What To Do If You Didn’t Mail In Your Traffic Ticket Within 15 Days
Posted: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
by Craig Cahoon
The Cahoon Law Office
In Washington State, you only have 15 days to respond to your traffic ticket. Otherwise, the Court will add penalties to the ticket amount, send the balance to a collection company, and send notice to the Department of Licensing to suspend your license.
So what do you do if you realize that you’ve waited too long to send in the ticket?
Second, contact an attorney and have them file a motion with the Court asking for a new hearing. You’ll need a reason why you failed to respond in time, but I have yet to find a judge who would not grant my request for a new hearing.
Once the attorney files for a new hearing, the Court will schedule a new date for the attorney to argue on you behalf. Remember this is not a hearing to decide whether or not you committed the infraction, rather it is only to determine whether you will be allowed to have a Contested Hearing on the matter.
If the Judge grants your request for a new hearing, then the court will mail out notice of the new date to both you and your attorney.
Once you’re back on track for a Contested Hearing, the same attorney can defend you on the underlying case too. At this point, you’re probably thinking this sound really expensive. The good news is it’s affordable.
Some attorneys will include this when representing you on the underlying ticket. For example, I charge a flat fee of $199, which includes the hearing talked about above. Here’s the best part: I only collect the $199 if I can get your ticket thrown out, amended to a non-moving offense, or put into a Deferral Program. This means that if I cannot get a judge to set your case for a Contested Hearing, you owe me nothing.
The other nice part about having an attorney handle the ticket for you is that you don’t have to come to Court. So, no missing work just to fight a traffic ticket!
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