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.

I read a short article this morning on the Tampa Tribune website. It posed the question of whether “there is some sort of technique to getting out of traffic citations.”

It caught my eye because it hit on a point I’ve been trying to make for years. Everyone wants to know if “I can say this or do this or use this defense or if officers are like this or that”… These questions are with respect to both before and after a ticket is issued.

People want black/white solutions to their problems, but such solutions rarely exist. My answers are almost always “maybe, it depends, could be, etc.”… One officer pulls you over and is in a good mood and gives you a warning, another pulls you over 2 minutes after getting into a fight with his wife on the phone. One judge buys your story about why you were talking on a cell phone while another judge’s aunt was just hit by a driver who was talking on the phone two days prior to your hearing.

Bottom line is, when a person has the power to use discretion–as officers who pull you over do–it is impossible to set rules to how that discretion will be exercised. Different people see things differently. Thus, there never will be one “technique” that works all the time.

Related to this are all the “one size fits all” BS beating traffic ticket books and “secrets” and websites out there. The thought that there are universal solutions that don’t take into account different personalities, different jurisdictions within a state and even different laws and evidence as you go from state to state is absolutely ridiculous. Within NY alone there are 2 “types” of courts that are so different from each other it’s obvious universal solutions or tricks just don’t exist.

All this doesn’t mean how you are treated or whether you are successful before or after you are issued a ticket is completely random or out of your hands. Courtesy on the road increases your chances of getting a warning and and smart strategy based on the applicable local rules and procedures in court will increase your chances of success. However, don’t waste too much time searching for some “magic bullet”. It’s unlikely you’ll find it.

The original article written by Jessica Balanza can be found here: Do you have a foolproof way of avoiding speeding tickets?

Yesterday the Nassau County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency fired six employees for fixing more than 100 tickets. News reports didn’t mention that they were actually selling their “fixing” services. It seems the tickets in question were for themselves, friends and family.

The investigation apparently started with an individual who was issued several Nassau County traffic tickets.  Some of the charges, including a driving on the sidewalk, driving the wrong way on a one-way street and a speeding ticket were dismissed outright. Other charges were delayed longer than a case typically would be within the court rules and some fines and surcharges imposed on other cases were simply removed from the computer system.

Turns out this man had a relative working in the court and this relative was one of the six employees fired.

The ticket fixing cost Nassau County an estimated $25,000 in revenue. Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice is investigating the possibility of criminal charges against them.

Nothing has been proven yet, according to the Civil Service Employees Association representing the employees. The President of the Association believes the employees will be vindicated. He claims that in most cases, a judge signed off on the dismissals of the tickets in question.

The NCTPVA is one of the better courts in the state to deal with and, based on my observations and those of my colleagues, the staff there (including some of those involved in this unfortunate incident) have been professional and helpful in the past.  I’m hoping that these individuals are indeed vindicated in the long run.

We’ll follow the story as it develops.

We were able to help a client out with an unsafe lane change ticket today.  The charge was dismissed.

My client explained to me he really didn’t think he did anything wrong.  I sympathized with him.  Traffic tickets like this one are sometimes difficult to accept and to adjudicate because the concept of “unsafe” is subjective.

With speeding tickets or red light tickets, a motorist might disagree with an officer but one of the two must be right (and the other wrong, of course) about what happened.  In those cases, the light was either red or it wasn’t, and the speed of the vehicle was either over the limit or it wasn’t.  There are plenty of other factors in play in cases like those but they are different from a subjective charge like unsafe lane change.

With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, the motorist and officer can agree 100% on what occurred but still disagree on whether what occurred constituted a violation.

With a subjective ticket like unsafe lane change, I feel there’s unofficially an extra burden on the issuing officer.  He needs to do more than testify to what he saw or recorded.  He needs to offer testimony as to why what he saw or recorded constituted a violation of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Law.  With measurable offenses like speeding and red light, this is self explanatory.

Today’s case was won based on the officer’s inability to offer sufficient testimony with respect to “why” the lane change described was deemed “unsafe” and worthy of a traffic summons.  The officer merely testified that my client changed lanes “unsafely”.  He offered nothing with respect to why or how the movement was unsafe.  How close was my client to another vehicle?  At what speed was he traveling?  Did he signal?  What was traffic like?  None of these questions were answered.

I knew right away the officer’s testimony wouldn’t be sufficient for the charge to stand.  I made a motion to dismiss and it was granted.

Submitted by NY traffic ticket attorney Matthew Greenberg