Yes, an officer can do that if he/she deems the situation calls for it. A common example would be when you get pulled over for speeding, and when the policeman asks to see your proof of insurance, you realize that you have forgotten where it is. This is a great opportunity for the officer to write two citations (one for driving in excess of the posted speed limit, and no proof of automobile insurance).
Of course, this does not mean that your license is going to be taken away from you. Even the best of us get caught from time to time speeding; and it’s not terribly unusual for someone to forget to put their new insurance card in the glove compartment. And the courts recognize this fact, which is exactly why they give you the chance to make up for it.
At this point, you have three choices: 1) you can simply sign the back of the ticket, pay the associated fine, and be done with it; 2) you can try and challenge the ticket in court at a designated hearing, in front of the judge and against the prosecutor; or 3) you can hire an experienced attorney to take care of everything for you.
The first option (paying the ticket) may seem like the easiest and most painless route to go. But the problem with simply paying the fine is that the state will assess ‘points’ against your driving record. These points are like negative marks that can raise your automobile insurance premium, and if you compile enough of them over time, you risk having your driver’s license suspended or revoked.
The second choice is probably the riskiest. If you chose to challenge the ticket in court, there is of course a chance that you will beat the prosecutor and get the ticket dismissed. But there is also equally a good chance that the judge will think that you are in fact guilty of the infraction, and levy an even larger fine against you than you would have had to initially pay (yes, the judge can do that).
The third option, hiring a lawyer to take of things for you, is probably the safest route of the three. A knowledgeable attorney will be able to negotiate a plea with the prosecutor, get the charges reduced to some lesser infraction (like a non-moving violation that will not have any negative impact on your insurance rates), and keep your record clean. This eliminates you having to deal with the unwanted points, keeps your auto insurance low, and you do not have to deal with going to court.
The affordable St. Louis traffic ticket defense attorneys at The Bankruptcy Company have been helping people get rid of their ticket citations for years. Our goal is to keep you driving to work or school so that you can live life in peace.