Hiring an attorney for your child's traffic ticket
It’s not unusual for parents to call the Selby Legal office because a child received a traffic ticket. They may understand that pleading guilty to traffic tickets can lead to points on the license, increased insurance premiums, higher fines, and possibly the dreaded driver responsibility assessment. On the other hand, a parent may not know any of these things; parents naturally want to take care of their kids no matter how old they are. Being involved in a traffic case for your adult child is common and understandable, but even when the parent pays the fee, the person who got the ticket is my client.
Here’s some basics on how it works:
As I said, my client is the person with the ticket. My client is the person who signs the retainer, and whose signature gets notarized, and who will have to deal with any fines or points that result from that ticket.
My retainer covers situations with parents paying legal fees. If you’re paying that fee, and possibly also the fine, you have an interest. I ask my client to agree to my talking to you about the case.
A parent might rather deal with a traffic matter without involving the driver at all, but that’s not always possible.
Younger drivers are more likely to have this kind of family support, but some judges feel it’s important to send them a message if they are pulled over for driving at high speeds, for example. This could involve very big fines, or requiring the driver to take Alive at 25. At least one local judge has been known to review the driver’s record a year later, just to make sure that the lesson was learned.