Example of a great experience fighting a traffic ticket

Example of a great experience fighting a traffic ticket

A lot of people call me when their insurance goes up at renewal because they have been convicted of a couple driving infractions over the past year. Most companies will accept one ticket in the past three years (assuming you have no at-fault accidents on record) without adding a surcharge to your insurance, but once you get that second or third ticket in three years your premium will increase drastically.

“Mike, I had no demerit points” is the common response when I explain to my clients why their premium went up. It is important to understand that demerit points do not affect your insurance, insurance companies look at the number of criminal, major and minor tickets on your record regardless of demerit points.

It is important to fight your tickets with the final outcome being to have them dropped and not just the points lowered. I was in this exact situation recently and decided to practice what I preach and I hired a legal service to fight on my behalf.

I was pulled over and accused of running a red light and given two tickets, one for running the light and the second for not changing the address on my license after moving (you have seven days after moving to a new address).

Rather than being one of many who show up to court alone and use “the light was yellow” defense, I hired Mr. Con Gabriel of OTT Legal (contact information at end of this story). I didn’t know what to expect when hiring somebody to fight my tickets and wasn’t quite sure if it would be worth the money. Those concerns were put to rest when I went to trial yesterday and Con got both tickets dropped without me having to even enter the courtroom.

Con was able to look through the evidence against me and speak directly with the prosecutor and officer who pulled me over. He was able to prove that the evidence was wrong and that that there were many mistakes on the tickets that I would have never known or thought to question. After a few minutes of speaking with the prosecutor, officer and another police officer that he knew, he came out of the courtroom where I was waiting patiently and said “both tickets have been dropped” and that was the end of my day in court.

I was not only impressed by the outcome but also at the extremely professional way in which he dealt with the situation. He was able to speak with the officer in a very pleasant manner which is normally reserved for conversations with colleagues and friends rather then somebody you are trying to disprove in court.

When you receive a ticket, don’t just look at the price of the ticket; also consider the effect on your insurance premium. My tickets would have cost me $435 up front and my insurance would have gone up $1500 per year for the next three years. I paid half the cost of the tickets to hire Con and saved myself $4500 in insurance costs.

Please don’t just pay your tickets when you get them, take the time to properly fight the tickets; and when you do, I strongly recommend you hire Con Gabirel or call me and I’ll put you in contact with him.

Con can be contacted at 416-277-4291 and offers free consultations.