No, Kansas Doesn’t Have Points…

Instead, Kansas uses a “Habitual Driver” statute to regulate dangerous drivers. I like to think of this as a three-strikes law. Namely if you have three or more of the following convictions in five years, you will loose your license for three years:

• Driving while suspended or revoked
• Driving without insurance
• DUI – including DUI diversion
• Other serious offenses, as described in K.S.A. §8-285

3 Stikes for Moving Violations                                                                           Just like the Habitual Driver Statute, Kansas employs a three-strikes rule for simple moving violations.  If you have three or more convictions of the following in a three year period, you will loose your license for one year:

• Speeding
• Failure to obey a traffic signal
• Driving without license in possession
• Other offenses described in K.A.R. §92-52-9.  See also K.S.A. §8-255

Of course, hiring a lawyer can help you keep a moving violation off of your record.  Happy driving!

Missouri Point System Basics

Missouri uses a point system to ensure unsafe drivers aren’t on the roads. Points for traffic tickets are laid out by statute, but here is a simple guide:

Points for Typical Traffic Violations

• Speeding – City/County ticket = 2 points
• Speeding – State (Highway Patrol) ticket = 3 points
• Driving without proof of financial responsibility = 4 points
• Moving violation involving an accident = add 2 points
• Driving While Suspended = 12 points

Racking Up Too Many Points                                                                                  If you accumulate too many points, you will loose your license for 30 days to 1 year:

• 8 points in 18 months
• 12 points in 12 months
• 18 points in 24 months
• 24 points in 36 months

Remember hiring a lawyer helps you avoid points and if you have accumulated too many points, a lawyer can help get old convictions off your record if you have already pled guilty or have already paid the fine.

Traffic Tickets and Your Insurance Rates

Think one little ticket can’t hurt?  The website insurance.com just released an article indicating that even one simple traffic violation can raise insurance premiums by 18% annually.  As the number of tickets increase, the higher your premium becomes.   Surprisingly, the effect for those over the age of 65 is dramatic.

Read the full article here.   Of course, in my humble opinion, the best thing for drivers to do when getting a ticket is to hire a lawyer to keep that ticket from appearing on your driving record.  Just my 2 cents!

Driving Without Insurance in Missouri

You might be thinking you are saving money by not paying your auto insurance premium, but that choice could cost you big in the long run.  Missouri has some pretty tough provisions for those caught driving without insurance who end up in an accident.  Not only are no insurance traffic tickets costly point-wise (see my previous post), there are real ramifications whether you get a no insurance ticket or not.

If you have been involved in an accident and did not have insurance, you and the other driver are required by Missouri law to file an accident report with the Missouri Department of Revenue within one year of the accident.   See Missouri Revised Statute §303.040.   

That is where the fun begins.  If you didn’t have insurance, your license will be suspended by the Department of Revenue, for up to a year.  This will happen whether or not the accident was your fault.  See §303.042, 303.044. 

If the accident was your fault, you will be suspended AND you will not be able to get your license back until you can prove you have taken care of the damages.  This simple issue could hold your license up for years.  The other driver and their insurance company have a lot of power in this situation.  You will not get your license back until you can show you have made payment arrangements with the other party that are satisfactory.  If the damage amount is large, you could be paying that party off for years. 

Not only will you have to take care of the damages, you will have to get SR-22 insurance for 3 years in order to get your driver license reinstated.  This could cost thousands of dollars.  See what I mean about the cost?  You might think you are saving on a monthly premium, but in reality you are risking your privilege to drive and potentially thousands of dollars that you will have to pay out before you can ever get your driving privilege back.

Recording Reveals Ticket Quotas in NYC

Local government will always deny it, but quotes do exist.  Sometimes its not about safety, its just about numbers and money.

More from The New York Times.

Do NOT Plead Guilty to a DWS Charge

Missouri courts, especially Kansas City area courts are cracking down on drivers who drive while suspended or revoked.   This means some drivers are facing felony charges and serious jail time for driving while suspended (“DWS”).  The only way to face felony charges in these cases is to have prior convictions for DWS and that is where I would like to start.

If you have been charged with DWS and you have been to court at least once, the judge has probably already told you in no uncertain terms to go get a lawyer.  The judge probably also told you that you face up to six months in jail on the charge and the loss of your license for at least a year. 

Now, if you are one of those people who does not want to go get a lawyer and is adamant about pleading guilty to that charge, eventually the judge will let you do that.  I am writing to say – don’t do that.  Hire a lawyer who can get that charge reduced.  Pleading guilty will result in probable jail time, fines and 12 points on your Missouri license. 

So you’re OK with jail time and the points?  Fine.  You should be certain your are never going to get another DWS ticket in your life because in Missouri, being caught more than twice for DWS is a mandatory felony charge.  You will do jail time and you will have a felony on your record. 

You can avoid this problem by having a lawyer get the charges reduced when you get a driving while suspended ticket.  That way you will not have the prior conviction that may result in felony charges later.   Forewarned is forearmed.

NCSR – Missourians are smarter than this!

NSCR Ad on KC Star website

You can hardly read the newspaper or watch the local news with coming across some really sad ads about red light runners and their victims.   But I’m just not buying it.  Why are these ads popping up all of the sudden when the Missouri legislature is considering a state-wide ban on red light camera ticket systems?  And who is the National Coalition for Safer Roads?

Well NCSR is none other than a paid lobbyist group for American Traffic Solutions, the company that manages the red light cameras for St. Louis, Kansas City and other municipalities in the state.  These ads are only running in Missouri, where ATS has strong roots.

This group claims to be about safety, but the real fact is that its monetary interest in our state runs deep.  If red light runners where any more of a danger than the any other bad driver, there would have been an organic movement by now to demand more safety, not a company pushing its agenda.  I get that the people in these ads have suffered a real loss, but a private company shouldn’t exploit their pain to make money.

There are very few ways to vet NCSR because they have dumped a load of PR into the media to shade the fact that they are just another lobbying group.   Read more at pitch.com; banthecams.com; wrongonred.com

Just my 2 cents.  I feel sorry for the cities and towns taken in by these snake oil salesmen.  They thought they were improving safety and getting some revenue, now all they have is a headache and profits handed over to a private company.

No Insurance Tickets – Don’t Take Them Lightly

Unfortunately, one easy way to get your driver license suspended is to plead guilty to a no insurance or failure to provide proof of financial responsibility ticket.   I just had a client come in this week who is very close to suspension because he pled guilty to a no insurance ticket and a speeding ticket a few months ago.  By just paying those tickets, he got seven points put on his driver record.  Unlucky for him he was pulled over last week for a moving violation that is two points and if he simply pays that ticket, he’ll mostly like lose his license for thirty days due to a points suspension.

In Missouri, no insurance tickets are four points and in Kansas they also can result in an automatic suspension of your license.  What most people don’t know is if they had insurance at the time they got the ticket or if they can show proof of current insurance, a lawyer can help them avoid the heavy toll of a no insurance ticket.  Of course, it is always best to keep your car insurance current and remember to carry proof of insurance with you.  If you have gotten one of these kinds of tickets, it is probably best for you to call a lawyer to see what can be done in your situation.  Lastly, if you have been suspended for a no insurance ticket and you would like to go back and undo your previous guilty plea, lawyer can help with that also and get your suspension lifted quickly.

Thanks for reading.

Resources:

My Traffic Website

Missouri Guide to Points

Kansas Department of Revenue FAQ

Driving While Suspended Tickets – A Vicious Cycle

I handle a lot of driving while suspended (“DWS”) tickets.  Sometimes it seems like they are as common as speeding tickets, but the impact on my clients is much more serious.  A driver can have his license suspended for a variety of reasons, but I think the most common is for “failure to appear” (ignoring a ticket). 

The second most common situation that creates license suspensions is an accumulation of points or moving violations.  If you are a chronic speeder, 2 points per ticket adds up quickly and remember just paying a no insurance ticket can result in 4 points on your Missouri driving record. 

No matter the basis for the suspension, the most difficult part of these cases is that people drive around unaware that their license is suspended because they have not updated their address with the Department of Revenue.  Usually my clients don’t find out they are suspended until they are pulled over and an officer tells them they are suspended. 

Taking care of these tickets is usually pretty routine and can be made easier by getting reinstated before you head to court.  Reinstatement usually means addressing the underlying issue creating the suspension – like paying the ticket you ignored.  You will usually have to pay a fee to the State and may be required to submit and SR22.  If you have accumulated too many tickets in a period of time, it may be necessary to hire a lawyer to go back and deal with those tickets also.

The main issue though is that once you get that first DWS ticket and you continue to drive, knowing your are suspended, you are likely to accumulate more and more of the same tickets.  Trust me, the police have a 6th sense for finding drivers how are not properly licensed.  You might think running a quick errant is low risk, but eventually you are going to get caught and that DWS ticket is very hefty.  These tickets are 12 points in Missouri and if you plead guilty, you will automatically be suspended for another year.

You see what I mean about a vicious cycle?  Once you are suspended and you continue to get tickets for DWS you can make it impossible to ever get reinstated.  The more of these tickets you accumulate, the higher penalties you face, including jail time, high fines, years of probation, and community service.

You can avoid this cycle by not driving unless you are properly licensed and always keeping your address with the Department of Revenue updated.  Lastly call a lawyer who can help you figure out why you are suspended and what you need to do to get reinstated.   By a calling a lawyer, you can avoid the hefty toll pleading guilty to a DWS ticket will have on your driving record.

Negotiating Your Own Plea in Kansas

Don't end up riding the bus.

My practice exists in a bi-state area and consequently I get to see two side of one important issue when it comes to traffic tickets.  That issue is self-representation.  In Missouri prosecutor’s usually will not speak to an unrepresented defendant.  This means drivers who get a Missouri ticket don’t have the opportunity to try to negotiate their own plea agreement.  Kansas is opposite.  In most Kansas cities and counties, the prosecutor will speak to an unrepresented defendant and tell them if they are eligible for diversion or some other sort of plea offer. 

This sounds great for those who have received a ticket in Kansas, but I want those with more serious tickets to be wary about representing themselves.  For simple tickets, like speeding, first time offenders are usually eligible for diversion in Kansas.  Local prosecutor’s offices even have applications for diversion online so that you can apply before going to court.  In these cases, your options are pretty straightforward.   For a modest fee, the prosecutor’s office will dismiss its case against you if you do not commit a similar offense within the next year.

I think this a good route to go for simple tickets, because the defendant knows what the consequences will be.  However, for more serious tickets like driving with a suspended license, defendants may not know what they are getting into.  I had a potential client call a few weeks ago.  She has is a Missouri resident who was pulled over in Kansas for driving while suspended.  She was afraid of jail time and was happy to find out that she could talk to the prosecutor about her options for the ticket.  She worked out a deal with the prosecutor, to plead guilty to the driving while suspended ticket, and to pay a fine.  She was relieved to avoid jail, but soon learned that her license in Missouri was going to be suspended for another 12 months.

She called because she didn’t know what her options were.  No one told her that when she pled guilty it would results in 12 points going on her Missouri license and an automatic one-year suspension.  That’s the trap you are getting into when negotiating your own plea.  Do you know all of the consequences?  Of course you can ask when speaking with the prosecutor what the effect of the plea will be on your driving record, but if you are licensed in one state and ticketed in another, that prosecutor might not know what the effect will be in your home state.

Had this particular woman hired a lawyer, she most likely would have avoided jail time, paid a fine, and plead to a lesser offense that would not have resulted in 12 points going against her Missouri license.  She would have known all of the consequences of her plea before she took the deal.  Now her only option is to request a hardship license, and hope the State grants it or hire an attorney to withdraw her previous guilty plea and make things right – albeit at a much higher cost.