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    Greenwich & Stamford Police Promise More 14-296aa Cell Phone / Texting While Driving Tickets During Distracted Driving Awareness Month

    Greenwich & Stamford Police Promise More 14-296aa Cell Phone / Texting While Driving Tickets During Distracted Driving Awareness Month

    According to a recent Stamford Advocate report, the National Safety Council designated April as Distracted Driving Awareness Month. In support of this safety campaign, our good friends at the Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, and Stamford Police Departments are dedicating resources and officers to enforce Connecticut texting while driving laws. In fact, some of these Police Departments’ Facebook pages promise more tickets. As a result, Greenwich and Stamford motorists are now facing penalties that affect their DMV driving privileges, their auto insurance rates, and their wallets.

    Can anything be done to fight these tickets? Of course—here’s how we can help…

    We get calls often from drivers in Stamford, Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan who are issued summonses and tickets for texting while driving under CGS 14-296aa. The most common question we get is should they fight the ticket in Norwalk or Stamford traffic court or does it make better sense to just pay the ticket?

    While it’s cheap and easy to just check the guilty box and pay the ticket, this alternative comes with its own set of consequences. Some of the best Greenwich and Stamford traffic ticket lawyers and attorneys would explain that pleading guilty results in a one-point penalty on your driving record. If you accumulate too many of these points, then your driver’s license can get suspended by the DMV. That, in turn, sends red flags to your automobile insurance carrier. Further, if your license is suspended, this comes up on motor vehicle background checks that can trigger red flags in auto and life insurance policy renewals. Suddenly this seemingly one-point Stamford cell phone ticket snowballs into fines, penalties and fees with the Connecticut DMV and your auto insurance carrier.

    Cognitive Distraction Studies Are Motivating These Anti-Texting While Driving Campaigns

    Interestingly, the National Safety Council has declared that ALL cell phone and iPhone use while driving—both hands-on AND hands-free—are dangerous. The organization argues that simply talking while driving causes cognitive distraction to the brain and also causes too many accidents. Some studies and statistics actually suggest that texting while driving is as dangerous, if not more risky, than drinking and driving. We hear about so many fatalities on the roads due to distracted driving that Greenwich and Stamford police are fighting back with these ticket campaigns. These arguments are understood and appreciated; however, what’s the difference between talking hands-free and talking to people who are physically present in your car? Is that going to become illegal too? While we agree that a driver’s eyes should not be taken off the road while driving to focus on cell phones and handheld devices, we do believe that denying drivers the right to talk hands-free jeopardizes drivers’ constitutional First Amendment rights.

    Penalties & Fines for 14-296aa Stamford Texting While Driving Tickets

    What a top Stamford traffic criminal lawyer will usually recommend is to consult a lawyer prior to pleading guilty to a cell phone texting while driving violation, or any moving violation ticket. The penalties for a Stamford 14-296aa ticket escalate depending on how many prior convictions you have for this offense. The fine is $125 for the first violation, $250 for the second, and $400 for the third violation and every subsequent one. And if your license is suspended, then you will be required to pay an additional $175 restoration fee to the Connecticut DMV just to have your driving privileges restored. These fines add up—that’s why it is worth picking up the phone to discuss your options with a Stamford texting while driving lawyer.

    Top Stamford and Greenwich traffic lawyers and attorneys are therefore pushing back and aggressively fighting these Connecticut 14-296aa cell phone violation tickets. In many courts, you can avoid going to court yourself and your top Stamford cell phone violation lawyer can appear in Stamford or Norwalk traffic court on your behalf and fight your ticket for you. With the right legal argument, they can persuade the prosecutors to rip up your ticket. Here at Mark Sherman Law, we often dig deep into your cell phone records to show prosecutors that the police were mistaken in believing our clients were using their cell phone. We point prosecutors to the phone records to prove that there was no phone, talk, or text activity during the time period that police have accused our clients of violating the 14-296aa texting / talking while driving laws.

    Beat Your Stamford Texting While Driving Ticket – Contact a 14-296aa Cell Phone Ticket Lawyer Today

    So if you are charged a 14-296aa Cell Phone Violation in Stamford, Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Wilton, Norwalk, or Fairfield, give one of the experienced cell phone traffic lawyers at Mark Sherman Law a call today. We have years of experience in making these tickets disappear in Norwalk and Stamford traffic courts. Call us today at (203) 358-4700 to learn whether it is cost-effective for you to fight your 14-296aa cell phone ticket.