Speeding. Unsafe Lane Change. Tailgating. Careless Driving. Reckless Driving. Improper Passing. Improper Turn. Driving on the Shoulder. Motorists operating a vehicle in New Jersey are issued summonses for these and many other types of motor vehicle violations each day.
Each of these moving violations has several penalties that apply if you are convicted. A Fine. Court Costs. Motor Vehicle Points.
As a practical means of addressing many of the motor vehicle summonses issued to motorists in New Jersey, lawyers seek to work out a disposition or plea that reduces the points or the fines or both. Often the downgraded charge will be to a charge called 'Unsafe Driving'. This particular charge has a large fine and a larger surcharge. Out of pocket costs are close to $400.00 by the time the plea is accepted by the judge. But, the offense carries NO POINTS if it is the first or second time you are using it to downgrade a charge.
This issue, how many times it has been used by you to downgrade a motor vehicle violation, is one of the controlling factors in whether you should use it to downgrade the current motor vehicle violation. Other factors include your age, how long you have been a driver in New Jersey, how long it has been since your last traffic ticket, how many summonses you were given this time, and how many points you have on your license at this point.
This particular downgrade is a valuable tool that should only be used after a complete evaluation of the present offenses, the potential fines and points if you were to be convicted of all of the present offenses, and the impact such a disposition would have on your current license status. Obviously, an experienced criminal defense lawyer like those at Bailey & Orozco is needed to conduct this type of evaluation. Under no circumstance should this downgrade be used a third time without this type of evaluation, as the third use of this downgrade will result in the automatic assessment of FOUR POINTS on your license by the Motor Vehicle Commission.
A fourth use of this downgrade may result in NO POINTS being assessed if it has been more then five years since you last used the downgrade. An examination of your current driver's abstract from the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission; or, a visit to the local Commission office for a print-out of your license history should be able to tell you the information necessary to make the determination that more then five years have passed.
In essence, the best time to use this downgrade is when the exposure for the underlying summonses is significantly larger then the costs imposed for the 'unsafe driving' downgrade.
