7.20.2009

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Exercise Your Rights

One of the things I see most often when talking to people about how to beat a Seattle traffic ticket, is a hesitancy to know the information they need to be successful, almost like they are doing something wrong. For example, as a Seattle traffic lawyer, I feel like everyone should know that they shouldn't talk to police officers or give them any information that could be used against them in court later. Everyone should also know that they shouldn't take field sobriety tests or portable breath tests either. But what happens so often is that people make the wrong decision, partly because of police coercion, and partly because they don't know any better.

To begin, let me point out one thing - even though police officers have guns and try to give off an air of being supremely confident and tough, 99% of their job is winging what they are doing. And 100% of their job is trying to get you to talk so they don't have to do any real investigating or put together a real case. Think about that the next time you talk to an officer. Always remain polite, but don't take what they say as God's word or feel physically or emotionally pressured by what they say. At the end the day they might be able to arrest you, but they aren't allowed to physically hurt you (and as long as you remain respectful that shouldn't happen).

So, the message of today is to not be afraid to stand up to the police and assert your rights, and not to feel ashamed by wanting to learn or actually learning about your constitutional rights and how to exercise them. One way to look at it is this - the police don't tell you any information until they have to. They can lie to your face. They can intimidate you and prey on your weaknesses. And you can fight your Seattle traffic ticket by knowing exactly what they can and can't do.

If you are pulled over and given a Seattle traffic ticket, don't wait, call Seattle traffic attorneys today. They will work hard for you and will fight to beat your traffic citation.

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7.13.2009

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Innocent Man Freed

This isn't a post about Seattle traffic law, but it is a ray of sunshine in an often cloudy sky for many people charged with Seattle crimes. The world of criminal defense is really a world filled with perceived truths, versus the actual truth. You might see charges being dismissed one day, and another a police officer on the stand adjusting the truth just enough to prevent evidence from being suppressed. But no matter what happens, you really hate to see what appears to have happened to a Vancouver, Washington man accused of child abuse 20 years ago.

In a story from the Seattle Times, it appears that the children of a former Vancouver police officer who testified when they were children that their father abused them have recanted. And the sad thing is is that it appears police coercion once again was the primary cause of the false confession. As the story reports, one of the children said he admitted to being molested by his father after months of police questioning only to get the police to stop bothering him. And can you hold that against him? A nine year old likely has no idea of the consequences his statements will cause, and likely has no idea what his statements even mean.

This goes back to a problem I see time and time again with police officers. They get stuck on one theory or become obsessed with getting a conviction, and they shut down all of their information filters except the one that promotes their theory of the case. And I'll admit that I don't often think the officers are doing it on purpose. For example, it probably highly likely that the officers who interrogated the child didn't want the father to be the molester, but in the back of their minds they knew it was. So they pushed until that feeling became reality.

Although I don't like to relate everything back to Seattle traffic law, we can see the same thing happening everyday on the streets. When I am hired as a Seattle traffic lawyer, for example, I always look at the police reports to see what is, and what is not, in them. What I mean is, if a person's breath smells of alcohol, if they have glassy eyes or slurred speech that information will be in the police report. But if the person answered the officer's questions coherently, was not driving erratically, or didn't have red eyes, for example, that information will often not be in the police report. The emphasis is on getting a conviction, and all filters except the conviction filter turn off.

And one other interesting aspect of the story is the lack or work by his appointed counsel. The story relates that the officer pled no contest to the charges after learning that his attorney hadn't prepared a defense. And he had a court appointed attorney. Now, I have done some appointed counsel work, and I treat my appointed cases just like my private cases - if for no other reason than I like to win. So don't let this fact discourage you from using appointed counsel if you can't afford an attorney. It is better than having nothing at all.

If you are charged with a DUI, traffic ticket, or other criminal charge in the Seattle area, read the Traffic Attorney Seattle Blog and hire an attorney. And find someone you can trust.

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7.06.2009

Seattle Traffic Lawyer | False Imprisonment

As a Seattle traffic lawyer, you hear a lot of weird stories. This one out of Grant County is pretty weird, and just goes to show what a little stress and bad decision making can do to someone's night, and someone's career.

From the story in the Seattle Times, it appears the Grant County corner and his second in command got in an argument about who would cover the weekend shifts of the upcoming fourth of July weekend. They were in the car, and as the fight escalated (it didn't get physical), the second in command wanted to get out of the car and asked to be let out of the car. The coroner refused, and drove the second in command home, some 30 to 60 minutes away from where the allege incident took place. Once the coroner let the second in command out, she called the cops and he was arrested for unlawful imprisonment, a Class C felony, punishable by up to 90 days in jail. At the time the story was printed he didn't yet have a criminal defense attorney.

This story, although comical in some ways (he took the second in command home and was arrested for unlawful imprisonment) it just goes to show you what can happen if a short-sighted decision is made. As his Seattle traffic lawyer I would have counseled him to just let the second in command out of the car. But the fact that he drover her to her house sheds some light on the lower severity of his actions (and the fact that there was no physical contact despite what appears to be a heated exchange of words).

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