Q: Should I hire a lawyer when I got a ticket for an accident that wasn't my fault and then got additional tickets later?
About two weeks ago, I received a ticket from an auto mobile accident, but my insurance company ruled in my favor. I didn't want to take any risks at the time so I plead guilty to the paperwork that the cop gave me and sent in a check for traffic school. I didn't want to risk anything affecting my driving record. A week after that, I got a speeding ticket for going 50 in a 65 and a ticket for an uninsured vehicle. I do have auto insurance, I just forgot to put it back into my car. I also didn't have an updated address on my license. However, I got it updated the very next day.
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- Illinois
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A: Up to now you have done this on your own and not exactly hit a home run. If the accident was not your fault, you should have fought the ticket. Now you have 3 more tickets. I think you need a lawyer.
Juan Ooink agrees with this answer
A: Absolutely, you should hire an attorney to assist you with these new tickets.
A:
1.) Unless you were injured, you WOULD HAVE HAD no use for an attorney. So long as your insurance had determined that the other driver was at fault, your insurance would pay to repair your vehicle, minus the deductible. Your insurance company would then sue the at-fault driver and reimburse your deductible as soon as they received the money.
2.) If you pled guilty to the "Failure to Yield" charge, your insurance company COULD refuse to cover the accident because you have a duty to cooperate in your own defense. On your facts, you prevented your own insurance company from recovering. This may not be possible to undo.
3.) Get a letter from your insurance company or your insurance agent that states the car you were driving on the date of the accident was covered on that date. With that document, the state will dismiss the "no insurance" charge.
4.) It is unclear how a speeding ticket could possibly be related to the accident. Moreover, the police cannot issue a speeding ticket unless they are following you in their squad car or capture you with radar. In either case, the police would have witnessed your accident if the speeding ticket is related. In that case, the officer's testimony would probably determine fault in the accident and whether you were speeding. Given that you were ticketed for failure to yield, you already know that the responding officer's opinion is that you were at fault for the accident.
5.) I agree with my colleagues that you SHOULD HAVE sought counsel, immediately. You should see an attorney now but ask what the attorney can reasonably expect to do before you begin paying for him to represent you. it may be too late but you cannot know whether it is or not until you take all the documents to an attorney. Good luck.
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