Las Vegas Traffic Ticket Articles
ETrafficCitation.com celebrates 10 Years of Service
Sunday June 6 , 2009
This year ETrafficCitation.com is celebrating 10 years of service and giving the public truthful answers to questions about traffic citations and fair representation-all at a great low prices. Thank you to all who have found out who we are and for letting us help you over the past 10 years.
ETrafficCitation is operated by an attorney, which is unlike other traffic ticket resolution businesses in Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday, August 1, 2008
I, Kirk D. Kaplan, Esq. (Nevada Bar Number 5685) own and operate ETrafficCitation. This is unlike several other traffic ticket resolution businesses in Las Vegas.
If you come into my office at 6480 W. Spring Mountain Road, Suite 4, Las Vegas, Nevada, if I am not in court or in a client meeting, you will likely be able to speak to me personally about your matter. This is unlike many other traffic ticket resolution businesses in Nevada. Please understand that other traffic ticket businesses exist that are attorney owned and run. But the trick is for you to find out which ones are.
Questions you need to ask when requesting assistance from a traffic ticket resolution business are: “Are you owned an run by a licensed attorney?” “If so what is the name and bar number of the attorney? “How long has the attorney owned and operated the business?” “What is the address of the attorney’s office? Then, if you want to make sure of the truthfulness of what is told to you, call the State Bar of Nevada at (702) 382-2200 and ask to speak to someone in Ethics Department. Tell the Ethics department of your conversation and see what the Ethics Department says. You should also check the consistency of the information given to you from the traffic ticket resolution business. For example, if the address of the attorney is different from the location of the traffic ticket resolution business, this may be an indication that an attorney does not own the traffic ticket resolution business. Here is the logic: While attorneys may have several locations (some do for legitimate purposes such as estate planning attorneys desiring to be close to senior clients in Summerlin and in Henderson), most attorneys do not because the cost of overhead for rent, utilities, and the purchase of additional equipment such as copy machines his expensive. This is one example that may indicate the sham. Techniques find out whether an attorney owns the traffic ticket resolution business are are too numerous to list here. Use your head and I bet you can find out what is really happening behind the scenes.
Currently, the State Bar is investigating several traffic ticket resolution business in Las Vegas because of a sham business structures. Here is the sham, I call the structure a SCAM:
1) Behind the scenes the business is owned by a person who is not licensed as an attorney in Nevada. This structure is intended to be invisible to the public because the real owner does not want the public to know what is really happening. In todays world that demands clarity and transparency, this type of structure is meant to deceive you. At my office, transparency exists, period.
2) The business then hires an attorney to appear in court for the non attorney owed business on traffic ticket.
3) When the attorney returns from the court, the results are likely handed off to a non formally trained person to translate the legalize into English for the customer. At this stage communications is likely sent to the client that does not contain an original signature of the attorney. In my office, I sign all correspondence to clients communicating the result of your traffic ticket. My signature indicates that I have reviewed your file and that I approve the communications of the results to you.
As is typical in all business, likely a negotiating process takes place where the traffic ticket resolution business tries to bid down fees paid to the attorney for appearing. This is because the business only needs the attorney appear in court because only licensed attorneys in Nevada may appear in Nevada courts. This structure is a purposeful end-run around law established to protect the public. The rub is that non attorney owned business probably believes that not much work is needed on the part of the attorney, so it does not want to pay much to the attorney to perform the work. If this is so, than the attorney appearing for the ticket resolution business will likely not be very motivated to pay attention to your matter. A possible effect is poor results on your traffic ticket. In my office, my motivation is to provide you with representation. I do not have the bid-down conflict of interest that may interfere with your matter.
What Everyone Wants When Asking For Help with a Traffic Ticket
Thursday June 26, 2008
This When potential customers call to inquire how we can help, they typically want a guarantee of the following:
1) That he/she receives no demerits.
2) That information is not sent to his/her insurance company.
3) That the fines, if any, will be reduced.
4) Not to tell their spouse or parents.
We DO NOT GUARANTEE court results. In fact no traffic ticket resolution service can legitimately guarantee results. A “guarantee” in this regard is just a sales technique to inflate the illusion of higher value of services in order to get a higher price.
What we can tell you is the typical fine a court has assessed in the recent past for certain citations, whether similar citations to his/hers have previously been reduced from a moving violation to a nonmoving violation, and the typical reduction of demerits.
Tired of Paying for Your Lawyer’s Billboard Advertising?
Sunday June 22 , 2008
Fees paid usually are to cover high billboard prices or for a spot at the back of a bus.
Billboards - Depending upon the traffic that passes a billboard, the more the cost to rent the billboard per month. I estimate that an average cost of a billboard (excluding the I-15 corridor that can cost up to $20,000 per month) is between $2,000-$3,000 per month (even with multiple billboard discounts). If a business rents 20 billboards a month, with an average charge of $2,500, it will spend $50,000.00. Do the math with $75.00 as the divisor = 667 traffic citations just to break even on advertising. I think you can imagine the pressures that exist to cover such costs. All that cost just to get a very similar resolution to your traffic citation, if not the same (See my blog entry June 22, 2008 - Can one traffic ticket resolution business get a better deal than the others).
Back of the Bus - I would guess that rates to end up at the back of many buses is similar. When I was in Jr. high and high school, sitting at the back of the bus was cool. Well my attitudes have changed, I hate sitting behind the bus. A bus seems to always be stopped at a bus stop blocking traffic. So the question is, do you like paying for the inconvenience of sitting behind a bus?
Can one traffic ticket resolution business get a better deal then the others?
Sunday June 22 , 2008
In my opinion, the short answer is no. However, see my blog entry dated August 1, 2008 discussing non own traffic citation resolution businesses bidding down assistance of an attorney. I may get better results. With that, your decision as to which traffic citation ticket business in Las Vegas you request assistance gets down to the price you are willing to pay for assistance. Starting at $45.00 at ETrafficCitation.com, or pay the common teaser rate of $75.00 (actual fees are likely to be more).
Generally speaking, traffic citation resolutions services are just for convenience to save you time and money. See discussion below HOW TRAFFIC CITATIONS ARE RESOLVED. Do the math, multiply your hourly rate of pay times the estimated hours you will spend addressing your traffic citation. Be sure to add in your parking (that is if you don’t use the free parking at the hotels near the courts in downtown Las Vegas) and the cost of gas. Considering travel time to and from court, wait time at the court and appearance in court, you could easily spend 4-5 hours.
Be aware of the sales pitch that an attorney can find an error in the traffic citation, and possibly get it dismissed. While I agree that sometimes an error exists in a traffic citation that is so fatal that it is dismissed. But those times are rare, especially with the new computerized citations. This sales pitch is many times conflated to make a sale.
Hearsay says that some courts are inclined to order driving school to people who represent themselves. Generally, when I represent someone, driving school is not in play. By the way this is likely the same for all traffic citation resolution businesses. If a more severe violation is in play such as reckless driving, aggressive driving, etc., driving school will likely be ordered ?
Amount Stated On Your Traffic Ticket Is Not The Fine A Court May Assess
Sunday April 26, 2009
Here is the newest incantation of claims by other traffic ticket resolution businesses inflating the value of their services rendered to justify charging higher fees by appealing to someone’s greed by claiming great savings of money. If the FUZZY MATH (see discussion below) is presented to you, turn your back a run as far and as fast as you can.
AMOUNT ON A TRAFFIC TICKET DOES NOT EQUAL FINE. THE AMOUNT STATED ON YOUR TRAFFIC TICKET IS A BOND AMOUNT REQUIRED BY THE COURT TO ENSURE YOU WILL APPEAR AT A FUTURE DATE. FOR MOST COURTS, A BOND IS NOT THE SAME THING AS THE FINE THEY WILL ASSESS. DON’T CONFUSE THE TWO BECAUSE IT WILL LIKELY COST YOU MONEY!
For most courts, the amount usually shown on a traffic citation that a person receives is the required bond that a person must post with the court if that person pleads not-guilty at an initial appearance before a judge or traffic commissioner. Technically speaking, a bond, for purposes of this discussion, is money a court will require from someone to ensure that she/he will re-appear in court at a future scheduled date and time to address their traffic ticket. If the person fails to appear, then the amount paid for the bond is forfeited to the court. That is why everyone has heard of the infamous bail bonds man looking for someone who has failed to appear at a court date. If a bail bonds man had put up a bond for someone, and that someone fails to appear, the bail bonds man forfeits monies to the court paid on behalf of the bail jumper.
The reality of the affect of bond amounts stated on a misdemeanor traffic tickets for most individuals is little if any (see below for one big exception). Here is why.
Where ETrafficCitation.com is hired to help - we will contact the court that we are representing that individual, and the court will then schedule the appropriate appearance for Kirk D. Kaplan, Esq. - the court will not required a bond. By the way, no bond will be required when any of the Traffic Ticket resolution businesses contact the court.
Where the individual represents her/himself, that individual will appear at the court clerk’s window at the applicable court, and will either resolve the traffic citation at the window or the clerk will set the a hearing date for the individual to return. If the individual decides to resolve the matter right-there-and-then with the clerk, short of showing proof of insurance, registration and etc, he/she will usually plead guilty to a moving violation, (this is not good for your driving record and insurance), and usually pay a somewhat of a reduced fine. You should note - a bond amount was likely never discussed.
If the clerk sets the matter for a future hearing, the individual will then return for an appearance before a judge or traffic commissioner. The clerks seldom require that the individual pay the bond amount to get a hearing date on the traffic ticket. When the person appears in court, s/he can then demand a trial. Even at that point, if the court schedules a trial date, seldom does it demand a bond. What usually happens here is that the court will recommend that you speak to the city attorney or district attorney to see if you can work out a deal. If you can’t work out a deal, that individual returns for their trial.
Big exception to the bond requirement. Recently, the times when a bond is demanded is when an individual has Failed to Appear on the date and time cited on the traffic ticket. Several courts, including North Las Vegas Municipal, Las Vegas Justice Court, and Las Vegas Municipal are now sending Marshals to find you and demand payment from you of the stated bond amount. The Marshals will at the same time schedule a date and time for you to appear in court on your traffic ticket. If you then appear and resolve your traffic ticket and the amount of the bond you paid the Marshal is more than the court assessed fines and likely warrant fees, the court will send you a refund.
The dirty little secret dispelled.
Several traffic ticket resolution businesses in town claim that if you hire them to help you, that they will save you money by getting your fines reduced. In fact the traffic ticket resolution businesses will, in a not so subtle way, imply they are so good that even after paying the demanded legal fees, which in my opinion is too high, the individual will still save money. The dirty little secret is that the traffic ticket resolution businesses do not tell you the difference between the bond stated on the traffic ticket and the fines the courts are known to assess. Except for Las Vegas Municipal Court, the fines courts assess are surprisingly less than the bond amount posted on the traffic ticket. In other words, traffic ticket resolution businesses specifically and consciously play-off the general misunderstanding of the general public to inflate the value of their services. Another dirty little secret a traffic ticket resolution businesses do not tell you about is all attorneys get the same deal. See my blogged entry on June 22, 2008 - Can one traffic ticket resolution business get a better deal then the others?
Fuzzy math.
For example the traffic ticket resolution business will say and act as though the bond is what the court will assess, and then perform fuzzy math for the individual inquiring into the services provided. Here is an example of the fuzzy math for a basic 1-10 over the speed limit traffic citation in Las Vegas Justice Court:
Bond stated on the traffic ticket (the strongly implied fine) $300.00
Fine the traffic ticket business can get the fine reduced to (90.00)
Savings the traffic ticket business got you $210.00
Fees the Traffic Ticket business will likely charge you (150.00)
TA DA!!! Your savings by using the Traffic Ticket business $60.00
Notes to the Fuzzy Math Calculation:
I call this calculation Fuzzy Math because the fines courts trend to assess are well known to the attorneys who help with traffic tickets. Except for Las Vegas Municipal Court, the fines other courts generally assess are surprisingly lower than the bond stated on the traffic citation. From my perspective, while I know many attorneys will speak-up when they sense when someone is confusing a bond for the likely court assessed fine, others will consciously and knowing allow the general public to continue to be confused in order to inflate the value of their services. If someone at a traffic citation resolution business starts discussing FUZZY MATH, do not hesitate to hang-up. Otherwise, you will pay too much for the help they propose. I hope that this comment will one day soon put an end to such disingenuous conduct.
LVJC general fine trend for a speeding citation 1-10 over is $90.00 until June 30, 2009; after that date the fine will be increased to $140.00.
At ETrafficCitation.com, we do not play off the misunderstanding of the general public of the true meaning and purposes of a bond vs. actual court fines. We straight forwardly tell you the fine trends of the court you are to appear before. Where we sense that a person inquiring with us is confused about the amount stated on the traffic citation, we gladly explain in plain English that the amount is a bond and likely not the fine a court will assess, and therefore is relatively unimportant to her/his matter. We keep focused on the business at hand, that DOES NOT INCLUDE appealing to the savings and greed tactic discussed above.
Borrowing a friend’s car? Check it out first, you may be in for a surprise!
Sunday July 25, 2009
Since I started ETrafficCitation.com in 1999, I have helped countless people who borrowed a friend’s car, truck or van and then while using the vehicle was pulled over and received a traffic ticket for something, and then got a surprise. That surprise typically comes in the form of additional citations for no proof of insurance, suspended registration, expired registration, or some combination thereof. Then the person who received all the traffic violations comes to me and essentially says that: “The vehicle was not mine, I was just borrowing it.” The underlying assumption is that since the vehicle was not the individual’s, that s/he is not responsible for insurance and/or registration. Since s/he is not responsible, s/he should not have received the traffic citation. In his or her head, not owning the vehicle is a defense. All Courts in the Las Vegas Valley do not accept this excuse and assess fines accordingly. If your friend gets insurance and/or fixes the registration issue, and proof of the same can be timely shown to the court, then fines generally can be reduced or sometimes eliminated.
Many times clients come to me and say that they have inquired with the friend, and the friend typically says that s/he could not afford the insurance and/ or registration and that s/he has no plans of obtaining the same in the near future. The result is my client, the innocent borrower, is thrown under the bus and is stuck holding the bag. Hum, some friend the vehicle lender truly is. FYI - No insurance at the date of stop generally equates to amounts around $1,130.00. So if your friend never gets insurance you are stuck with $1,130.00 approximately ($732.00 for Henderson Justice Court).
So the lesson learned is, in addition to assuring that the vehicle is running properly, that its brakes work and is filled with gas, you should always check to see if the vehicle is insured and/or registered. This point could not be more important now considering the fact that many people are suffering from the inability to pay all their bills. Do not let a borrowed vehicle become your sole responsibility .
Keep Your Seatbelt On When Stopped
Thursday August 14, 2008
Recently I have had a lot of clients complain that the seatbelt citation that they received was not correct; that he or she had the seatbelt on when stopped. Here is the typical scenario: a policeman stops a driver for whatever violation. Then while the police approaches the vehicle, the driver takes off the seatbelt to reach into the glove box to get the insurance and registration to show to the officer. When the officer walks up to the vehicle he or she sees the driver with the seatbelt off. Lesson learned, keep your seatbelt on until the police officer see it across your lap, then get your insurance and registration. FYI - Courts are enforcing public policy for a driver having no seatbelt. The fine is usually $67.00. The Courts want your seatbelt on.
We Can Help You!
We can help you with your Las Vegas / Clark County traffic ticket. Fast warrant quash, no points, court or school; get answers now. All you have to do is contact us. Our office hours are Monday - Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm. You can:
Call Us - Call our friendly staff at (702) 933-4248.
Email Us - Email us your name and phone number using the form on the right and we will contact you by phone. If you email us before 2:00pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays), we will contact you the same day. If you email us any other time, we will contact you the next business day.
Visit Us - Visit us at 6480 W. Spring Mountain Road, Suite 4, Las Vegas, Nevada 89146. Click Get Help for driving directions.
Please Note: You are not our client until we accept you as a client and you have pre-paid all fees associated with us providing legal services. Call our friendly staff for details.
