Washington Traffic Defense is a traffic and speeding ticket law firm with proven success in courts across the state of Washington.

As a former Seattle Police officer and long time criminal prosecutor, the founder of Washington Traffic Defense, Scott Leist, brings a unique perspective and set of skills to criminal cases, particularly DUI matters and traffic infractions.  Scott’s clients know that there is simply no substitute for his law enforcement and courtroom experience.  

Many of our clients come to us with more complicated and sometimes tricky legal issues with their licenses. These issues are best to deal with sooner rather than later. Sometimes a very simple slip of the memory (ie, forgetting to pay a ticket on time), can lead to a very thorny mess (ie, facing 2-10 days in jail for the offense of Driving on a Suspended License).

In Washington, any failure to appear or pay a citation on time can result in an arrest warrant being issued. This should be reason enough to immediately engage the services of an attorney to help you nip this situation in the bud before it gets worse. Fortunately, in most cases, the Courts do not issue arrest warrants. Instead, they send a notice to the Department of Drivers’ Services that you have missed your court date. The Department of Drivers’ Services, in turn, sends you a notice that your license will be suspended until the citation gets handled.

If you are in this situation, you might be driving on a suspended license. If you are stopped, or even if someone else bumps into you, an officer will arrest you for the serious offense of driving on a suspended license. This offense comes with a mandatory 48 hours in jail, and usually carries a very steep fine between $600-$1000. In addition, a conviction will cause another license suspension—separate from the failure to appear that caused the initial suspension.

As most of us have to drive to make a living, the likelihood of a second driving with a suspended license charge is high. A second conviction comes with a mandatory minimum of 10 days in jail. And so on. As you can see, this situation can quickly get out of control, and cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.

The best thing to do is contact lawyer Scott Leist. He can typically appear on your behalf to remove the Failure to Appear and get the paperwork to get your license out of suspension status. Scott give's these cases very high priority as he does not want you to get arrested. Therefore, time is of the essence. Additionally, our familiarity with the courts and our relationships with the court personnel help us to quickly handle your failure to appear or warrant.