Whether you’ve made a costly mistake on the road or a minor one, you always have the option to fight back whenever a traffic ticket is issued. Your choices are fairly simple: You can plead guilty and accept the punishment and fine as it stands, or you can plead not guilty and attempt to get the penalty reduced. The question is: How do you know when to plead guilty to a traffic offense? Elliot Wiesner is a New Jersey attorney who has been helping drivers battle a variety of traffic tickets and moving violations for over a decade, and according to him, this question is a tricky one.
Depending on the circumstances, pleading guilty can be the smartest way to go in dealing with a traffic offense. For starters, the fines associated with a guilty plea are often times considerably lower than the fines involved in negotiating a not guilty plea into a plea bargain. Additionally, it often pays to plead guilty because certain judges will react a lot more favorably to a person who owns up to the fact that he did something wrong and apologizes for it instead of making excuses. It can especially make sense for a firsttime offender to plead guilty since such a person can highlight the fact that while he did make a mistake the one time, he has clearly not displayed a pattern of disregard for the law and should therefore be treated with a degree of leniency.
In fact, many people tend to assume that if they are going to plead guilty to a specific traffic offense, then there’s no sense in enlisting the help of an attorney to deal with the matter. The reality is that a good attorney can use a guilty plea to his client’s advantage when attempting to persuade a judge to offer up a reduced sentence or minimal punishment. By having a person admit to his mistake, an attorney can argue that although his client clearly did do something wrong, he has enough respect for the judge and the law to come clean and attempt to make things right.
Of course, in situations involving set fines and no potential jail time, it doesn’t always make sense to hire an attorney just to plead guilty. In such cases, the fine associated with pleading guilty might be lower than the applicable attorney’s fee. However, if the fine is variable and there is the possibility of jail time involved, then it is certainly worth it to consult with an attorney, even if the intent is to admit guilt.
Why to Not Plead Guilty
While there are certain advantages to pleading guilty, sometimes this decision can backfire. By pleading guilty, you are automatically agreeing to the punishment inherent in the violation at hand. If your violation carries points as part of its penalty, then a guilty plea will result in those points getting tacked on to your license – a fact that could raise your insurance rates and possibly put your license one step closer to suspension. Also, if you plead guilty in a situation where the judge has discretion over the fine or jail sentence, then you could put yourself in the position of getting the maximum punishment allowable by law. In fact, under certain circumstances, an attorney might advise a client to plead not guilty and then use that fact to position his argument in a manner that results in minimal repercussions.
The decision to plead guilty or not guilty needs to be based on the situation at hand. Even so, the average person does not necessarily have the best ability to determine which plea is the smarter way to go. For this reason, an attorney should be consulted for any violations involving significant or variable fees, license suspensions, or jail time. Only an attorney can use his experience and expertise to evaluate the circumstances and establish a defense strategy centered on either a guilty or not guilty plea.
The next time you find yourself going back and forth between guilty and not guilty, call in a seasoned attorney like Elliot Wiesner to help you make your decision. It might end up making more of a difference than you ever could have imagined.
