How to fight Traffic Tickets, DUI, Auto Accidents in Tacoma
What’s worse than having a bad day? Getting into trouble with the traffic police on a bad day. There are already enough problems to deal with when you live in a bustling area like Tacoma, you don’t need the trouble and burden that come with being cited a traffic ticket, being caught for DUI, or, worse, being involved in auto accidents in Tacoma.
When it comes to defending a traffic violation case, it’s important that you understand the rules and common senses. Traffic rules are imposed by the state of Washington to help protect you and others on the road. Having a good team of attorneys when you run into auto accidents in Tacoma can make a huge difference, because, let’s be honest, no one wakes up every day thinking that they should know everything they need to win at court.
Read through our article to find out about the rules and consequences involved in auto accidents, DUI, and traffic tickets in Tacoma and understand why you need an attorney in these cases.
Auto accidents in Tacoma
Aside from the recklessness during the COVID-19 period, there are many other factors that contribute to auto accidents in Tacoma. Most of the time, the biggest cause of severe and deadly auto accidents is negligence. In particular, driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, speeding, answering phone calls, texting while driving, and driving aggressively are typical examples of driver negligence. Other factors besides a driver’s carelessness can also lead to serious auto accidents. These include defective vehicle manufacturing, bad weather conditions, and badly maintained infrastructures. Basically, this means that, in some cases, there are likely multiple parties responsible for the damage caused by an auto accident.
The state of Washington created specific rules applied to cases in which the court decides whether the injured victim is partially responsible for a traffic wreck alongside the defendant driver. The Tacoma Municipal Court will often strive to compare negligence in cases involving shared responsibility. As a result, even if you are injured in any type of auto accident in Tacoma, you may still be able to receive damage compensation while being partially responsible for the accident. Still, the court will lessen the compensation given to you based on how much of a percentage your fault accounts for. A Tacoma lawyer who knows the in-and-out of Washington state’s negligence laws can be an ideal solution to finding out the exact liability in an auto accident case. Thanks to one, you can get all the compensations available to you as an injured victim.
What to do when you get into auto accidents in Tacoma?
A severe auto accident can cause irreversible consequences for everyone involved for a long time. Auto accidents in Tacoma often see victims losing quality of life and losing the ability to financially support their family because of the injuries they suffered.
Suppose you have been injured in an auto accident recently and the cause was negligence. In that case, you should contact our personal injury lawyer Tacoma staff for a quick brief. Our personal injury attorney could help you fight and get compensated for any physical and financial damages caused by the auto accidents.
To help you recover compensation from the damages caused by the accident, we will find a way to prove that you, the injured party, suffered from the other driver’s negligence. There are four factors we can use to establish negligence as the cause of an accident. These include duty, breach, causation, and harm. A driver’s duty is to use reasonable care when they are driving a vehicle so that they can keep other people on the street, including both vehicle users and pedestrians, safe on the roadway. If a driver neglects their duty by driving recklessly, which leads to an auto accident that harms someone, they can be legally liable.
If you were recently injured in a car accident in Tacoma, you probably want to ask many legal questions. Our personal injury lawyer Tacoma staff could take a look at your case and explain your legal options. Our job is to help you find the best way to claim your compensation. If your injuries were caused by another driver’s negligence, it is your right to earn compensation because you had to pay for medical bills, suffered from pain, and potentially lost wages due to disability, preventing you from performing at work. Contact a Tacoma attorney today to get the best advice for your case.
DUI in Tacoma
Tacoma is part of Washington State, which has some of the most brutal DUI punishments in the United States. We recommend you to immediately contact our DUI lawyer Tacoma staff after you get arrested. Because that is the best way to protect your rights and to make sure you don’t miss dates that require you to show up to courts. Why? The answer is simple. The consequences of a DUI charge and/or a failure to present at a hearing can be dire. You can be charged with gross demeanor and be set back $5,000 and 364 days in jail in the worst-case scenario. And that is only for a first-time offender. There are mandatory minimum sentences applied for all cases of conviction and judges are required to pass these penalties without any hope of reduction.
A charge or conviction for a gross misdemeanor DUI can result in:
- Jail time or electronic home monitoring (house arrest)
- Probation & fines
- Washington or out of state driver's license suspension
- Suspension of a commercial driver's license (CDL)
- WA SR-22 auto insurance (proof of financial responsibility certificate)
- Mandatory ignition interlock device
- Alcohol or drug treatment
- Wearing a SCRAM device (remote alcohol monitor)
You would be required to take a breath test at the scene, and if the result came 0.15 or above, you will face enhanced DUI punishments. The same will apply if you refuse the breath test at the police station or a blood test at the hospital. If this is not your first DUI, even if your first DUI was reduced to a lower conviction such as reckless driving or negligent driving, your penalties will increase greatly. If you have been convicted of DUI more than three times, you will be facing felony DUI charges.
It won’t be a pleasant experience for you being charged with DUI in Tacoma. Your future may be affected. If you've been arrested for DUI in Tacoma, you may feel devastating and full of doubt. Therefore, you will definitely want to settle things as quickly as possible.
However, after a DUI arrest, you probably won’t know where to get help. Washington imposes complex and often confusing DUI laws, especially for DUI in Tacoma. You probably feel that you were unfairly arrested, or maybe you just want to keep your driver’s license and stay out of jail.
What to do when you are charged with DUI in Tacoma?
No matter what you need or want to do, you probably have never thought that you would ever end up in a situation like this. Life is already tough enough, and now you got charged with DUI in Tacoma?! Life often gives you lemons when you least expect it for sure.
Don’t worry! Our DUI lawyers in Tacoma can help you better understand what to expect in your DUI case. If traffic police pulled you over without a legitimate probable cause, having a good lawyer can actually help you convince the court to dismiss the charge. We can also help you fight your DUI case by proving that the device used to test your blood-alcohol level was not calibrated properly based on Washington state’s standards.
With a team of experienced lawyers, you can actually find many more details and factors that can play a role in helping you fight the charge. We know which information to keep an eye on and form a strategy to work best for your situation(s).
Traffic tickets in Tacoma
If you live in the state of Washington, one of the most precious documents in your life is your driving record, even if you don’t realize it. Insurance companies charge you based on a lot of factors, and one of them is your record on the road. Any conviction, even for minor misdemeanors like traffic tickets in Tacoma, can show up by a simple Washington state traffic ticket lookup.
If your ledger is stained, your insurance company may increase your insurance premium. And that amount of money may not change for another 3-5 years (or even 7 years!). Money always adds up, and you may end up having to pay literally thousands of dollars more for insurance just because you made a mistake on the road that one time. However, if you manage to appeal for a reduction or elimination of your charges for even traffic tickets in Tacoma, you won’t have to worry about insurance providers, and even future employers, pulling up an ugly record of your action in the past. This is a simple decision that can affect your finances in the long run. You must take it seriously.
What to do when you get traffic tickets in Tacoma?
Whenever you are issued a traffic ticket in Tacoma, there are three things you can do.
- You can pay the ticket, but it’s not often the ideal course of action. You will pay the full amount of the ticket and your driving record will have the incident. It CAN be a good choice when you are given a type of ticket that doesn’t go on the record and it would cost more to hire a lawyer than to pay. Still, such a case is exceedingly rare.
- You can request the charge to be mitigated. This means you are admitting to the violation but you have an excuse. If your request is approved, you will have to pay a lower fine depending on your reasoning, the type of ticket, and your existing driving record. Still, the ticket will still go on your driving record. However, it’s still not ideal.
- You can fight traffic tickets in Tacoma. This doesn’t mean that you are saying “I didn’t do it.” Instead, it means that you are asking the prosecutor to provide proof of your violation. That is a huge difference. At this point, the prosecutor will bear a burden of proof. If they fail to prove the case, the ticket won’t go onto your driving record. If you lose, you do exactly what Option 1 offers anyway. And the difference between winning and losing a case like this is hiring an experienced traffic ticket attorney. Even better, our attorney team can convince the prosecutor to amend the violation from moving to non-moving in exchange for you paying a fine. Sure, you’ll lose money, but you keep the violation off the record, which will help a lot in the future.
Our team of experienced Tacoma attorneys know their way around the different courts, prosecutors, and judges who you will have to deal with when fighting traffic tickets in Tacoma. Don’t try fighting the ticket yourself, because you may burn bridges by saying things that can act against you. Our team of attorneys can review your case and help keep the traffic ticket off your record. We will formulate a strategy that works for your specific case and find all the important information needed for you to get the most and lose the least when everything is over.
If you actually didn’t violate, we can defend you more substantially by focusing on the prosecution’s failure to meet its responsibilities. A lack of evidence against your traffic ticket will also be helpful in your case. You can’t afford to miss any important details, especially when they can be used to strengthen your claim.
The Bottom Line
There are intricacies involved when you have to bring your case to the Tacoma Municipal Court for a contested hearing. It can seem intimidating, and the consequences of failure seem astronomical. Worry not, because our job as a legal team is to help you get the best out of the worst by discussing with you details of your case and prepare the best defense you can ever get at the hearing. It’s good to always have someone by your side in tough times, whether it’s a traffic ticket, a DUI conviction, or an auto accident in Tacoma. That is exactly our mission when you contact us.
Lucky for you, we know the best Traffic Ticket, DUI, and Car Accident Attorney in Seattle. Contact Ken Tsiprin, he has fought in over 10,000 cases over the last 12 years. Give him a call at 425-278-9922 or email ken@myticketdismissed.com
If you have any questions or need help with your Traffic Ticket, DUI, DWI, Criminal Case, Auto Accident or any other related questions, just give us a call at 425-278-9922 or email us at ken@myticketdismissed.com.