First you see the police in your rear view mirror and before you know it you are being cited for a traffic offense. Worse yet, you just received a citation in the mail describing an event that you can't even remember. Do you simply pay it? Paying the citation is an admission of guilt. Penn Dot imposes significant sentences for convictions of summary offenses. The safest answer is to call a traffic lawyer before taking any action. You must respond to a ticket within ten days. Call our lawyers. We can help. Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue are Pennsylvania's premier traffic lawyers. We are a one stop shop for aggressive, effective defense to all traffic citations. If you are not local to the area, but received a citation while here, we can appear on your behalf. You can avoid the inconvenience of having to travel to the district court and avoid missing work. Furthermore, you can also avoid the situation where you may find yourself defending something that you are not familiar with. Don't be taken advantage of, call our offices and use our experience. Pennsylvania's Traffic Lawyers, James Crosby & Doug Sughrue believe that the privilege to drive should be protected. A person's freedom and ability to earn a living is closely related to one’s driving privileges. Although traffic tickets may not seem serious in nature, convictions can result in suspensions, fines, and increased insurance premiums. Some insurance companies actually drop their insureds upon conviction of certain infractions. Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue believe that all tickets should be defended!!! Many carry mandatory suspensions. Accumulation of points means can lead to a driving test as well as a suspension. The best chance to avoid points or suspensions is to hire an experienced traffic attorney. At the very least save our website to your favorites and use it as an informational tool. Every Day, we receive calls from Pennsylvania drivers that have already pled guilty to a ticket and are now under suspension. Most drivers were unaware that Penn Dot would suspend their driver’s license as a result paying a citation. Don't jeopardize your license. Call us first. We can help.
 Failure To Respond To A Citation
Outstanding Tickets
Underage Drinking
There are two ways that Pennsylvanians typically fail to respond to citations. In the first instance, the accused receives a citation and does nothing about it. Penn Dot will suspend one's operating privileges for failure to respond to a citation within ten days of receiving the ticket. The suspension lasts indefinitely. In some instances the accused may continue to drive and not even realize that he or she is driving under a suspension. The only way to have this type of indefinite suspension lifted is to respond to the matter. No one should do anything until speaking to a lawyer. Responding at the wrong time can be devastating. Contact us at once if you have this type of problem. Do not jeopardize your privilege to drive. The second way one can suffer a failure to respond suspension is by failing to pay fines on matters that have already been decided. These cases are tougher to deal with but all hope is not lost. Crosby & Sughrue can sometimes help by appealing these matters even if the time for an appeal has passed. Call us to discuss your options. Please refer to "Drivers License Restoration" page for information about restoring your Driver's License.
Often people have their license suspended because of "Failing to Respond" to a traffic citation. Section 1533 of the vehicle code authorizes Penn DOT to suspend a person's driver's license for failing to respond to a citation. If you are in possession of a Restoration Requirements Letter that contains one or many "Indefinite Suspension" notices, Please contact Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue at 412-391-0123, 1-866-6 LAWFIRM (866-652-9347) or Email Us right away. When a driver is cited for violating the vehicle code, he or she has 10 days to respond to the ticket. A driver can plead guilty or not guilty by choosing the specific plea on the back of the citation. If a ticketed driver does not respond within 10 days, the area Magisterial District Justice (MDJ) where the citation was filed will send the ticketed driver a letter stating a response to the ticket is required or Penn Dot will suspend the license of the ticketed driver. If the MDJ does not have the correct address of the driver, then this notice is never received and the license of the ticketed driver will be suspended without providing any notice to the driver. Note—the law requires the driver to keep their address current with Penn Dot within 15 days of moving residences. If the ticket for which a response is required is greater than 3 years old, then the ticket should be dismissed. When a person is attempting to get their license back themselves, their first mistake is to listen to Penn Dot & the local MDJ where the citation is outstanding. Penn Dot and most of the MDJs will attempt to "help" you get your license back by telling you to just "pay the fine." Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue spend the majority of their time attempting to fix this crucial mistake. Penn Dot does not want you to drive. The MDJ wants the ticket resolved and wants the fines paid. The driver only needs to respond to the ticket, not plead guilty to the ticket. The bottom line is an experienced attorney gets results that you, by yourself, cannot get. You will not receive the same answers to your inquiries as Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue receive. Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue get licenses restored. In some cases, a state constable from the local area Magisterial District Justice office where the citation was filed will track down the ticketed driver. The Constable will force the driver to pay a fine or go to jail. What a driver needs to do is hire Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue to resolve these matters before the Constables threaten to take the driver to jail. Attorneys Crosby & Sughrue respond on behalf of the ticketed driver, plead "not guilty" and request a hearing. All the MDJ wants is to resolve the ticket. Plead guilty or not guilty...just plead. Note that an appeal can always be filed to the Court of Common Pleas within 30 days from the date of conviction at the MDJ. TOP OF PAGE
Title 18 Pa.C.S.A. Section 6308 "Purchase, consumption, possession or transportation of liquor or malt or brewed beverages" states: a person commits a summary offense if he, being less than 21 years of age, attempts to purchase, purchases, consumes, possesses or knowingly and intentionally transports any liquor or malt or brewed beverages. Notice that a person does not have to drink anything to be convicted of this offense an attempted purchase or mere possession is enough. The penalty for a first offense is a fine up to $500.00 as well as court costs and automatic ninety day license suspension. A second offense requires an automatic one-year suspension and third and subsequent conviction result in a two-year license suspension. Our Law firm handles these types of charges on a routine basis and can recognize defenses as well a mitigate penalties in most situations. If you have been charged call us at once. If you have already been convicted, hope is not lost but time is of the essence. TOP OF PAGE | 
