Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Speeding Tickets and Insurance

Let me guess. You are reading this Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog post because you just got a Seattle speeding ticket and you want to try to beat it or at least find out exactly how much your insurance rates are going to go up the next time you renew your insurance. If you are doing the research, then good for you. At least you are concerned about your Washington driving record enough to look into how a Seattle traffic citation can affect your wallet.

For starters, Washington State doesn't really have a "point" system like many other states. A Seattle speeding ticket doesn't carry a certain number of points, and neither does a ticket for running a red light. Instead, the State of Washington just has a set of rules they follow for determining when your license is affected by traffic violations. You get a certain number of violations, you face certain consequences.

First, if you receive five moving violations (a moving violation takes place while the car is moving - speeding, reckless driving, negligent driving, etc. are moving violations) in a years time period, you are placed on probation with the Department of Licensing. This will definitely raise a red flag with your insurance company. To take care of this situation you should hire a Seattle traffic lawyer to either get the citations reduced to non-moving violations or get them dismissed altogether (if possible). What you shouldn't do is just go in and plead guilty to a bunch of tickets. That just isn't smart.

Second, if you receive six or more moving violations within a year, your license is suspended for a period of time. Bottom line - don't get six moving violations within a year (and I think a year lasts from today back a year - so, for example, if you had 6 speeding tickets from last July 20 to this July 20, that would make you eligible for license suspension). Again, don't get cited with this many traffic violations. If you do, Hire a Seattle speeding ticket lawyer to help you out.

By the way, these are both going to hurt your insurance rates - to what effect depends a bit on your provider, your demographic (age, sex, etc.) and probably some other random factors that insurance companies think reflect on people's driving abilities (education, etc.). In any event, it is a pretty safe bet that the more moving violations you get (non-moving violations typically aren't counted toward a driving record for purposes of insurance), the higher your insurance rates will go.

Don't be that person that has to pay for Seattle traffic tickets if you don't have to. Hire a Seattle traffic lawyer today to help.

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Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Field Sobriety Tests

The most disheartening thing to see as a Seattle traffic lawyer when a client walks into the door is that they didn't do everything they could to exercise their rights and take advantage of their rights to create the best situation possible for them to beat their Seattle DUI. And one of the areas where I see this time and time again is consenting to field sobriety tests.

If you didn't know already (and there is no real reason you should know, unless, of course, you have friends or relatives that are DUI attorneys), you don't have to take field sobriety tests in Washington State.

The reason for this is fairly straightforward: we all have Constitutional rights, one of which is the right not to incriminate ourselves. Field sobriety tests are given for the sole reason of proving we are too drunk to drive (even though they don't really do that). So, if you decide to refuse them, it shouldn't be held against you in court.

And to think to yourself, "I'll take these field sobriety tests and prove to the police how sober I am" is, to say it bluntly, stupid. Let me put it to you this way, we are seasoned Seattle traffic lawyers and I would never, under any circumstances, take field sobriety tests. All they do is dig whatever hole you are already in deeper. The police are looking for reasons to write down in their report to back up their belief that you were drunk, and they'll see that when you are doing your field sobriety tests.

If you are ever charged with a DUI in the Seattle area, don't wait until you are arrested to assert your rights. Right when you think you are in trouble (about the time the officer asks you to do field sobriety tests), immediately ask (nicely) to speak with your Seattle traffic attorney. It can mean the difference between beating your DUI, significantly reducing your DUI to something much easier to deal with, and being convicted of DUI.

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I am a Seattle traffic lawyer. Most of the clients that come my way have a typical story. They got off work (or don't work) and were having a couple of frosty beverages to unwind at the local pub. They got in their car to drive home, had a broken tail light, expired tags, didn't use a turn signal, were doing their usual speeding, or some other minor traffic violation, and got pulled over by the Seattle police who, with nothing better to do, went full scale DUI investigation on you until they got enough information to haul you down to the station for a breath test.

But sometimes fate jumps up and bites you in the ass and you can't do anything about it. I was just reading about Dante Stallworth, the NFL receiver, formerly with the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles, who recently signed with the Cleveland Browns, and his story is one of those that scares anyone who reads it. From what I understand, Stallworth, after a night of at least some drinking, was driving home, minding his own business (although he may have been speeding at the time), and hit and killed a 59 year old man. I may be incorrect on this, but from what I understand the man was not in a cross walk and walked out into a major street late at night. Whether Stallworth would have seen the guy had he not had anything to drink is anyone's guess. But these type of situations that are out of your control are the one's that keep me up at night as a Seattle traffic lawyer.

And his attorney, whether a hardened Seattle DUI lawyer or a newly minted public defender, is going to have a hard time presenting this case to a jury because of the sympathy that is going to be afforded to the deceased (I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing - I'm speaking strictly from a trial strategy point of view).

When the prosecutor tries to put the victim's family member on to talk about what a great guy he was and how he always followed traffic laws and the like, it is going to be a tough sell (although I have seen some great Seattle criminal lawyers take a case like this and do well with it - they do have the fact that it was extremely late at night and they guy was walking into a street with a car coming right at him - and I don't know what the victim's toxicology screen looked like, but it is possible that he had had a night of drinking himself).

A story published today here said that Stallworth entered a plea of not guilty (normal at this stage in the proceedings, even if he is going to enter a plea agreement with the state). We'll have to see how things turn out. But remember, there are many things out there you can't control (have you ever heard about the guy that got the Seattle DUI after someone ran a red light and crashed into him? It happens), and sometimes you just have to be lucky.

Thanks for reading the Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog. Come back soon.

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If you are in need of a Seattle traffic lawyer, you are probably suspected of having committed a violation of at least one law. I figured that since you are accused of something, you might as well know what the law is. Today I'm going to discuss Driving Under the Influence as defined in the RCW 46.61.502.

In layman's terms, driving under the influence, or DUI, occurs when consumes so much alcohol or uses so much drugs that it impairs their ability to properly operate a vehicle. As I'm sure you know, the amount of alcohol in your system is often measured by a breathalyzer test, and a measurement of .08 or greater presumes (accepts without question) that you are over the limit of alcohol consumption a safe driver can have. But, the statutes have even more than that.

There are actually three ways a person may be guilty of driving under the influence in Seattle according to RCW 46.61.502: if a person while driving a vehicle in the State of Washington: (1) has, within two hours of driving, a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or higher as shown by an analysis of the person's blood or breath made under RCW 46.61.506 (this statute discusses all the rules of breathalyzer tests, blood tests, and refusing breathalyzer and blood tests - we'll talk all about this another time); (2) While the person is under the influence of or affected by intoxicating liquor or any drug; or (3) While the person is under the combined influence of or affected by intoxicating liquor and any drug.

What does this paragraph mean? Well, a couple of things. The first thing it means is that the police don't necessarily need a breathalyzer to tell if you are driving under the influence. If, for example, a Seattle cop pulls you over and after speaking with you and running tests believes you are driving under the influence he can arrest you and then charge you even if your breath test comes back under .08. The police can use their "training and experience" to form an opinion as to your sobriety (those are the kinds of cases a Seattle traffic lawyer just loves to defend). The second thing is that DUI is not limited to just alcohol. You can be arrested for drugs too (even prescription drugs, by the way).

Which brings us to section 2 of RCW 46.61.502: the fact that a person charged with a violation of this section is or has been entitled to use a drug under the laws of this state shall not constitute a defense against a charge of violating this section. This means that just because you were prescribed Valium doesn't mean you can use that as a defense if you were driving after just having taken some. Voluntary intoxication is not a defense.

On to section 3: it is an affirmative defense to a violation of subsection (1)(a) of this section which the defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant consumed a sufficient quantity of alcohol after the time of driving and before the administration of an analysis of the person's breath or blood to cause the defendant's alcohol concentration to be 0.08 or more within two hours after driving. The court shall not admit evidence of this defense unless the defendant notifies the prosecution prior to the omnibus or pretrial hearing in the case of the defendant's intent to assert the affirmative defense. Wow, that's a mouthful.

What they are saying in this case is that if, for example, you are driving in Seattle, commit some driving violation, and the police are looking for you, and while they are looking for you (at your home in Kirkland, for example), you get drunk, you can use that as a defense to drunk driving if you are charged with it. There are only two rules to this defense, though. First, you, the defendant, must prove that it was more likely than not that your drinking after driving is what caused you to blow above .08, and second, that you have to notify the court and the prosecutor of this before they have the omnibus hearing (a hearing where evidence is presented and motions are argued at the beginning stages of criminal proceedings). The law just recognizes that sometimes people drink after they are done driving.

Section 4 was put in there as a last resort in case the police mess up with your original breathalyzer test. It states that breath or blood samples collected after the 2 hour time limit to take the tests has passed may be used to show you were drunk within the two hour time frame after the incident, or that at least you had been drinking for the non-breathalyzer portions of the Seattle DUI laws. Does it sound a little shady, that the state or city prosecutor could use stale evidence to prove you committed a crime? That's because it is.

Section 5 says that a Washington state DUI is a gross misdemeanor unless section 6 applies. Section 6 says a DUI is a class C felony if: (1) you have four or more prior DUIs in the last 10 years; (2) the person has been previously convicted of: (a) vehicular homicide while DUI; (b) vehicular assault while DUI; or (c) and out of state offense compared to (a) or (b).

That is it for your basic DUI law. If only it were that simple. Stay tuned for more Seattle DUI information from a Seattle traffic attorney.

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