Houston Traffic Tickets Lawyers

Traffic Ticket Attorneys in Houston

Traffic ticket attorneys are well-versed in virtually every court in Harris County and the surrounding counties. They have handled all speeding ticket cases, reckless driving cases, no insurance violations, driving without a license, and many other Texas Transportation Code violations. If you need traffic ticket assistance and want experienced lawyers who handle traffic tickets, please review the website below and contact our traffic ticket attorneys.

Remember that driving in Texas is a privilege, not a right. This privilege is subject to revocation at any time. As a Texas motorist, it is becoming increasingly difficult to handle your own traffic tickets because the legislature has seized the chance to legislate financial penalties into the Texas Transportation Code. When you need traffic ticket assistance for a court or violation that you are unfamiliar with, it is almost always better to hire a traffic ticket lawyer to avoid becoming a part of the Texas Surcharge Program.

Many drivers are unaware of the Surcharge System. However, if you have too many traffic tickets on your record, your license will be suspended or you will have to pay annual surcharges just to keep your license.

Driver Responsibility Law Surcharges

The Driver Responsibility Act (TRC 708; Article 10, House Bill 3588, 78th Legislative Session) creates a system that assigns points to Class C misdemeanor moving violations and applies surcharges to offenders based on the type of offense and the time period in which the citation was issued. DPS will assign the following points to a person’s driver record for each conviction:

A moving violation conviction in Texas or another state is worth two points. Moving violations are defined by 37 TEX.

ADMIN. CODE §15.89, which includes a list of those violations that will be assigned points. For a complete list please click on this link.

  • Points will not be assigned for speeding less than 10% over the posted limit or for seat belt convictions.
  • Child Safety Seat Violations will accrue two points.
  • Three points for a moving violation conviction in Texas that resulted in a vehicle crash.

Points are recorded on the driver’s record for 3 years from the date of conviction. An offense committed prior to September 1, 2003 will not be counted toward the program’s point total.

Points surcharge

When a driver accumulates 6 or more points on their record due to traffic tickets over a three-year period, DPS will assess a surcharge. The assessment of the surcharge will be reviewed on an annual basis. The surcharge will be applied if the driver’s record shows six or more points in the previous three years. As a result, if six or more points continue to accumulate on the driver’s record as a result of traffic tickets, the driver may be required to pay for one or more years. The driver must pay a $100 surcharge for the first six points and a $25 surcharge for each additional point. Point surcharges are cumulative and may vary from year to year depending on whether convictions are added or removed from the driver’s record.

Annual surcharge for certain convictions

Drivers convicted of any of the following offenses on or after September 1, 2003, must pay an annual surcharge for 3 years from their date of conviction.

Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), or a DWI-related offense

  • First Conviction – $1,000 annual surcharge
  • Second or subsequent Conviction – $1,500 annual surcharge
  • DWI with Blood Alcohol Content .16 or greater – $2,000 annual surcharge
  • Failure to Maintain Financial Responsibility – $250 annual surcharge
  • Driving While License Invalid – $250 annual surcharge
  • Driving without a Valid License – $100 annual surcharge. (i.e.; No Driver License, No Commercial Driver License, No Endorsement Violation, No Motorcycle License, Operate with License for other Class Vehicle)

These convictions are automatically assessed with cumulative surcharges that do not accrue points. Therefore, an initial conviction for DWI will be assessed $1000 annually, and a subsequent DWI conviction within the same three-year period will be assessed an additional $1500 annually.

All surcharges assessed for this program are in addition to any other reinstatement fees requisite for other administrative actions and do not replace any administrative suspension, revocation, disqualification, or cancellation action resulting from the same convictions.

Traffic Ticket Laws

The most commonly used laws for issuing traffic tickets in Texas are found in the Texas Transportation Code and are known as the “Rules of the Road.” These “rules” have been codified, granting Texas cities the authority to issue traffic tickets through their police departments. Many of these statutes include legal defenses that can be used to have a traffic ticket dismissed.

Commercial Driver Traffic Tickets

If you are a truck driver in Texas and have received a traffic ticket, you are already in big trouble, whether you are guilty or not. The legislature has made it nearly impossible to keep a traffic ticket off your record, even if you were in your personal vehicle at the time.

Traffic Ticket Warrants

Even if traffic tickets are considered “minor infractions,” they can have a significant impact on your life. Anyone who has spent time in jail for traffic violations will tell you that it is not a pleasant experience. A sudden arrest for a traffic ticket warrant can land you in jail for a week or more. You may have to spend any savings or go into debt to pay for the “cash bond” to be released, and failure to do so may result in you losing your job.

Traffic Ticket Help – Traffic Ticket Defense

Many people believe that hiring an attorney for traffic tickets automatically results in the case being dismissed because the attorney sprinkles magical fairy dust on your ticket as soon as he enters the courtroom. A ticket lawyer only needs to wave their magic wand to make your traffic tickets vanish. If only it were that simple to have traffic tickets dismissed! The truth is that there is no such thing as magical fairy dust.

In reality, getting a traffic ticket dismissed takes a lot of effort. Prosecutors are reluctant to dismiss charges because…. They are, after all, prosecutors! Judges frequently refuse to dismiss traffic tickets because they are micro-managed by City Managers who treat the dockets like cash registers for the City and are unaware that laws are in place to protect your constitutional rights when accused of a criminal offense. Finally, believe it or not, some attorneys dislike arguing zealously for you because they don’t want to upset the status quo or make a judge “angry” at them. Or they claim that they “haven’t been compensated sufficiently” to argue on your behalf.

We can confidently state that we are not that type of law firm. We put in a lot of effort to fight and beat traffic tickets. We will upset a prosecutor or a judge to ensure that your constitutional rights are protected and your case is dismissed.

Reasons for Dismissing a Traffic Ticket

Since magic rarely works to get traffic tickets dismissed, you must have a valid reason for the dismissal. There are two types of reasons for traffic ticket dismissals: (1) Factual reasons for dismissing a traffic ticket; and (2) Legal reasons for dismissing a traffic ticket. Both are briefly discussed below:

Factual Reasons for Beating Traffic Tickets

Attorneys hear actual reasons for a traffic ticket dismissal every day from potential clients who call the  office to discuss their case. Some of the reasons we’ve heard include:

  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 and many other explanations are true and are reasons why a case should and can be dismissed. However, a prosecutor is unconcerned about these factors. Again, a prosecutor is unconcerned about your factual reasons because they are not the ones who determine the facts in your case. A judge or jury will decide the facts of a traffic ticket case. If you believe that your traffic ticket will be dismissed based solely on facts, without the need for a trial, you are probably mistaken. And, if you intend to go to trial, you will undoubtedly require the assistance of an attorney to ensure that any evidence proving your innocence is properly submitted and not excluded.

Legal Reasons for Beating Traffic Tickets

The heart and soul of traffic ticket dismissals are legal reasons. Legal reasons are based on the State’s ability to establish its case beyond a reasonable doubt, ensuring that all procedures have been followed and that no jurisdictional issues exist. Some of the legal grounds for dismissal include:

  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 is only a sampling of the legal grounds for contesting a traffic ticket. These reasons may not make sense to the average person, but to an experienced traffic ticket attorney, they are critical to aggressively representing a client.

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