Houston Traffic Ticket Lawyer

Archive for April, 2010

The average daily weekday ridership in Houston is 39,500. Houston operates a fleet of 18 Avanto light-rail vehicles built by Siemens. Each vehicle is 96 foot long and has four low platfrm doors per side and has a capacity of 72 seated and 148 standing passengers.
The arrival of METRORail came 64 years after the previous streetcar system was shut down, which left Houston as the largest city in the United States without a rail system since 1990 when the Blue Line opened in Los Angeles. METRORail is operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas, or METRO for short.

Being the second major light rail service in Texas (first is the  Dallas Area Rapid Transit system) is the METRORail enough for the residents of Houston? As of April 15, 2006, there have been 129 crashes officially confirmed. One crash has resulted in a fatality; the fatal crash occurred on May 10, 2005 and involved a man in a pickup truck who ran through a red light at the Jefferson Street intersection and collided with a train, killing the driver of the truck instantly and causing minor injuries to several passengers of the train.

There are several possible reasons for the high accident rate; an often proffered explanation is that the entire 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of track runs in city streets unlike systems with private right-of-ways. METRO has consistently blamed driver error as the cause of the high collision rate and the transit agency’s police department regularly tickets motorists who cross paths with the train.

Since its inception, METRORail has been the source of several political controversies in Houston. Taking into consideration the rising gas prices and exhausting supply for global resources, Houston needs more methods of public transport.
The METRORail is a commonly used transportation system for college students and middle-class workers who do not want to be stuck in traffic in peak hours. A number of apartment complexes have been built in close proximity to the METRORail. Some of these apartments include Gables, Waterford Square, Scotland Yard, Broadstone etc. (insert link). With growing Houston population we need more METRorails with mess number of crashes.

The vast majority of Texans have, at some point in their lives, received a ticket for a traffic violation.  Unlike most other violations of the law, a traffic ticket doesn’t bear the same stigma of criminality and is often viewed as a minor offense that even the most law-abiding citizens may be guilty of on a frequent basis.  However, don’t let the prevalence and the commonality of a traffic ticket fool you.  Trying to resolve a traffic ticket in Texas is at best an annoyance, and at worst, a convoluted maze of red tape that can have you banging your head against the wall in no time.  From the moment you see the red lights flashing in your rearview mirror and hear the dreaded siren, you enter the confounding world of Texas traffic law.

While not considered a serious offense by most people, many Texans don’t realize that a traffic violation is still a criminal offense in the state of Texas.  The list of possible traffic violations that you can be guilty of in Texas seems endless: speeding, speeding in a construction zone, speeding in a school zone, running a red light, failing to signal, failing to yield to right of way, loud muffler, expired registration/inspection, driving without a valid driver’s license etc. (maybe here we can add a link that people can click on to see the sheer variety of cases that they could be charged with).  The list goes on and on.  Each type of case has varying degrees of repercussions and different methods of resolution.  For example, a speeding or moving violation may result in a fine, put negative points on your driving record, or raise your insurance rates.  Other, more straightforward violations such as expired registration can be dismissed with a ten dollar dismissal fee if you update your registration within ten days

Considering how varied the steps can be to resolve each type of case, it is not surprising that many people find dealing with a traffic ticket a very stressful process.  That is where Sullo & Sullo can step in to relieve that stress and confusion.  We are a law firm that specializes in traffic ticket defense and you can have peace of mind knowing that only the most experienced and thorough attorneys who are skilled in traffic law are managing your cases.  While it would be impossible to discuss all the nuances of traffic procedure and traffic law, we would like to provide a general overview of the anatomy of a typical traffic case.  This step-by-step guide to how traffic cases work in Texas is a service provided to you by Sullo & Sullo to help demystify the process for all our clients.

The road is a wide place for huge troubles. There can be tremendous mishaps that could even lead to death of drivers and passengers. If you are lucky enough, you may only experience small road violations that could merely lead to traffic ticket issuance. Nevertheless, if you are a responsible drive and thinks that there was a misconstrued road conversation about a minor condition, there is a bright future for a traffic ticket dismissal.

Pushing for your statements in court for a traffic ticket dismissal is never that easy. Think about the complexity of the process that requires great memory to serve your statements, valid proofs, and a dependable psychological aptitude, because the pressures are always there to bug you during the court hearing.

However, a traffic ticket dismissal is also possible if you have the capacity and the knowledge how to fight it off. Here are reliable ways on how to manage a traffic ticket dismissal successfully:

1. Prior to the court appearance, recollect everything that transpired on the day of traffic ticket issuance. Put it down in writing – your clothes during that day and other relevant information. Remember, remember, and remember are the secrets to initial success in court discussion.

2. Like any student during an examination, read your homework and understand them very well. If there is anything that is not clear to you in the ticket or in the statute, take note of them for cross-examination of the police officer before the court.

3. Make your first professional impression inside the courthouse lasting. Judges and prosecutors have keen observation about the person in front of them by mere appearances, movements, and manner of speech. Good grooming will create a good impression to them.

4. Do check in with the clerk first on the day of court hearing. Ask the clerk if the police officer has checked in already, too. If the police officer presents a no-show, this means that you won a traffic ticket dismissal in court. But if the police officer arrives, then you are given the chance to react on his statements. However, keep your statements in a civil tone at all times to win the prosecutions’ belief on you.

5. Know how to state your plead on the court; the plead is of course not guilty. If it is possible, move the pretrial hearing to another date as this would provide a deterioration of memory details to the police officer. The more proceedings delay; even more the police officer clearly forgets the details of the violation. In some instances, delays may already result to non-appearance of police officers.

The keys to winning your case for a traffic ticket dismissal are information and the proper ways of expressing them out in court hearings. Understand what radar readings are because the police officer might use it against you. Check back the accuracy of that radar reading and question it in front of the court as to its accuracy and licensing documentations. Sometimes, knowing what the weather was during that incident may also help you win a traffic ticket dismissal.