Waynes World - February 2010
WITH CSA 2010 COMING, YOU MUST FIGHT
ALL OF YOUR TRAFFIC TICKETS, AND...
LET SOMEBODY ELSE PAY YOUR
NEXT SPEEDING TICKET
by Wayne Schooling
First of all let me say, NTA does not condone speeding or breaking the law in any way, shape or form. With that said, in 2010, traffic tickets could cost you your job, so you have to fight them. Prosecutors and judges don’t want you to read this because they simply can’t handle the case load if everybody fights their tickets, but as a professional truck driver, you simply must. Because of California’s budget crisis, many of the courts are closed one extra day per month, and some Superior Courts, including those in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, have trimmed operations as well.
Back in June of 1998, I wrote about the leading legal plans out there for drivers. With the advent of CSA 2010, drivers will have no other alternative but to fight their tickets to keep their safety rating down. Today’s truck drivers have the choice of either getting into a legal plan or, for those more adventurous types, going the old do-it-yourself route. This article will cover these aspects, as well as tell you how to get someone else to pay for your next speeding ticket!
For the do-it-yourself drivers, speeding tickets can be quite costly. They not only come with a very large fine, but they also raise your insurance premiums and your SafeStat Driver Measurement Summary under CSA 2010. Did you know that you can fight your speeding ticket and at least receive a lesser charge that doesn’t result in points on your record? The lesser charge will also come with a smaller fine. This is the same strategy that legal plan attorneys use. The worst thing that can happen is the judge denies your claim and you are stuck with the speeding ticket. But, if you read on, I can show you how you can get somebody else to pay up to $300 of the fine.
Let’s talk about legal plans. First of all, you may wonder what a legal plan is and how they work. Well, legal plans work like an HMO – you pay a little each month so that when you need help you don’t have to pay it all at once. A simple ticket can escalate to three times the original fine, and with added penalties and court costs, can add up to 45% or more. Europe has had prepaid legal plans for nearly 40 years, and about 50% of Europeans have them.
A typical prepaid legal plan can cost anywhere from $13.50 per month to as much as $80 per month, so read the fine print. What I mean is that when they say the charge is only a small weekly fee, remember every third month there is an extra week. Always multiply any weekly fee by 4.33 to get an accurate monthly cost. For example, a $17.00 weekly fee really is $73.61 a month. Today, there are not as many legal plans around since my last article ran back in 1998. But, I have found one very good organization for the do-it-yourself driver and another company that was designed by trucking company executives who saw the big picture regarding their driver’s plight and the detrimental effects traffic tickets have on their safety ratings.
Since I don’t trust any company, I try to do my due diligence. I check a number of websites on the internet such as the Better Business Bureau, complaints.com, thetruckersreport.com, mediamoogle.com, pyramidschemealert.org, ripoff.com, the Stanford Law School - Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, businessweek.com, newsok.com, consumeraffairs.com, the Federal Trade Commission and the various offices of Attorney Generals, just to name a few. I have searched the internet far and wide and can find no complaints of any kind against this organization called The National Motorists Association.
The National Motorists Association (NMA) was founded in 1982 to represent and protect the interest of North American motorists. Their membership fee for a single person starts at $35 per year. They are one of the prime reasons why the U.S. government repealed the mandatory 55 mph highway speed limits back in 1995. The NMA encourages people to challenge the use of traffic enforcement for revenue gathering purposes by challenging every traffic ticket in court. They will provide you with a Legal Defense Kit and one-on-one consultations on how to go to court and win. To promote this program, the NMA Traffic Justice Program is now offering to pay for the speeding tickets of NMA members who challenge their speeding tickets in court but are still found guilty. Not a bad deal!
The other company I found is called Interstate Trucker. Attorney Jim Klepper is the Founder and President of Interstate Trucker Ltd. With this plan, there are no monthly dues and no membership fees. And, just as important, it is actually run by lawyers – not just a bunch of salespeople like many of the other legal plans.
At Interstate Trucker, if you get a ticket, you simply call them and tell them what the ticket is for and what court it is in. Interstate Trucker will then give you an affordable flat fee to represent you in court. It’s as simple as that! And for those of you who are too busy to fight your own tickets at all, Klepper and his group also started the Drivers Legal Plan, which costs only $13.50 per month and then a flat fee of $100 to represent you in court to fight your ticket.
I checked these guys out, too, and found that they have had an Accredited A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau since 1994. More importantly, the BBB have processed only two complaints against them in the last three years, and both of those complaints were addressed by the company and resolved. That is a good track record. So, whether you decide to go it alone, get help through a prepaid legal plan or hire an attorney, fight that traffic ticket. You just can’t afford not to anymore!
~ NTA remains a name you can trust. Our website (www.ntassoc.com) is your official U.S. DOT Internet Training Site and we are administrators of a Nationally Accredited Drug and Alcohol Program. If you have any questions, call me at (562) 279-0557 or send an e-mail to wayne@ntassoc.com. Until next month, “Drive Safe – Drive Smart!”