It is often tempting to disregard a traffic ticket if you receive it while traveling out of state. Don’t. Chris Kopecky is founder and lead counsel of The Traffic Lawyers, P.A., based in Oberland Park, Kansas, and serving Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Here, he explains the ramifications of ignoring out-of-state tickets can have on you and your driving record.
Will an out-of-state ticket affect your driving license? Yes, it can. The reality is that an out-of state ticket can affect your license just as easily as in-state one. It is just a little more complicated.
Rules Are Tricky
Dealing with an out-of-state ticket is tricky because the rules of the state in which you are licensed apply to your license. If you get a ticket in another state, it may not be one in your home state, as the rules of your state may be different. For example, imagine you were to get a speeding ticket in the state of Missouri. You are charged for going 74 mph in a 65-mph zone. Even though the state trooper may have told you it was a moving violation, if you have a Kansas license, it would not be a moving violation and you would not have to keep the services of an attorney. Kansas rules allow for going 10 mph over or less in that speed zone, however, so it would not be considered a moving violation in the state of Kansas. As a result, the ticket would not appear on your Kansas driving record.
Conflicting Laws
There are other situations — particularly in Kansas City, as the state line goes right down the middle of the city — where it can be the other way around. The city of Oberland Park, Kansas, for example, may write you a ticket for going 41 mph in a 35-mph zone. If you were driving sober, that would be considered a non-moving violation in the state of Kansas. But it would be considered a moving violation if you held a license in the state of Missouri.
So it is important that you contact an attorney to find out whether or not it will be a problem when you get a ticket with your out-of-state license. There are also many creative things we, as lawyers, can do when you receive a ticket across the state line. The prosecutor in that particular state might not be aware of those things when he refuses to do the traditional plea bargains, so contact us immediately if you get a ticket in another state to see how it can affect you – or not.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
