Hi, my name is Heather Ford, and I am a traffic attorney in New Orleans. And today, I want to talk about whether a simple speeding ticket can really end up costing you over $1,000. Before I get started, if you have any questions about traffic tickets or a suspended license, you can always shoot me a text at 504-233-8529 or schedule a free strategy session at traffictickettalks.com.
So, it goes back to, like, you know, most people have a pretty clean record. If you get a speeding ticket, you think — no harm, I’m done with it, I just pay it, you know, no big deal. Maybe tickets are a couple of hundred dollars. And they move on. But I really just want to caution you against just paying those types of speeding tickets; they really can have a long-term impact, particularly on insurance.
I was on Reddit the other day in the New Orleans subreddit. And somebody was saying that,, they paid a stop sign ticket, and they had already been issued a binder for insurance. And then, when that traffic ticket popped up on their driving record, they were issued another offer, which was $1,000 more. And I’m being honest with you, that is not uncommon. I’ve had people call me many times because they paid a few speeding tickets over the last year or so. And all of a sudden,their insurance is $500 – $600 a month.
And I’m not saying that you necessarily need to hire an attorney to help you handle some of these tickets. If you weren’t going incredibly fast—if you were 15-16 miles over the speed limit or less—most courts will work with you to try to keep that off your record. What you need is a non-moving violation. In some places, they might have you do an 894 to keep that off your record. But again, be very careful about paying for these tickets.
I know they seem like they’re really simple and fairly inexpensive. You may think, I don’t have time to go to court, and I don’t want to have to pay an attorney to go to court to handle this for me, so I’ll just pay this ticket and move on.
But sometimes, they really do have long-term consequences. They cost you money in the future. And sometimes, people also have issues because they may want to drive in the future and didn’t think about that. Maybe you want to Uber or Lyft at some point. Or, at the company you work for, traveling is part of your duties, and now they run your record, and all of a sudden, this speeding ticket from two years ago is problematic.
So don’t just pay those; work on them. Whether you work on them yourself or you have somebody else work on them, just be very cautious.
But again, if you have any questions about it, I’d be happy to give you my thoughts. Shoot me a text at 504-370-0335, or you can schedule a free strategy session at traffictickettalks.com.
Alright, thanks. Have a great day.
