Intermediate License in Tacoma

If you or your child has an intermediate license, it is extremely important you know it is vital to fight practically every single ticket received. Just a single ticket can have a severe impact on the intermediate license holder and all others who are relying upon that person for rides. It is frustrating how many phone calls we receive from parents trying to save their child’s license after it is already too late. Please do not be one of these people. Call us as soon as possible and before paying the ticket!

If you get just one ticket while on an intermediate license, the restriction on passengers and nighttime driving will remain in place until the driver turns 18. When this occurs, the department of licensing is also supposed to send a warning letter to the parents. Unfortunately, this does not always work… Many intermediate license holders decide to use a deferral on their first ticket. Sometimes the parents recommend this because they remember using one in their own past. Other times, the teenager does the deferral on his or her own in the hopes that the parents won’t find out. Whatever the reason, it is a bad idea for an intermediate license holder to use a deferral on their first ticket without consulting an attorney. A deferral should only be used as a last resort, considering you only get one every 7 years and most courts impose a probation period as a part of the deferral program. People do not properly take into consideration the fact that a teenager is much more likely to get a second ticket soon and violate the probation of the deferral. Once that happens, both tickets will go on the teenager’s record and their license will be suspended. Additionally, if you defer the first ticket, you normally will not get the warning letter so you will not be aware of the ramifications of the second ticket.

Once you get a second ticket while on an intermediate license, you will receive a 6 month license suspension and if you get a third, you will have a suspension until you are 18 years old! Depending on the court, an experienced attorney can normally resolve a case favorably without using a deferral. However, in some instances the deferral ends up being the only option. It is extremely frustrating to review a teenager’s driving record and seeing a deferral used on an easy ticket and then not having the deferral available for the difficult ticket.

If the intermediate license holder in your family received a ticket, contact our office and speak with one of our experienced traffic attorneys. The Law Offices of Jason Newcombe are here to protect the record and to make sure insurance rates won’t skyrocket.