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What to do when you’re being pulled over

We’ve almost all experienced it before: the flashing lights, the siren, the stress and vague sense of embarrassment at being pulled over… This usually happens when we become too complacent in our driving abilities and end up making careless or excessively bold maneuvers.

Here’s what you should do if you’re being pulled over and think you’re about to get a traffic ticket in Springfield:

Stay calm. This isn’t a life or death situation (unless you make it one!). While you’re probably going to experience a certain unexpected level of stress, you should keep things in perspective. The calmer you are, the better this situation is going to be.
Slow down and turn on your blinker. Indicate to the officer that you are about to pull over. If you are on a city street, try to find a safe place for the interaction to take place. It’s usually okay to drive up a block or so if you know there’s a large empty lot or other area that’s away from heavy traffic, but be sure to pull over as soon as possible. If you are on a highway, pull over to the right hand side of the highway immediately.
Turn off the music or radio. This should be off when the officer approaches. Having it on, even at a low volume, basically just signals to the officer that you have no respect for them, in which case you can forget about being let off with a warning and expect to be issued a good old fashioned Springfield traffic ticket.
Be ready with your license, registration, and insurance, but have your hands on the steering wheel when the officer gets to your vehicle. It’s a great idea to reach into your glove box and get these out the moment you park, but if you can’t find them right away, wait for the officer to show up and then explain you’re looking for them.
Hand over the required documentation. If you don’t have all of these documents, simply tell the officer. Yes, this will make things harder for you, and the consequences will be more severe, but you really have no other option.
After the interaction, turn on your blinker and continue on your way. It really doesn’t matter who takes off first, you or the officer. Just be sure to drive safely (wouldn’t want a repeat pullover!)

What to do when issued a traffic ticket in Springfield

So, you were pulled over and you weren’t lucky enough to be let off with a ticket. Now what?

First thing’s first: sleep on it. It’s easy to work yourself up into a righteous anger about the injustice of the ticket. After all, you didn’t hurt anyone! There wasn’t anyone else on the road! The sign was weathered and you could barely read it!

No matter how much you know yourself to be in the right, you can’t simply storm into the court and convince someone to let you off the hook. Furthermore, a Springfield traffic ticket isn’t really going to affect you for at least two weeks follow its issuing. So you have some time to decide on what to do.

You have two options:

Pay the ticket – If this is the rout you want to go, you should take it immediately. Don’t put off paying a traffic ticket, as this will only result in increased fines, added points, and other possible legal problems.
Fight the ticket – Fortunately, there are ways of fighting a traffic ticket. However, you should never attempt this on your own. The layman simply doesn’t have the knowledge or experience required to fight a traffic ticket. In fact, many attorneys end up getting legal representation themselves if they end up in trouble with the law for whatever reason, as they see the value of having an objective third party there to represent them. The Traffic ticket attorneys at Springfield Traffic Tickets know how to find things on traffic tickets that can get them dismissed, argue your case far better than you can, and if not get the ticket dismissed altogether, can substantially reduce its charges.

Springfield Traffic Ticket Myths

A lot of people like to think they’re experts on the legal system. We’ve all heard a friend, a family member, or acquaintance speak of certain tricks you can use to game the system – using certain legal terms, paying a ticket on a certain date, using a special excuse…

When it comes right down to it, most of these claims are just myths. In fact virtually all of them are. The legal system is a tough beast to fight, and there’s almost never an easy way out.

Here are some myths regarding traffic tickets that you shouldn’t believe.

Paying extra money on a Springfield traffic ticket will keep it off of your record

No, this isn’t about “bribing” the court in order to keep these points off your record. The idea is, if you pay more for your ticket (even as little as a single penny), you will have to receive a refund check. If you never cash the refund check, your ticket won’t ultimately be processed and the points won’t go on your record.

There are a number of problems with this theory. For one, local, state, and federal governments are all more than willing to take extra money. Second, Springfield traffic tickets usually affect your record as soon as they enter the system.

Springfield traffic tickets only apply to Springfield, not other states

People often believe a traffic ticket won’t follow them to another state. While most people aren’t going to flee their state over a simple traffic ticket, many who are issued a traffic ticket on the day they are moving out of state think they can just forget about it. However, the vast majority of states share traffic ticket information, and your new state isn’t likely to let you off the hook.

It’s okay to speed as long as you’re just keeping up with the flow of traffic around you

This is almost never the case. It’s totally up to the officer’s discretion as to who he or she pulls over. Even if you’re surrounded by a bunch of other speeders, there’s no way to ensure you won’t be the one who gets pulled over. In which case, you’re essentially at the mercy of the policy officer as to how he or she is going to issue the ticket.

Simply keeping up with the flow of traffic isn’t necessarily safer, either. When it comes right down to it, the best thing to do is simply follow the speed limit.