ticket to be dismissed in it’s entirety, but perhaps you need at very least a reduction in points to save a job or your privilege to drive or to avoid large surcharges or insurance increases.  Or perhaps you need the violation itself to be altered via a plea bargain to avoid certain types of automatic penalties.   Is achieving your goal a long shot or is it very realistic?

5. What is your personal philosophy?  Money and time and potentially the principle involved mean different things to different people. Some people may be inclined to pay this ticket and just fight the “next” one should it happen.  Others can’t bring themselves to roll over and accept any conviction without a fight.  Ultimately you are the one who makes the final decision on how to proceed based on who you are and what works best for you.

Some decisions are easy.  You are a city bus driver who will lose his job if convicted?  You are fighting your ticket.  However, in situations that aren’t necessarily as black and white, there just isn’t a blatant “right” answer with respect to whether a speeding ticket should be challenged.   I generally advise that if you are uncertain how to proceed, you should err on side of fighting it.  If you are uncertain and are seriously considering fighting the speeding violation, this usually means that the penalties are of some concern and that you do believe there is some reasonable chance of success.  Moreover, you are way more likely to regret in the long run doing nothing than you will regret doing your research and putting up a good fight.

If you just aren’t sure what to do, my advice will be to fight it and try to avoid the speeding ticket conviction on your record and the penalties that come with it.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

The Traffic Violations Bureau, or TVB, is an administrative agency in New York that is part of the DMV. The TVB handles traffic tickets issued in all 5 boroughs of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester as well as parts of Suffolk County.

How is the TVB different from other NY traffic courts?

The biggest difference is the fact that there is no plea bargaining process. If you wish to contest a traffic violation charge at the TVB you must enter a plea of not guilty and attend a hearing. If you win the hearing, it is as if the ticket was never issued. If you lose, you will get the points and pay the fine that comes with the violation in question.

What can I do if I lose my traffic hearing at the TVB?

If you are found guilty after a trial at the TVB, you have 30 days to file an appeal.

The following are some things to consider when deciding whether to appeal a TVB decision:

1. Has it been less than 30 days since the TVB decision? If more than 30 days have elapsed, you can forget it.

2. Have you paid your fine yet? You must pay your TVB fine before anyone will consider your appeal. If you are successful your money will be returned.

3. It will cost $10 per ticket to file the appeal.

4. You can file the appeal by mailing a form to the Appeals Board or by completing a similar form online. The form to mail can be found at http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/aa33.pdf and an appeal can be filed online at http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/webAppeals/default.html

5. If you have been or will be suspended or revoked as a result of the TVB decision, you can request a stay. This will keep your license valid while the appeal is pending.

6. Once your initial appeal form has been submitted, you wait for a letter from the private transcription company that reviews the recording of the hearing and creates a transcript. This company will request a $50 deposit for the transcript fee and you have 30 days to pay it.

7. When your transcript arrives via mail, you have 30 days to review it and submit your arguments to the Appeals Board. Your written arguments should refer to specific pages and lines on the transcript.

8. The Appeals Board is only looking for legal (not factual) errors by the judge at the hearing. The hearing judge is the one who decides which facts to accept. You say you stopped at the stop sign, officer says otherwise, judge believes the officer. That is a factual determination. On the other hand, if the officer fails to tell the judge the exact location of this stop sign and the judge still finds you guilty, this is a potentially reversible mistake of law. The location of the sign is a basic element of the charge and without this testimony the judge should dismiss regardless of anything else in the case. Failure to dismiss is arguably a legal error on the part of the judge.

9. The appeal is all done via internet/mail. Filing, transcript ordering, argument submission and delivery of a decision are all done without any hearings or court appearances.

10. The TVB handles the entire case to this point. You had your hearing at a TVB office and you appealed to the TVB Appeals Board. If you lost your appeal, you do have the opportunity to start an Article 78 Proceeding. This is an appeal of a decision by an administrative agency (the TVB) to the real NY court system. This is a completely different kind of appeal and is recommended in only a very select and small percentage of traffic violation convictions.

Scott Feifer

From what we’ve seen lately, it appears that the DMV may be encouraging judges at the TVB to crack down on drivers who continue to ignore seat belt and cell phone laws.

Both violations carry no points. In the past, we routinely told potential and existing clients not to bother retaining our firm to fight cell phone or seat belt tickets unless it was a situation where the individual had some serious existing license issues or we had some reason to believe a conviction would affect the driver’s insurance. Recently, we’ve changed our policy based on case results we’ve either been involved with or been informed of after the fact.

In multiple cases, we’ve seen judges issue suspensions to drivers convicted of driving while using a cell phone or without a seat belt in NYC where one or more such conviction was already on their driving record. We’ve seen too many examples of this to call it a coincidence and we’re now advising anyone with a seat belt or cell phone ticket answerable to the TVB to at least talk to one of our attorneys before proceeding under a false sense of “no points can’t hurt me” security.

Right now the problem is unique to the Traffic Violation Bureau which handles traffic tickets issued in New York City as well as parts of Buffalo, Rochester and Suffolk County. TVB judges have the discretion to suspend motorists for just about any reason. Compare this to the local county, town and village court judges who generally leave the decision to suspend up to the DMV itself. The DMV generally sticks to the “11 points and you are out” rule of thumb and wouldn’t act on the addition of a zero point violation to a driving record and issue an otherwise discretionary suspension.

Feel free to read more about the differences between the TVB and the local traffic courts throughout New York or to contact us if you have any questions about a seat belt ticket or cell phone ticket in NY.

Submitted by Scott Feifer

After dealing with an issue yesterday, we thought it was worth a quick reminder.  If you have a traffic ticket answerable to the TVB (mostly NYC traffic tickets, also includes Suffolk County, Buffalo and Rochester) be very careful how you handle it.

The Administrative Law Judges in the TVB have a great deal of discretion.  They are actual employees of the DMV and with that comes the power to suspend people for just about any reason.  Yesterday, we saw an individual suspended and he never saw it coming.

Apparently, he had a prior hearing date and rescheduled it online.  Completely on time, no problems.  It was then rescheduled for a later date.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it on that date so he came in the next day to explain.  The TVB gives a 30 day cushion to come to court if you miss a hearing date so obviously he was well within that.

The motorist appeared in front of a judge as per the clerk’s instructions.  The judge told him “here’s a new date, in June, but you are suspended until then”.  Did it with ZERO explanation.  The motorist was forced to pay the ticket on the spot because he needed his license.

The penalty?  Approximately $270 due to the court, a $450 state surcharge due to New York and eight points on his license.  The judge knew what he was doing–$720 in fines and surcharges, points, likely insurance increases…and all this guy wanted was another date in court.

The law is supposed to err on the side of giving people their day in court.  Suspending someone so quickly, when their request for another hearing date was so reasonable, is just ridiculous and mean spirited.  No other way around it.

This isn’t an indictment of the system itself other than the fact that such discretion is given to each ALJ.  Most judges would have rescheduled this case no questions asked and many judges will actually exercise their discretion to help the motorists in certain situations.  Moreover, there are some situations that fully merit suspension where motorists are abusing the system, obviously delaying or otherwise clearly at fault.

This is just a warning.  This situation did not merit a suspension by any standard except some twisted standard this particular judge employed this particular day.  The thing to remember here is that you never know who you are appearing in front of when you have a case at the TVB and anyone planning to appear there should be very careful and gather as much information as they can before proceeding.

Experienced NY Traffic Ticket Attorneys

You understand the consequences of traffic ticket convictions and know the reasons you should plead not guilty and fight. Points, insurance increases, suspensions/revocations, employment issues, large state assessments …

The fact is that your chances of success (avoiding these consequences) are significantly greater when represented by an experienced traffic ticket attorney. It doesn’t matter how smart you are or how much research you do in an effort to represent yourself. Even if you are an attorney yourself, there can never be a substitute for specialized attorneys that deal with issues like yours each and every day.

Our attorneys…

• Understand the level of evidence and specific testimony that must be offered to sustain a guilty finding for any given charge
• Know how to set an individualized strategy based on the venue, the charge(s) in question and your personal goals that will maximize the chances for success
• Recognize that different courts and different judges accept different arguments and different evidence and that intimate knowledge of these differences is critical for success
• Have the ability to successfully defend a motorist without the motorist ever attending court—many clients retain our services because they would like to contest the summons but do not have the time to appear in court
• Will guide our clients through the entire process from how to answer the summons through completion of the case

An honest case assessment

If we do not feel that your case merits retaining an attorney, we will tell you that in no uncertain terms. Sometimes there is little or nothing to gain by hiring an attorney. Sometimes the stakes are so insignificant that it isn’t worth hiring an attorney. In other words, if we don’t think we can help we won’t take the case.

While we will only accept your case if we feel we can help, there is never a guarantee of a particular outcome. Our clients frequently ask whether there are such guarantees and we unequivocally answer “no”. The only guarantees we can offer are:

• Representation by experienced NY traffic ticket lawyers on speeding tickets and other matters will significantly improve your chances of a favorable outcome in most cases.
• We have indeed successfully represented thousands of motorists all over the state by keeping points off their records, keeping insurance premiums as low as possible and protecting driving privileges.
• We will do everything we can to seek a successful outcome for each of our clients.

We’ll make this easy

Representation by Feifer & Greenberg is designed to make things as simple and stress-free as possible. With an informative consultation, excellent communication, simple explanations and the assignment of a personal Case Manager to serve as your primary firm contact, we do our best to make your traffic ticket one less thing to worry about, not one more.

Read more about how a standard case starts and progresses with our firm. It’s easier than you may think.

Still not sure whether Feifer & Greenberg is right for you?

If you are unsure whether you need an attorney at all, or are considering representing yourself, read our take on whether to hire a traffic ticket lawyer.

If you believe you may need an attorney but are not still not sure which firm to hire, read more about how Feifer & Greenberg compares to other New York traffic ticket law firms.