Need some help here. I got a ticket last year so I hired one of those speeding ticket attorneys and went to court hoping the officer wouldn't show. Well he did and I ended up receiving deferred adjudication. The 180 day probation period started the day the city of Dallas received my payment (about November 10th). Fast forward to this past Saturday. I got another speeding ticket - obviously not outside of my 180 day probation. So I called the office of the lawyer who I had used the first time around. I never talked to anyone other than the lady that answered the phone (so I doubt this person had gone to law school). I told her my story and she said that I could take deferred adjudication again since this time I got the ticket in Plano - Collin County. Sounds good to me, but due to the fact that I drive a company car and can't go around getting too many tickets on my record, can anyone confirm that I can in fact take a second deferred adjudication because the two tickets are from different counties??? Thanks, Mr Bean
Technically, you probably can't, but you also probably won't get caught. Some policies (they vary) are that you can't have a "conviction" during your probabtion period. You just postpone the second until probation is over. The second county will not make the effort to see if you are on probation in the first. Well, probably, but I'm not even sure if they could find that out if they wanted to. The counties make plenty good money off of the probation fees. They aren't angry enough to hunt this crap down as long as you have paid.
When's your 180 days up? Since it's in a different county and the courts don't have direct access to each other's files, the only way the first court will know you received another citation is if it's on your driving record at the end of the 180 days. Do your best to postpone your second ticket as long as possible. I think it takes a long time for a ticket to actually get on your record anyway. Regardless, you should just be able to go to the second court and request deferred adjudication with them. There's really no way the first court will ever know about it. Just keep in mind that no one has to give you deferred adjudication, it's something they choose to do. (I know Williamson county doesn't at all...*******.)
Thanks for the help, folks. FeltPen - my probation for the Dallas ticket should end on May 10th. Here's what the letter from my lawyer regarding the first offense in Dallas says... "On motion of your attorney, the Court has agreed to offer Deferred Adjudication (a form of probation) on the above-referenced citation. This will keep the violation OFF your driving record, provided you are not convicted of any new violation for a period of 180 days beginning when the court receives your payment." So I'm thinking I should be okay doing deferred in Collin County as well. The only potential hiccup that I see is that to request deferred disposition the ticket states that I "must appear in person at the Clerk's Office to complete an application to determine eligibility" - so I'm hoping that the application doesn't ask if I'm on probation somewhere else. We'll see - but I'll probably wait until the last possible day to start this second deferred adjudication process. Oh, and I guess I'll probably have to change some of my driving habits so I'm not starting an "I got yet another ticket while on deferred adjudication" thread any time soon. Mr Bean
The cost of a speeding ticket or deferred adjudication will buy a very nice radar detector. Bought my first detector in 1988 and haven't had a ticket since. HHD
I did it myself once and got 6 months DA. I hired a lawyer the next time and got 60 days in the same court. Hiring an atty for a trafic ticket is not a bad move IMO.
I received a ticket in Arlington a few years ago, called the court and got 90 days DA for the ticket. About a month later, I get another ticket in Coppell, went in and got 90 days as well, both without lawyers. I'd always recommend calling the court first, before hiring an attorney, and just asking. It's what I've done with those two tickets, plus one in Crescent, Oklahoma and one in Austin, and never got anything but a yes response when I asked, and they've always been 90 days (except the one in OK which was just 30 days - go figure).
PEOPLE If you have a Texas DL, insurance, and weren't going 25 or more over, and haven't taken a Driving Safety Course in the past year, the justice/municipal court SHALL grant your written request to take one. Once you do so, ticket is off your record. Can't believe how many people pay atty for a damn speeding ticket. And if you are on deferred disposition (not adjudication, JP or muni court can't grant DA), you can take the deferred again, there is no requirement one way or another. Judge's discretion to allow it or not. Take a look at Code of Criminal Procedure 45.051 and 45.0511 for more info.
The attorney that I hired the first time around cost $50. They did look at where the speed limit signs were posted etc. to see if there was another way to get me out of the ticket. The attorney was successful in getting $50 knocked off of my fine - so it cost me nothing to have this guy try and help me out. I just figured that the most likely way for me to get out of it was if the cop didn't show.
You don't need an attorney to get the fine reduced. I had a ticket for an illegal turn. I went to court (Dallas). When it was my turn to talk to the judge he cut me off before I could say a word and said that he would cut the fine in half. I said no thanks, proceeded to plead my case and I got the ticket dismissed all together. The judges goal was to get through as many cases as possible.
