Traffic Ticket Defenses

Traffic Ticket Defenses are important to avoid convictions for moving violations in Texas.  The Beltz Law Firm is considered one of the  top traffic ticket attorneys in Dallas based on their ability to make legal and factual arguments to juries and judges to have traffic tickets dismissed.  There is never a guarantee that setting your case for trial will get your case dismissed.  But you don’t want to have your case set for trial and not be able to get your side of the story before a jury to consider.  This page is dedicated to helping those that are trying to get a traffic dismissed understand the difference between legal and factual dismissals.  Further, this page is intended to help those that are considering setting their case for trial understand some of the complexities of traffic ticket trials.  If you would like to discuss your traffic tickets with our experienced team of attorneys after reading this page, feel free to contact us at 214-321-4105.

Traffic Ticket Help – Traffic Ticket Defense

The Difference Between Wanting A Dismissal And Getting One

Many people think that hiring an attorney for traffic tickets means that the case automatically gets dismissed with magical fairy dust the attorney sprinkles on your ticket as soon as he walks in the courtroom. All a ticket lawyer has to do is wave their magic wand and your traffic tickets disappear into thin air. We can only wish it were that easy to get traffic tickets dismissed! The truth is that there is no magic fairy dust.

Actually it takes a lot of hard work to get a dismissal on a traffic ticket. Prosecutors don’t want to give dismissals because…. Well, they are prosecutors! Judges many times will not want to dismiss traffic tickets because they are being micro-managed by City Managers who oversee the dockets like they are cash registers for the City and don’t understand that laws are in place to protect your constitutional rights when being accused of a criminal offense. Finally, some attorneys, believe it or not, don’t like to argue zealously for you because they don’t want to rock the boat or make a judge “angry” at them. Or they claim that they “haven’t been paid enough” to argue on your behalf.

Writs Of Mandamus

When A Judge Doesn’t Want To Follow The Law

We can say with pride that we are not the type of law firm that will allow your constitutional rights be trampled. Our traffic ticket attorneys work very hard at fighting traffic tickets and beating traffic tickets. If it takes upsetting a prosecutor or a judge to ensure that your constitutional rights are protected and your case is dismissed we will do that. Since 2004 our office has filed multiple Writs of Mandamus against courts to protect our clients from constitutional violations for traffic tickets. Those writs were filed for the following reasons:

1. Richardson Municipal – Writ of Mandamus filed after the court issued warrants for a client attempting to make a California resident appear in-person to handle traffic citation that went past the appearance date.

2. Southlake Municipal – Writ of Mandamus filed after court would not dismiss a traffic ticket for a client who had not been given a sworn copy of the complaint specifically alleging the charges against him within the time required by law.

3. Plano Municipal – Writ of Mandamus filed after court would not dismiss a traffic ticket for a client who had not been given a sworn copy of the complaint specifically alleging the charges against him within the time required by law.

These are just a few examples of our willingness to fight hard to protect your constitutional rights when you have been issued a traffic ticket.

Reasons for Dismissing a Traffic Ticket

The reasons for dismissing a traffic ticket vary based on the individual circumstances of each case.  However, the main 2 categories for traffic ticket dismissals are based on factual and legal reasons.  Framing your argument for dismissal of your traffic ticket within one of these two categories is definitely the best way to get a traffic ticket dismissed.

You cannot expect your case to be dismissed without a valid reason that is justified in the law.  Traffic tickets do not magically disappear just because you have hire a lawyer.  Because magical fairy dust doesn’t normally work to get traffic tickets dismissed, you have to have a reason for the dismissal. Reasons for traffic ticket dismissals are broken down into two categories: (1) Factual reasons for traffic ticket dismissal; and (2) Legal reasons for traffic ticket dismissal. Both are discussed briefly below:

Factual Reasons for Beating Traffic Tickets

Factual reasons for the dismissal of a traffic ticket are what we hear every day from potential clients that call our office to discuss their case. Some of the reason we hear are:

1. The cop got the wrong car! My car was red, but he actually clocked the blue car;

2. I didn’t run that stop light! The light was yellow when I went through; and

3. There was no way I was speeding. I was going with the flow of traffic.

These arguments and many more explanations are factual in nature and are reasons why a case should and can be dismissed. However, it must be stated that normally a prosecutor will not care about these reasons during your pretrial phase of your case. Again, a prosecutor does not care about your factual reasons because they are not the fact finders in your case.

The facts of a traffic ticket case are to be decided by a judge or jury. If you are expecting your traffic ticket to be dismissed based on a factual reason alone without having to go to trial you are probably mistaken in that belief. And if you plan on going to trial, you will most definitely need an attorney to help make sure that any evidence establishing your innocence is properly submitted and not excluded.

Submission of evidence is by far the biggest reason for cases not being dismissed if the evidence shows a person’s innocence.  You have to “lay the proper foundation” in order to get the evidence in the hands of the jury or judge to review.  Each piece of evidence has its own requirements when it comes to how to properly submit it.  This is why a traffic ticket lawyer is crucial once a trial has been set and evidence has to be submitted to fight for a dismissal.

Legal Reasons for getting Traffic Ticket dismissed

Legal reasons are the heart and soul of traffic ticket dismissals. Legal reasons are based on issues relating to the ability of the State to establish its case beyond a reasonable doubt insuring that all procedures have been followed and no jurisdictional issues are present. Some of the legal reasons for dismissals are:

1. The traffic ticket was issued outside of the jurisdiction of the court

2. The traffic ticket was not supported by a complaint; or

3. The complaint was not provided in a timely manner to protect a client’s constitutional rights to notice;

4. The complaint does not allege an offense; and

5. The case was filed after the statute of limitations had passed.

The list above shows just a few of the legal reasons used to fight a traffic ticket. These reasons may not make sense to the average person, but to an experienced traffic ticket attorney, it is the key to representing a client aggressively. Of course, you can never guarantee an outcome, but The Beltz Law Firm can guarantee the effort put into each traffic ticket case. We will work hard to obtain the best possible result for your individual traffic ticket every time! Call us now if you need a traffic ticket help.