Steve Cobb, Abogado

Hi, Jordan! Great question. As you know, points only directly affect you for 18 months - that is, DMV point totals only include the last 18 months of activity. However, your license will continue to SHOW past convictions and suspensions for a couple of years. Here's what the DMV has to say about it.... (from their website): SUSPENSIONS AND REVOCATIONS: Displayed for four years after they are cleared. ACCIDENT NOTATIONS: Displayed for three years, then to the end of the calendar year. TRAFFIC CONVICTIONS: Same - three years, then till the end of the calendar year. DWI convictions: ten years. Insurance companies and traffic courts use this information to determine your insurance rates, and to evaluate plea offers in traffic court, so your record is important. All the best, Steve

First, you should note that the registration belongs to the car, and the license plates, NOT the driver. This is not a license suspension, but a license plate suspension. But anyway, there are three basic ways you can get your registration suspended: (1) you didn’t pay your car insurance, the insurance lapsed, and you didn’t return the plates to the DMV, (2) the car at issue received three or more toll violations or EZ pass violations within 5 years, and the violations were never resolved, or (3) you changed the name of the insured to someone who is not the registered owner of the car. To resolve these issues, contact the DMV, the EZpass authority, or your insurance company.

Your license could have been suspended for to one of these reasons: 1) You have unpaid child support, 2) You have gotten too many points on your license within 18 months (6 or more points). 3) You failed to pay a drivers assessment for poor driving or a past DWI case, 4) You failed to respond to tickets that you received, 5) You did not pay a fine for a ticket that you pleaded guilty to.

The ticket is an official citation, and responding is mandatory. If you do not respond to a ticket (or for forgetting or because you lost it or threw it away), the lack of response eventually leads to a declaration of rebellion and a suspension. (The suspension is valid and affects you even if you do not have a license from the state of New York.) To remove the suspension, you will have to pay $ 70 per ticket, and then the tickets are restored to the court calendar, and you can fix them. What is the lesson? Always respond to your traffic tickets, even if you don't have a license. If in doubt, call your lawyer Steve for a free consultation. (845) 247-5464. If we speak Spanish.

There are a couple of ways to get tickets dismissed. (1) Is the ticket for an equipment violation? Just show that the correction was made within a day or two. (2) Is the ticket for expired inspection, or registration? Again, if you get the problem corrected within 24 hours, that should be good enough to get the ticket dismissed. (3) Did you request a supporting deposition within 30 days of the return date of the ticket? If you did, and no supporting deposition was provided, then you SHOULD be able to get the ticket dismissed (but sometimes the judges resist this, and demand that you submit a written motion. This takes a lot of time to do, so this could sink your enthusiasm, and you will probably feel obliged to take a plea to a lower charge.) (4) The cop was lying - can I go to trial and fight the ticket? It's usually not worth it, because if the cop lied when he gave you the ticket, he or she is probably going to lie if there's a trial. :-(

I generally charge $200 for simple court appearances in all courts within 20 miles of my office. So, a traffic ticket (or tickets!) in New Windsor would cost you $200. If you sign an authorization, you don't even have to go to court, and I will just let you know what happened in your case and how much the fine will be.