Traffic tickets can be a lot more expensive than the fine and court costs stated on the ticket. For most traffic tickets, if you just pay off the ticket, you will be convicted of the charge, and you will be assessed points both on your driver’s license and on your insurance policy. Insurance points can be very expensive. They cause your insurance premiums to increase for three years, and for most policies, that will add up to thousands of dollars. Details about insurance points and the percentage of premium increases can be found here. In addition to insurance points, convictions for many charges, and convictions for multiple charges will result in the revocation of your driver’s license. The loss of one’s driving privilege entails more costs for most people.  Here are some examples of revocations for convictions.

In this great recession, many people are being short sighted and think they are saving money by not hiring an experienced attorney to represent them with their traffic charges. The result is that the ticket costs them much more than they would have paid an attorney to handle it for them.

Collins Law Firm has handled thousands of traffic tickets for our clients over the past ten plus years, and in most cases we have been able to avoid insurance points altogether. Furthermore, for most simple tickets (stop sign violations, speeding violations, etc.), our clients do not even need to go to court. We offer free phone consultations for most traffic matters. If you need advice or information about representation for a traffic violation, call us at: 910-793-9000.

A possible disposition for a criminal or traffic charge (either an infraction, misdemeanor, or a felony) unique to North Carolina state courts, is a Prayer for Judgment Continued, or PJC.  When requesting a court to grant a request for a PJC, the proper way attorneys ask is to request that the “judgment be continued,” or to request that the court “continue judgment.”  While a PJC is an excellent result in many cases, it may not be the best result for all criminal or traffic cases.

Our experience has been that the effect of a PJC is highly misunderstood by most people, including lawyers or other legal professionals not experienced in traffic or criminal law.

The effect of a PJC for traffic violations is controlled by statutes and varies with the context in which it is considered.  A PJC may or may not avoid points, and the rules are different with respect to driver’s license points (or DMV points) or insurance points.   We have posted an article explaining more details about what a PJC is and how it may affect one’s record on our site, and a brief summary of how a PJC may affect insurance and DMV points for traffic violations.

Any time you are considering requesting a PJC, you should always consult with an experienced criminal or traffic lawyer.  If you have a pending court date for a criminal matter or traffic violation, call Attorney David Collins at Collins Law Firm for a consultation at 910-793-9000.

At Collins Law Firm, we have been practicing criminal and traffic law in Southeastern North Carolina for over a decade and David Collins has been licensed to practice law in both North Carolina and South Carolina since 1993.  The counties we cover for criminal and traffic matters include (County/Seat of Court): Brunswick County/Bolivia, NC; New Hanover County/Wilmington, NC; Pender County/Burgaw, NC; Columbus County/Whiteville, NC; Bladen County/Elizabethtown, NC; Sampson County/Clinton, NC; Duplin County/Kenansville, NC; and Onslow County/Jacksonville, NC.

Labor Day is over, school started back and it is almost fall. We hope everybody had a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend. There was heavy traffic in most parts of the country and if you happened to get a speeding ticket or traffic citation in Southeast North Carolina, Collins Law Firm can help.

In most cases, so long as you have a clean driving records for speeding tickets at non-excessively high speeds, we can avoid court appearances and points on both your insurance and DMV record. For people with violations already on their record, there are still ways in most cases that points can be avoided. In some cases the defendant may have to go to driving school and in some cases a Prayer for Judgement Continued (PJC) maybe used. However, PJC is a valuable option to dispose of a traffic charge which should only be used when necessary.

For example, if there are multiple members of a household and one person uses a PJC, if another person in the household gets a traffic citation within the next three years and receives a PJC, insurance points will assessed for that violation.

Collins Law Firm has been representing people charged with traffic citations, speeding tickets, and other criminal charges in Southeast North Carolina for over ten years and we will be happy to discuss your situation with you by phone at no charge if you receive a traffic citation. Call the Collins Law Firm at (910) 793-9000.