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The attorney does this by working out a negotiated settlement (i.e. plea bargain) with the local prosecutor. But that only happens after your attorney has done the necessary work to make this possible. Depending on the circumstances and the type of ticket you received, this can be done relatively quick.

If you are pulled over for having committed a traffic violation (speeding, failure to use turn signal, lane change violation, etc.), you have a right to fight the ticket in court. The prosecutor will have to prove that you in fact violated the laws of the state, and convince the judge of this contention. You of course have the ability to offer counter-arguments in your defense. But this course of action can take a lot of time, and still end with you being held guilty of the infraction. Another option would be to simply sign the back of the ticket, which allows you to plead guilty, and simply pay the fine. This certainly takes care of the ticket, but there are consequences for doing this as well. If you do nothing but pay the fine, the state will assess ‘points’ against your driving record. These points should really be thought of as ‘strikes,’ because they have a negative effect.

If several points accumulate over time, a couple of bad things can happen. First, your automobile insurance will certainly rise, as you will end up paying a higher monthly premium. This is because your insurance carrier will label you as a ‘risky’ driver, and the cost of insuring you against things like accidents will be pushed up. Secondly, there is a chance that you could have your driver’s license suspended or revoked. The state does this in order to send a signal to those people who get a bunch of tickets over a short period of time. And the process to have your license reinstated can be costly and timely.

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An FCC ticket stands for Fine Collection Center. This is the department in Jefferson City, MO, that handles traffic tickets that have been issued by State Highway Patrol Officers. This kind of ticket does not come with a court date (as you can expect to see on a typical citation from a local police officer). Rather, it will simply tell you that the fine is ‘Due in 30 days.’

Of course, one option that you have at this point is to simply mail in the amount of money to the collection center in order to pay off the fine. This will certainly take care of the ticket, but it will not prevent ‘points’ being assessed against your driving record. For each traffic violation, a certain number of points are put on your record (it is probably better to think of them as ‘strikes’ as opposed to ‘points,’ because that kind of gives the impression that you have scored something!). As these points accumulate over time, it is probable that your automobile insurance premiums will go up, and it is also possible that you could lose your license to drive. For instance, if you are pulled over by a HYPO for speeding, three (3) points are assessed for such an infraction in Missouri.

There is, however, a better way to deal with these traffic tickets. An experienced lawyer can get the moving violation (i.e. driving in excess of the posted speed limit) reduced to a non-moving violation (like excessive noise or illegal parking). This has the double effect of preventing any points from attaching to your driving record (because no points are assessed for a non-moving violations), and your insurance rates will not be adversely affected.

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Yes, there is a possibility that this could happen if you are cited for multiple infractions that appear on your driving record. The key to avoiding this outcome is to make sure that these infractions never make onto your record in the first place. That is where an effective attorney becomes invaluable.

If you are pulled over, receive a ticket for a moving violation, and simply pay the associated fine, the ticket is certainly taken care of. But each time this occurs, the citation is placed on your driving record, and a certain number of ‘points’ are assessed against you. The more points that are assessed, the greater the risk of your driver’s license being either suspended or revoked (not to mention a higher insurance premium). For instance, if you receive four (4) points in the span of twelve (12) months, the Missouri Department of Revenue will you a notification of the fact that you are accumulating a lot of points. This is a sort of warning letter. If you get eight (8) points in eighteen (18) months, the Department of Revenue will suspend your driving privileges (for a minimum of thiry (30) days, and up to ninety (90) days, depending on how many more you receive in that timeframe).

A full revocation of driving privileges can occur in the following situations: twelve (12) or more points in twelve (12) months; eighteen (18) or more points in twenty-four (24) months; twenty-four (24) or more points in thirty-six (36) months. If any of these accumulations occur in the set out timeframe, the Department of Revenue can revoke your license for one (1) year.

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If you receive multiple traffic tickets over a condensed time frame, then it two negative things could happen: 1) your insurance premiums could go up substantially; and 2) you could be labeled by the state as a ‘Repeat Offender’. Repeat offenders can have their driver’s license suspended, or worse, could face jail time. But this is why it is so important to retain the services of a law firm that understands how to properly handle these matters.

When you are pulled over by a police officer for a moving-violation (let’s say your garden variety Missouri speeding ticket), the infraction will carry a certain number of ‘points’ against your record. These are not the good kind of points that you score in a game. Rather, ‘points’ should be viewed as ‘strikes’ against your driving record. The more points/strikes you accumulate over time, the higher your automobile insurance will rise as a result. This means steeper and steeper monthly premiums. But if you receive several of these citations for speeding in excess of the posted limit, the state will assume that you are not getting the message (that driving above the speed limit is prohibited). In general, if you have more than one or two such violations in a twelve (12) to eighteen (18) month period of time, you can be labeled a Repeat Offender. This can have serious consequences for your ability to keep your license, you risk jail time if there are any other future offenses, and could even have an impact on your job (especially one of the primary tasks in your employment is the operation of heavy equipment or driving).

But again, this need not be the outcome for you. The affordable St. Louis traffic ticket defense attorneys at The Bankruptcy Company can make sure that the tickets you receive do not turn into the headaches described above. Our team of lawyers will work hard to reduce the moving-violation you have been charged with to a non-moving violation. This will ensure that you will not be assessed any points against your driving record, thus keeping your insurance rates in check and your record clean of infractions. This is done by working closely with the local prosecutor and/or judge to reach an agreement so that the ticket is handled in an efficient, quick, and relatively painless fashion.

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You can, but the chances are very good that you will be arrested instead. The arrest warrant that was issued by the judge is a court order that requires a police officer to arrest you on the spot. So even if you are being a good citizen and taking care of your debts to society, you will still be taken under custody.

When you receive a traffic citation from a police officer, the ticket will indicate a fair amount of information. Included on this document will be your court date. If you pay your fine before this date, or hire an attorney to take care of it for you, or you simply make an appearance in front of the judge in order to argue against it, you will be okay. But if you do not make an appearance on the court date, the judge will issue a bench warrant for your arrest.

Once this happens, you are at risk of getting thrown in jail wherever you go. So if you get pulled over again, they officer will run your license, see that there is a warrant for you, and then arrest you. Or if you decided to simply go take care of the ticket by showing up on some later date, you will get arrested. This is not really a risk you want to take.

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The laws of every state in the union make it clear that the legal age for consuming alcohol legally is twenty-one (21). If you are caught drinking below this age, you are subject to either a citation (like a ticket), or possibly arrest. But just because an individual is cited for underage drinking, it does not mean that their life is irrevocably altered. An experienced attorney might be able to get the charge reduced (or, depending on the facts of the case, get the case dismissed).

So let’s say you have a 17 year old son or daughter who attends the festivities of Mardi Gras in the Soulard area of St. Louis in February. While there, they drink a beer from a plastic cup that was handed to them by someone. The next thing you know, out of the blue, a plain-clothes cop comes up to your son or daughter and asks to see their ID. The cop then issues a citation on the spot for Minor in Possession and Drinking Underage.

The citation itself will look like any old ticket. Much your common speeding ticket, it will be yellowish-orange in color, and rectangular in shape. It will provide the citing officer’s name and badge number, the type of violation committed, and court date information. At this point, you have two option: 1) you can simply pay the fine listed on the court date, or by one of the various ways listed on the back of the ticket (like paying online or mail); or 2) you can hire an attorney to negotiate something with the prosecutor.

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Yes, you can. It is still considered a moving violation, so a citation issued by a police officer that pulls you over for no insurance is something you can expect. But there are certainly ways to handle the situation after you’ve received the ticket.

To begin with, the state of Missouri has determined (along with nearly every other state) that driving without automobile insurance is an unlawful infraction. And if you are caught driving without such insurance, you will certainly receive a ticket, and four (4) points will be added to your Missouri driving record. These laws are in place to make sure that everyone who drives will be insured against the negligence of others, and also so that other drivers will be insured against your own bad driving.

However it is not at all uncommon for someone who does in fact have automobile insurance to forget to have proof of such insurance in the car with them at all times (most people keep these documents in their glove compartment). If you are pulled over, and are unable to show documentation that proves you have proper insurance, a ticket will most likely be issued. However, most courts will allow you to show that you do in fact have auto insurance, and therefore dismiss the ticket (but not always; it depends a great deal on the particular prosecutor and/or judge). If the court will not dismiss the ticket after you’ve shown proof of insurance, it is probably a good idea to get help from an experienced traffic attorney. Such an attorney can negotiate something with the prosecutor to get the ticket reduced to some lesser charge, or even get the ticket dismissed.

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A bench warrant is an order by a judge for your arrest if you don’t show up to your court appearance. In essence, it is the judge (sitting on his/her bench) deciding that you have shown such contempt for the court that you should be arrested for it. But even if this happens, there are still things you can do to avoid further trouble.

Bench warrants are useful devices for the court because they give the person against whom the warrant was issued an incentive to do what the court wants. So let’s say you have been cited with reckless driving, and you are supposed to appear in court roughly thirty (30) days later. But instead of showing up at the predetermined time, you forget to go, or you have to go to work. Since you did not appear (or have an attorney appear on your behalf), the judge will issue the warrant for your arrest. Once the warrant is out there, you could be arrested at any time. The police may come to your residence, your place of work, or of course if you are pulled over for something entirely unrelated (like a speed limit infraction) the officer will undoubtedly run your driver’s license and see that there is a warrant for your arrest. At this point, you will be booked and jailed. The fines necessary to get you out are going to be very high, and then there is the matter of handling the underlying citation (reckless driving), which will be another fine on top of that.

If that does not sound like the best way to handle this kind of situation, then I would have to agree. A far better course of action would have been to hire an attorney right after you received the citation for reckless driving. An experienced attorney could have negotiated with the prosecutor to get the ticket reduced (or thrown out altogether, depending on the circumstances). Or if for whatever reason you failed to make an appearance at your court date, and a bench warrant was issued for your arrest, an criminal defense lawyer could have worked out a deal with the court to have the warrant pulled, get the underlying charge lessened, and got you on your way.

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Yes, indeed you can. It may seem counter-intuitive, but you can be charged with trespass even if you made a mistake by going on to someone else’s property. Even though that may seem strange, there are definitely ways to handle the charge if you hire the right attorney.

Let me give you an example of a recently handled case: An individual went to drop something off to his girlfriend at her high school (he had graduated from the same school the year before). The girlfriend knew he was coming to drop the item off to her, but she did not tell her teacher. The young man pulled into the school parking lot, entered the front door, and starting walking towards the girl’s locker. A school security guard stopped him halfway down the hallway, and asked him what he was doing. After a few minutes of explanation, the security guard informed the young man that from now on, he would have to check into the front office before visiting anyone. It just so happened that a police officer was at the school that day, and he also spoke the scared kid. The young man leaves, gets back into his car, and drives away.

A few days later, the young man receives a citation in the mail for trespassing. The police officer decided that enough facts exist to charge him with such an offense, and now the kid is scared to death. Now keep in mind, this was a kid who had attended this same high school, still knew all the teachers, and was even on a first name basis with the school security guard. But nevertheless, he was charged. Does this seem fair? Probably not. But then this type of thing happens all the time.

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Yes, unfortunately you can. And this very type of scenario happens all the time. It may seem unfair (and in most cases, it is very unfair), but understanding what can be done about it is very important as well.

When an individual is charged or cited with Assault, he or she is said to have been an unnecessary aggressor towards someone else. In essence, the citation is saying that you should not have made an aggressive move towards the other person (whether the move involved physically touching someone, or simply verbally threatening them with the idea of physical contact), because doing so was not necessary. Of course, if you are defending yourself against someone who is attacking you, this logic seems to fly out the window. But as I mentioned, this is very frequently how these scenarios play out.

Let me give you an example: You are having a family meeting at which your husband’s ex-wife is present. You and she do not get along at all, so you try and stay away from one another. The next thing you know, she (the ex) is coming towards you screaming and flailing her arms in the air. She rushes up to with such force that her body collides with yours, knocking you back a little bit. In defense, you push her back away from you. Once things have calmed down, you leave and go home. Later that night, you receive a phone call from a police officer who begins to ask you questions about what happened. The next day, you are handed a citation that says you are being charged with Assault in the Third Degree.

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