This is the thing about attorneys that I really despise. Someone driving like this is just a moment away from wiping out some innocent family. He SHOULD lose his license, at least for some enough to let him think about his driving habits.
Matt
This is the thing about attorneys that I really despise. Someone driving like this is just a moment away from wiping out some innocent family. He SHOULD lose his license, at least for some enough to let him think about his driving habits.
Well, my current client has lost his driving rights in NYS. Based upon the fine and the time that has passed and the fact that he is a Canadian licensed driver there is a need to answer the tickets and to pay the fines and to reach an agreement on the points. It is not my job to do anything else but assist him so that the courts adequately administer his cases. Don't let your bias show so overtly against attorneys. It is the statutes and the courts that control, not the attorney who is doing his best to help someone thorough the system, especially someone who does not speak English or know anything about our civil law system.
Richard.
It's very important that we all separate our feelings about Richard's clients from our feelings about him. Everyone deserves a competant defense, even gangsters and terrorists not just minor miscreats. Our legal system is predicatated on the idea that you are innocent until proven guilty. It's terribly important that the government be kept honest by lawyers like Richard who force the state to prove their case. That said when you get down to individual cases you look at the tradeoffs and you do what is appropriate. In the cases that Richard was talking about where the accused are looking at the loss of their licenses and maybe worse it's very important to have a lawyer. But for a case like the OP's where all he is looking at is a fine and a small bump in his insurance rates the cost in time and money to fight it far exceeds the cost of pleading guilty and mailing in his fine.
What hasn't been discussed here, that I've seen anyway, is what the violators HOME state is.
For example, here in New York, exceptiing really serious violations (DWI, etc), our DMV does NOT track or record information from any other U.S. State (although, as was pointed out, they DO exchange records with Ontario and Quebec!)
While I'm sure that >
My bias isn't against attorneys, it is against some of the things they do. Helping your client understand the law and deal with a foreign language is great. However, you should also help him understand that driving 90 MPH on roads designed for 70 and with most other traffic traveling slower is DANGEROUS and could result in someone getting killed. And you should help him understand that if he does this he should lose his license to drive in the USA.
Don't attorneys take an oath as an officer of the court which obligates them to uphold the law?
Matt
I never stated a feeling abourt Richard, I stated a feeling about an action he seems to be taking. It sounded like he knew that his client was guilty and should pay a certain penalty (loss of license). It also sounded like he was trying to get that just and reasonably penalty reduced to a point that allowed his client to continue to drive dangerously on roads in NYS. There is nothing virtuous about that. When this man kills someone, I hope that Richard gets to sit across the table from the victim's family and explain how he helped get this man back on the road so he can continue to drive at 30+ over the speed limit...
Matt
How do you feel about the doctors or paramedics that administer first aid and medical care to, say, felons/criminals that get caught by police after a shootout, a car chase, a bank robbery, - where bystanders are killed?
Heh heh! Reminds me of the story my mother has told many times about when she was growing up on Long Island. The cops had some big shootout with some big-time gangster of the day - they revived him and put him up in the Mineola hospital for many months to recuperate at taxpayer expense, then, when he was well enough, they tried him and executed him. Can't tell you how many times I've heard my mother tell that story, and every time, infuriated over the taxpayer money they spent on fixing the guy up. There's got to be a Far Side? cartoon in there somewhere.
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')
Interesting story, but it misses the point. Innocent until proven guilty.
I never stated a feeling abourt Richard, I stated a feeling about an action he seems to be taking.
[If a client is just going to enter a plea of Guilty, and not have any discussions with the prosecutor or the Judge about the sentence then the client does not need an attorney. But it seems you object to the right of a client to obtain legal services to represent the client in such discussions and the entry of a plea so that the cost and time of a trial can be avoided; that is your right, but our state constitutions give us due process rights to seek and obtain representation. A lawyer is more than a "ham sandwich" passively serving the whim of the courts or the prosecutors. If a client wants to fight a ticket or the offered fine and penalty that is his right. The lawyer's job is to represent the interent of the client, if the lawyer did anything else he should be disbarred.]It sounded like he knew that his client was guilty and should pay a certain penalty (loss of license).
[Just how would I know if my client is guilty? I was not there, I did not see him drive, nor did I observe the actions of the police].It also sounded like he was trying to get that just and reasonably penalty reduced to a point that allowed his client to continue to drive dangerously on roads in NYS. There is nothing virtuous about that.
[And YOU know what is JUST and REASONABLE. And who said virtue had anthing to do with this. In NYS the points were raised by the state agency at the behest of the insurance companies who were then allowed to raise their insurance rates based upon the points accumulated. The insurance lobby got what it wanted by passing around contributions to elected officials. We do not live in Utopia where all crimes are solved, all criminals are punished and where the Courts always hand out justice with an even hand].When this man kills someone, I hope that Richard gets to sit across the table from the victim's family and explain how he helped get this man back on the road so he can continue to drive at 30+ over the speed limit...
[Some high horse you have there. You assume that driving at speed is a significant issues. Yet nationally, the accident rate has fallen significantly on all interstates and state roads where the speed limit has been risen from the previous 55 mph limit, up to 85 mph in some states, with no exception anywhere. The autoban does not suffer from a significantly higher accident rate than typical US interstates. And you also assume that an individual without valid driving privilages are not on the road. You also assume that a mere attorney representing a client is responsible for all unintended consequences, and the rights of due process, and the discretion of the police, prosecuror, and the judge applying laws and procedures adopted by the legislatures and signed by governors have nothing to do with the outcome. In your world it is only the big bad lawyer that is doing his best to shake up your preception of right and wrong.]Richard.
Very high-minded, I'm sure. Totally unrealistic.
Simple example: British motorways have a 70 mph limit. I have often been in situations where just about everyone around me is travelling at c. 85 mph.
Plus, a 70-mph motorway is not designed to be negotiated at a max of 70 mph, but at a higher limit for safety reasons. Many sections of UK motorways are safe at 100 mph. I am sure that sections of German Autobahn where speed is unlimited will have a slightly different design to the UK motorways, e.g. fewer bends. Also, a UK motorway might not show an 85 mph limit where it might be extra 'curvaceous', whereas a German motorway might.
But that's hardly making UK motorways safe at only 70 mph.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
I feel just fine about it. Why do you ask?
Matt
You may want to read:
The autobahn is designed for higher speeds than are American interstates so that comparison is bogus at the most basic level. And even on the autobahn, it has been shown that lower speeds result in fewer accidents and fatalities.
Matt
And even on the autobahn, it has been shown that lower speeds result in fewer accidents and fatalities.
You have obliviously never driven on the autobahn. Our NYS Northway is much better designed for speed, with wider lanes, physical divisions between traffic moving in different directions, and better marked and planned exits. It was designed with an assumed posted speed of 75 mph and a designed enforcement limit of 85 mph.
But I agree that it is best to have traffic all moving in the same direction at about the same speed and would not like to see the limits removed from our roads; except for me of course.
Richard.
That is true, but I have driven in both England (lived there for 4 months) and France. Their highways were in much better shape than almost anything in NY or PA. I live in PA and work in NY and drive extensively in both states.
I wouldn't mind higher limits as long as they would strictly enforce the limits, both too fast and too slow. It is the differential that kills more so than the absolute speeds.
Matt
that's like why do they use alcohol to sterilize the spot on the arm of a prisoner that they are admistering the fatal injection to? (man, that was very bad grammer)..
Objectively speaking, people exceeding the speed limit in their vehicles are not a major reason for accidents and deaths on the highway. Number 1 is likely falling asleep at the wheel, followed by lack of full attention to the road [including having sex or eating or both, while driving], following too close, driving too fast for environmental conditions [rain, snow, ice and lack of adequate sight distances], and last but not least, legal and illegal drug and mood enhancement substances and beverages that impact attention and reaction times.
But out of all this it is the enforcement of speeding that is most easy for the police and it is a major revenue enhancement for state and local government. When was the last time you hear of someone getting a ticket for following too close? [It is easy to pick off a speeder on a nearly empty road than a driver following too close in heavy traffic].
Richard.
Some European police forces promise to enforce this but I wonder how many people are actually prosecuted...
I hate tail-gating, especially at 90+ mph...
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
That is IMHO an absurd response...even from an attorney. First, your clients 'ignorance' of the law is no excuse. If he can not speak English, what is he doing driving in a country where traffic control signs are in English? suppose the numbers on that speed limit sign were in a different language in Canada! Not!!
I don't doubt that a bit. I think all of these should be addressed to the extent possible. However, I don't think that ignoring a chronic speeder just because "there are worse things out there" is the answer. Does that mean we shouldn't look at cures for the flu just because that more people die from cancer and heart disease?
Matt
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