Should I get a lawyer in an at-fault NJ car accident case?
I am 22, have a perfect driving record since I got my license at 17, I am incredibly careful. Last week I was driving on an NJ highway, and rearended the car in front of me as he stopped at the red light, causing dammage to the trunk – No one was hurt. He called the cops (which was right thing to do) and I was given two citations for the accident – Careless Driving and Failure to Observe a Signal. While I will accept that I was careless for taking my eyes off the road for a brief second, the moment before the light had been green and the cars had been moving at an even speed. I wish to try to reduce the points (combined the tickets will give 4, I’d like to reduce them to 2) and pay a larger fine, as I’ve heard is often done. Should I get a lawyer, or should I try to make a plea bargain with the prosecutor on my own?
Please don’t judge me – I’m a wreck over the whole thing and incredibly thankful the other driver is alright. I just dont know what to do.
I had been following at a safe distance through a previous green light, and I had my driving directions positioned so that I could glance at them with no greater difficulty or with any more time than at my spedometer or my mirrors. I glanced away for a second, and when I looked up, the car in front me of me had stopped short, one car behind a light (due to the suddennes of the accident, I cannot tell you if the light was amber or red at the point). I was not ignoring the road or the other drivers, in fact I could still see the cars ahead of me – they just stopped too short for me to put on my break in time.
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I would get a lawyer. Trust me, you don’t know how to do this on your own. I am a lawyer myself, just not one who does traffic law, and if I were in your shoes I wouldn’t try this on my own.
You do not need an attorney yet.
Plead not quilty on your tickeyt and mail it in. The ywill make an appointment with you and the asst DA to discuss your plea. At that time, you can make your argument that you are not guilty of the second offense, just the first. (Argue that you would have had ample time to obey the signal and stop in the allocated space, had the second car not been there.)
They will most likely dismiss the second charge, and keep the first.
Figure on paying a lawyer about $1,000. It is worth that to reduce your insurance costs and fines? You might have to spend a couple mornings in court as well.
If you want to contest a traffic ticket, a lawyer is the best thing to have. You can do it on your own but you are at a severe disadvantage.
If so, you might be able to get one dropped in a plea. You might beat the failure to observe as signal. (Did you try to stop?)
If you contest, you might even get lucky and not have the witness show up.
This is not legal advice — if I were in your situation with no points, I’d offer to plea guilty to a no-points creating an obstruction offense.
You don’t have to split the difference. Look up the definition of Failure to observe a signal. It’s likely this is just BS piling on.
You are describing what sounds more like careless driving. You want to use that as your negociating starting point.
A lawyer can help you with that kind of thing.
You might want to stop by a session of the municipal court sessions. The quality of municipal judges varies widely. Some are quite good, some are quite terrible and some are crazy hanging judges. See what you are up against.