Dallas Area Ticket Lawyers

Dealing With Warrants The Right Way

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Every year across North Texas many of the cities participate in the “great warrant roundup.”  Basically, what the cities do is arrest a few people and advertise it on local news stations to scare people into coming in to work out payment arrangements on their tickets.  This article is intended to help you understand that working out payment plans with local courts for outstanding warrants on traffic tickets is not a wise financial decision.  There are other alternatives that can get your warrants removed for traffic tickets and protect your  record at the same time.  If you would like to discuss your warrants for tickets in the Dallas, Texas area call our experienced lawyers today.

 

Falling For The Scare Tactic

Many cities send out letters in red ink and big bold letters stating that you will be picked up at work or home, wherever you are found.  This creates fear in the people that receive the letter.  This fear creates panic.  Many people run down to the court where the warrants are located to pay off the tickets to avoid arrest.  Arrest is a scary thing.  Of course you want to avoid arrest if possible.  We understand why the fear causes people to want to resolve their cases this way.  However, the problem is not with getting the warrant removed it is how the person chose to resolve the warrants.

 

Convictions Are More Expensive Than The Warrants

What these courts are not telling people in those scary letters is that paying off tickets creates convictions on that person’s permanent record.  These convictions are monitored by DPS and can be used against the driver for all sorts of reasons.  For example, did you know that one no insurance ticket conviction creates a financial penalty through DPS for $780.00?  If this penalty is not paid, then the person’s license will be suspended until it is.  Now imagine you have multiple tickets you pay off out of fear of getting arrested.  Imagine that each of the tickets paid has a surcharge penalty attached.  You could be looking at thousands of dollars more having to be paid to DPS on top of what was paid to the court.  This is why we want our clients to stop and think about the best financial route to take when faced with a warrant.

 

Getting The Job Done Right

What you need to realize early on is that you are going to need help to get the job done right.  That help is going to cost you a bit of money.  However, the amount of money it takes to hire a lawyer is nothing compared to financial penalties that are assessed if you don’t.  For example, a lawyer may charge you $100.00 – $150.00 to get a warrant removed for a no insurance ticket.  The lawyer will then go to court for you and negotiate a plea agreement to keep the violation off your record.  This may require you to pay an estimated $300.00 additional to the court to keep the violation off your record.  So at this point you have made a $400 -$450 investment total to get the warrant lifted and protect your record.

 

Again, let’s re-hash what happens if you don’t hire a lawyer and pay off the ticket yourself.

• Cost of Ticket = $380 – $450
• Surchargee = $780
• Driver’s License Reinstatement Fee = $105.75
• Increased Insurance Rates Due To Conviction (normally $30 per month for 3 yrs) = $1080.00
• Total = $2,415.75 over a 3 year period.

Be smart with your finances and your tickets.  All of the fees discussed above can normally be avoided for the low attorneys fees of around $100 $150 per offense.  Did you have to spend some money to hire a lawyer?  Yes.  Was the investment worth it even if your case was not dismissed by the lawyer.  Most definitely.  We want smart educated clients.  That is why we write articles like this so that you can make sound financial investments based on logic and facts and not on the fear factor that most courts are hoping you react to.  For sound legal advice regarding warrants during the “great warrant roundup” call our traffic ticket attorneys today.