I’ve spent more than ten years working as a traffic defense attorney, and one piece of advice I give more often than any other is simple, talk to a lawyer about your ticket before you decide what to do with it. I didn’t always feel that strongly. Early in my career, I assumed most minor tickets were straightforward. That assumption didn’t last long once I started seeing how quickly a “small” citation could spiral into long-term consequences.

I remember a client who came in after receiving a speeding ticket on a suburban highway. He almost paid it online the same night, figuring it would cost him a few hundred dollars and be done. When we talked through the details, it turned out he already had points from an older violation he’d forgotten about. Another conviction would have pushed him into a higher insurance bracket for years. That wasn’t obvious from the ticket itself, and it’s exactly the kind of thing people miss when they don’t slow down and get advice.

In my experience, the biggest misunderstanding is what a ticket actually represents. People see a fine printed at the bottom and assume that’s the full cost. I’ve sat across from drivers who were shocked months later when their insurance renewal jumped by several thousand dollars. One commercial driver I worked with last year nearly lost his job over a seemingly routine citation. The ticket didn’t mention anything about licensing implications, but the underlying violation triggered a review once it hit his record.

Talking to a lawyer doesn’t always mean fighting the ticket at all costs. There are situations where I’ve told people that paying the fine makes sense. I’ve also advised clients to contest tickets that looked airtight at first glance but fell apart once we reviewed the officer’s notes, the location, or the timing of the stop. A young driver once brought me a ticket he assumed was unbeatable because the officer seemed confident. A closer look showed the charge didn’t match the conditions described. That kind of mismatch is easy to overlook if you don’t know what to look for.

Another common mistake I see is people trying to explain themselves directly to the court or the issuing agency. They write long letters describing why they were late, distracted, or under pressure. I understand the instinct, but those explanations often end up reinforcing the violation instead of helping. I’ve had to undo more than one case where a well-meaning statement made things harder than they needed to be.

After handling hundreds of these situations, my perspective is practical rather than dramatic. Not every ticket is a crisis, but no ticket exists in a vacuum. Points, insurance, employment, and driving history all intersect in ways most drivers never see until it’s too late. Taking a few minutes to talk to a lawyer about your ticket can clarify whether you’re dealing with a minor inconvenience or a decision that will follow you for years. That clarity alone often changes how people approach the situation, and in many cases, it changes the outcome as well.