Archive for the 'Nevada traffic' Category

Nevada DMV, Friend or Foe?

admin February 3rd, 2010

Apparently 15 percent of Nevada Drivers are uninsured according to KTVN Channel 2 news, which has caused our DMV to become babysitters or debt collectors.

 In the past the DMV took a drivers word when it came to proof of insurance, but since we can’t play well with others, we must abide by the new rule and pay.

 Before registering a car with the DMV, you must provide proof of insurance on the vehicle, if you cannot prove you have coverage or your insurance lapses drivers will be fined $250. Nevada Drivers will not have a seven-day grace period anymore.

 The DMV keeps track of lapses in insurance electronically and when lapses occur, it will prompt an automatic bill in the mail.

 So, it sounds like big brother is really looking out for us, or could it be a simple way to generate some state income?

 Either way, I guess it won’t hurt for Nevada drivers to grow up and become responsible adults.

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

admin February 2nd, 2010

Yesterday a man riding a motorcycle died after crashing into the back of a car.

The rider and another person on a motorcycle were speeding northbound on Lorenzi Street near Alta Drive. The car was also going northbound on Lorenzi when the rider hit the car’s back bumper.

According to police, the motorcycle was going so fast, it skidded more than 150 feet before stopping.  

Before riding on the back of a motorcycle with anybody I always ask if they’ve ever been in a motorcycle accident, if their reply is “no,” I don’t ride.

People who have been in motorcycle accidents and survive are most likely to use due care and don’t speed because they have experienced the ramifications.

These accident survivors have encountered one of the most horrific near death experiences- there are no fender benders in an accident involving a motorcycle- because the rider is always the most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, when you are dead there is no time to learn your lesson. Moral of the story- learn from others mistakes.

Mother and Son Killed by Reckless Driver

admin February 1st, 2010

Life is not fair when you have to pay for others’ mistakes.
A 17-year-old and his 41-year-old mother died in a car crash Friday night on Lamb and Las Vegas Blvd.
Channel 8 News Now said 20-year-old Nathan Hardy was driving recklessly before the crash and had run several red lights before slamming into Santos and his mother’s car. 
Hardy faces two felony counts for reckless driving causing death.
Sunday night nearly 200 people said goodbye to Canyon Springs High School senior Daniel Santos. Since Santos was a band member, Santos was remembered in front of the school’s band hall.  Santos often stayed after school to help others.

Our heart goes out to all of their family and friends.

Ticket-busting law firms go to court for clients

admin January 29th, 2010

Crowds of driving locals and tourists seen to create ‘perfect storm’ for business

BY BOB SHEMELIGIAN

As local police departments step up traffic enforcement on Southern Nevada’s roadways, nearly a dozen Las Vegas law firms vie for their share of the ever-growing businesses of ticket defense.

They include Ticket Busters, Ticket Terminator, Ticket Doctor and Ticket Eliminators — to name a few.

“I’ve heard of Ticket Ninja and Ticket King,” said Richard Harris, owner of Ticket Busters. “It seems like everyone in Southern Nevada is a ticket lawyer. We’re the ticket law firm capital of the world.”

MIKE STOTTS | LAS VEGAS BUSINESS PRESS
Lawyer Richard Harris stands in his Las Vegas firm Nov. 30. He owns Ticket Busters, a business that pleads for deals in court to save clients time, money and driver’s license points.

Despite the cute names, humorous advertising campaigns, easy-to-remember phone numbers and catchy slogans like the mean looking traffic cop saying, “You don’t want to see me in court,” ticket attorneys are serious about business.

“With 2 million people who live in a 24-hour drinking town and drive on surface streets that are big wide freeways, and you add 30 million tourists a year, it gives us a perfect storm,” Harris said.

Records show that in fiscal 2009, the 12-month period ended in June, Las Vegas Justice Court collected nearly $36 million in ticket revenue for violations that occurred in unincorporated Las Vegas, the area generally south of Sahara Avenue.

Revenue for fiscal 2010 is projected to approach $42.5 million.

Harris bought Ticket Busters in April 2007 from attorney Adam Stokes, who now operates Half Price Lawyers. The attorney, who also operates Richard Harris Law Firm and The Defenders, explained that some have the misconception that ticket attorneys are in the business of trying to “fix” tickets. Rather, these attorneys provide a service. They plead for the deals they can get, often saving their clients time, money and driver’s license points.

Not everyone agrees.

In a recent Internet “Ripoff Report,” a Las Vegas woman named Shawna wrote that although Ticket Busters was able to get points removed from her husband’s driving record following a traffic ticket, the husband was required to attend traffic school “which would have removed the points for us anyway!”

Harris counters this claim with several laudatory testimonials on his company’s Web site, ticketbusters.com. He added that all customers of Ticket Busters save time, and some save money and points. In other words — as it is in criminal cases — it’s not up to the attorney to decide the sentence, it’s up to the courts.

“We as professionals in a traffic-related law firm are not going to guarantee any result,” Harris explained. “We handle tickets as any professional would — expeditiously. We save a lot of time, and in many cases our clients receive reduced fines, and no traffic school or points.”

Like other ticket lawyers, Harris or other attorneys at his firm typically attend special sessions before a judge and try to get the best deal they can for their clients. It’s not unusual for these attorneys to try to obtain reduced charges on several tickets at a time. In other words, they plea bargain.

“Many of these violations are in packages,” Harris said. “Some motorists could be hit with several citations. They could include improper lane change, no insurance, signals — I remember one client had seven. When we have this many, we can negotiate, and we do a good job.”

Stokes understands this.

“I’ll go (before the judge) with a stack of 500 tickets and try to get the best deal I can for my clients,” Stokes said. “If I can’t, then I’ll ask the judge to set all 500 cases for trial,”

Stokes, who boasts that he charges only $50 to handle a traffic citation, explained it’s not a matter of threatening a judge with clogging his calendar. Ticket defense goes to the heart of the judicial system — meaning that every defendant, no matter how minor the charge, has a right to an attorney and a right to his day in court.

The attorney also said he’s vigilant about trying to remove points from his clients’ driving records to help keep the clients’ auto insurance rates down.

“I don’t know why the state has an interest in sharing driver’s license information with insurance companies,” said Stokes, who holds master’s of business administration and law degrees from Tulane University.

A competitor to Ticket Busters and Half Price Lawyers is Ticket Terminators, which former insurance agent Kirk Helmick runs from a pink office building at the corner of Flamingo Road and Rainbow Boulevard.

Helmick, a native of Elkins, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Two years ago, he told the Elkins-based Inter-Mountain newspaper that he started the business several years ago after he began selling insurance in Las Vegas. Helmick explained that sometimes his insurance customers would have traffic tickets along with personal injury claims and local attorneys were hired to represent the clients.

“The relationship was working and we had a trade-off,” said Helmick, adding that he would refer personal injury cases to the lawyers who were already handling the tickets. “I decided that I was going to take it to another level.”

Helmick told the Inter-Mountain newspaper he has three attorneys working for him and he does all the marketing. He also said he has a traffic school.

Harris also offers his clients a traffic school. He notes that his online traffic school, which does business as Traffic School Busters, is free. The official name of the online school is gototrafficschool.com.

“There are some courts where traffic school is required if the client wants to remove the points,” Harris said. “And we offer traffic school for free.”

Any attorney would argue that the best way to avoid fines, points and traffic school is to avoid the ticket in the first place.

A few weeks ago, Harris was stopped by a Henderson police officer over a minor traffic violation.

“I got a warning when I told him I owned Ticket Busters,” Harris said.

Bob Shemeligian is a local freelance writer. Send questions or comments

Don’t Judge…

admin January 4th, 2010

It is no surprise that domestic violence escalates during the holidays. People are forced into awkward family situations and forced to mingle with people we dislike- like our family members!

 Cavemen are all shoved into a room and told to get along. Put alcohol and the financial stress into the mix and ummm …maybe some pink golf clubs a certain someone got for Christmas and it’s on like Donkey Kong.

 Take one family for the sacrificial lamb, a brother who’s contemplating divorce from his wife, a sister-in-laws’ sister whose playing hard to get with her ex-boyfriend who brought along his daughter (who just got out of rehab) and grandson.  

 A picture-perfect holiday gathering. Yes, the all-American family.

 Don’t judge if you think this family is dysfunctional. Just wait until next year- one to many appletinis and you are one step away from one very bad mug shot. Stay sober!

Charlie Sheen's MugShot

Charlie Sheen's MugShot

Officer Shooting Unsettling

admin November 19th, 2009

This morning some of us woke up to news of an off-duty police officer who died after getting shot in his own home. His wife, mother and two kids were inside the home when several gun shots were heard in the garage. The officer got shot after arriving from work.

 According to a Fox 5 reporter, it was a random act; I even heard home invasion thrown around a couple times. But, why does my gut tell me it was not a random act or home invasion, but rather someone with an axe to grind with the young officer. I think this act of violence was personal.

 Police officers write tickets and arrest those who are suspected of committing crimes and most of us take that personal, but we let go because we are sensible- police officers are only doing their job.

 However, it is unsettling when I read about this particular officer’s tragedy and view an RJ reader comment say, “Anytime a cop is killed is a good day.”

 Really…these men and women still have family and friends who love them, they have kids, and a wife who is relieved when she hears the garage door open and shut to mean that her husband has made it home safe for one more day. 

 When it comes to a tragedy that strikes a police officer, it seems these men and women in uniform get less sympathy from our community.

 Over the past couple of months we have had two officers die while on duty because they were speeding in their patrol car.

  If it were a civilian who got killed after speeding, the community would not hold back on the outpouring of sympathy.

 Yet, some people were reluctant to show compassion towards these officers because of the circumstances surrounding their deaths. We must remember that police officers are human, they have families they love, they speed, they make mistakes, and sometimes they even take a bullet in the place of someone else.

 My sympathies go out to the METRO officer’s family and friends.

Trouble and Tickets–do they come in 3’s?

admin July 2nd, 2009

My friend Lucy (whose real name will not be revealed) has been going through some tough times. Lucy’s husband, Carlos went online and had some cyber related extra-marital affairs. Lucy then had some extra-marital affairs herself. They got a divorce. Not necessarily in that order.

Carlos is no victim, but neither is Lucy. Like they say, two sides. But, I digresss…

Soon after Lucy got a divorce, Carlos went psycho on her. Carlos had the neighbor file a restraining order against Lucy, slashed Lucy’s tires, and then Carlos convinced their son Benny that Lucy was at fault for the divorce, little Benny does not talk to Lucy at the moment.

I started thinking… does trouble come in 3’s? Does Lucy have the 333?

Recently, Lucy once again got into trouble in the triples and she was unable to drive her car because she fractured her toe while opening the door at the DMV!

Prior to Lucy’s toe incident, Lucy got a speeding ticket on her way to pick up her 3 kids- “do you smell what the rock is cookin?”

The next day Lucy got a citation for causing an accident because she was following close to the car in front of her. After that, came the BIG toe incident– Lucy is now walking with a cane.

Lucy just called me to ask me about the 666. No…not the mark of the beast (she’s not giving up on life and selling her soul because she’s not liked by her kids and has a psycho husband that gets pleasure out of making her miserable and just seems to be having terrible luck in life).

Lucy is asking for some legal help. She wanted to know if Ticket Busters could take care of her tickets over the phone because she was unable to drive with a fractured toe. Ahhh…I thought– now that makes sense.

I appeased Lucy and told her to call the 666 (Ticket Busters) and they can handle everything over the phone. No need to sell your soul Lucy! We will fix it with the 6’s.

 

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