Traffic Tickets and License Suspensions in Crystal Lake, IL
Jennifer J.: “Hi, my name is Jennifer Johnson, and I’m a partner here at Zanck, Coen Wright, & Saladin. I’ve been with the firm since 2005. I concentrate my area of practice in landlord tenant law, real estate, general civil litigation, construction litigation, and I also handle some traffic offenses.
So one of the other areas of practice that I handle are traffic tickets. I’ve prosecuted for municipalities, I’ve represented several people on defense of traffic tickets, and I just wanted to give you a brief overview of what Illinois law says regarding traffic tickets, license suspensions, et cetera.
In Illinois, if you are over 21 years of age, you can get two moving violations within a 12-month period. And what that means is that if you get two speeding tickets within 12 months, you can get two supervisions. Supervisions mean that … that’s Illinois’ way of keeping track of the traffic tickets, in simple terms. Wisconsin, and some other states, do point systems. Illinois does supervisions.
If you go over and get a third traffic ticket within a 12-month period, after you’ve already been placed on court’s revision on two offenses, you’re no longer supervision-eligible and you’ll get a conviction. Two convictions within a 12-month period means a license suspension for at least three months.
It’s important to note that if you have a traffic stop, and you get a speeding ticket, and you get, you know, a broken tail light, or some other ticket out of that offense … maybe a speeding ticket plus an improper lane usage charge. Those are two moving violations, and if you don’t go to court, or you don’t participate, then you’re going to walk out of that one traffic stop with your two supervisions for the year. So it’s important that if you do get a traffic ticket, you don’t ignore it, you engage yourself in the court process, so you don’t look at a license suspension if you don’t participate and pick up another ticket.
If you’re under 21 years of age, the same rules apply, however, it’s two supervisions within a 24-month period. So it’s a longer period, because, of course, we don’t want younger children, newer drivers, getting multiple tickets. We don’t want anybody getting tickets at all, but we don’t want to have multiple tickets issued, and then look at giving them more chances to get these tickets, and then looking at a license suspension, as well.
So, under 21 is 24 months. Over 21 is 12 months. So, just keep those timeframes in mind. If you have a traffic ticket, or if you have your first ticket, or you have a teenage son or a daughter that gets their first ticket, or their third ticket and they may be looking at an issue with a license suspension or anything like that, please give us a call so we can help you navigate through the legal system and represent you to make sure that you are protected, and we can help you keep your license intact.”
Jennifer L. Johnson can be reached at (815) 459-8800 ext 652 and [email protected]
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