How to Appeal A Speeding Ticket in Missouri? Andrew Russek and Chris Combs from Missouri’s leading traffic law firm, Combs Waterkotte, discuss the appeals process for traffic tickets in Missouri.
Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: I’m not a traffic attorney, but I know there’s ways to appeal a traffic ticket. Well, how do you appeal a traffic violation?
Andrew Russek: The most common appeal we see is people who plead guilty without understanding those collateral consequences. Next day, they realize their insurance calls them and says, your insurance just shot up. Or they realize they have points for whatever reason.
So the most common appeal we see is these individuals who pay tickets online or go to court and just pay the fine, suddenly, and realize they have a criminal conviction. In that case, we go back in front of that same judge and argue that the [plea] wasn’t constitutionally sufficient to satisfy due process.
You can take traffic tickets to a higher level than that, although that is rare.
Chris Combs: Typically, what we do in that situation is if someone goes in and just pays the ticket, doesn’t understand what it’s going to do to their driving record, or their criminal record, is we’ll file a motion to set aside their guilty plea.
And then we go back to the drawing board. And when we file that motion to set aside that guilty plea, we explained to the judge that, look, our client had no idea what these collateral consequences were going to be. They weren’t properly advised. So we’ll get the guilty plea set aside, and then we’ll go back to work and get it down to a non-moving, no-point violation without any collateral consequences on your criminal record or driving record.
If you’ve got a traffic ticket are looking to protect your license (plus your wallet), contact Combs Waterkotte today at (314) 900-HELP or reach out online for a free case review. You can also upload a picture of your ticket below:
