Being located in Vance County right in the middle of interstate 85, Highway US1, and Highway 158, we are privileged to represent many individuals traveling on the highways and getting traffic citations. We often see folks being charged with speeding or reckless driving. Due to the frequency of speeding violations, officers are now charging people with reckless driving if they are moving at least 20 MPH over the speed limit. For example, if they are stopped for driving 80 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, a speeding ticket is likely going to be accompanied with a reckless driving ticket as well. Usually, clients ask how can it be considered reckless if they did not hit anyone with their car. The fact is, you don’t necessarily have to hit someone to be charged with reckless driving if you’re operating your vehicle in a way that is likely to cause damage to property or another human being.
Driving left of center is another charge given when drivers touch the center-line. We also receive unsafe movement when people are actually in accidents. They’re often charged with unsafe movement, failure to maintain lane control, failure to yield or traffic accidents. Our firm also commonly handles expired registration and expired inspection tickets. Usually, people don’t want to go to court so they’ll hire us to go to court and handle it for them.
Do You Find That A Lot Of People Don’t Take Traffic Violations Serious Enough?
People often do not take traffic violations seriously enough. Traveling over the speed limit can actually get your license suspended for 30 days if it’s a class III misdemeanor. Anytime you’re speeding more than 50 MPH over a speed limit of at least 55 MPH, it’s considered a misdemeanor and your license will be suspended if you plead guilty.
Every week, we have clients retain us to file Motions for Appropriate Relief. Motion for appropriate relief is a request to dismiss a previous guilty plea. It argues that when the plea was entered, the individual wasn’t represented by a counsel and did not understand the collateral consequences.
We do this for new clients every week because people attempt to represent themselves, go to court, plead guilty and end up getting their license suspended or causing their insurance premiums to increase.
What Scenarios Would Most Commonly Lead To A Suspended License?
The most common scenario that leads to a suspended license is failure to appear in court. It’s called FTA (Failure To Appear). Let’s say someone was travelling from New York to North Carolina to visit their grandmother for a birthday party. They were running late, so they start speeding, and get pulled over, receiving a ticket in Vance County. Then, they go back home forgetting about the ticket. It’s entered as a failure to appear in court and a clerk sends this information to the North Carolina DMV. The North Carolina DMV then sends this information to every other state DMV. What happens next is that your license is going to be suspended in New York.
You can plead guilty to a revocable offense. For example, let’s say someone pleads guilty to reckless driving. That comes with 4 points on your driver’s license and an increase on your insurance premiums. That alone is significant, but let’s say you’ve had two other speeding tickets in the last 3 years and 9 points on your driver’s license already. If you plead guilty to careless and reckless driving, you will now you have 13 points. However, you can only get 12 before your license gets suspended. Thus, pleading to careless and reckless driving should never be a decision you make on your own without an attorney’s advice.
For more information on Traffic Violations In North Carolina, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (252) 572-4495 today.
(252) 572-4495
