Washington State Failure to Maintain Lane

Have you recently been issued a ticket for failure to maintain your lane in Washington State? If so, you may want to consider hiring a Washington traffic defense attorney. An experienced attorney will aggressively fight to try to have your traffic ticket dismissed or reduced. Callahan Law assists clients every day who have been charged with moving violations.

Several driving actions can be seen as failure to maintain lane. These may include failing to use a turn signal when changing lanes, straddling two different lanes, and weaving across lanes of traffic to get to the shoulder. While momentarily touching an edge or lane line a single time while driving usually is not enough to violate Washington’s failure to maintain lane law, if an officer believes that your driving is erratic, you may be pulled over anyway.

Failure to maintain lane is often used as a reason for officers to pull over a driver whom they suspect is under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. While no vehicle drives completely straight, a person who is not driving in a perfectly straight-line could potentially be pulled over for failure to maintain lane.

If you have received a ticket for failure to maintain, you need to think of the ramifications of pleading guilty. The first thing you have to worry about is your insurance premium. Once your insurance provider learns of your ticket, you could receive notice your insurance bill is going up.

Next, you should consider whether you have other traffic infractions or moving violations on your record. Habitual offenders can be subject to increased penalties, including a driver’s license suspension, after receiving too many tickets.

If your job requires a clean driving record, such as those with careers in the commercial driving industry, you may face additional consequences from your employer. Hiring an experienced traffic lawyer can increase your odds of keeping the ticket off of your record.

You may be asking yourself if you need to hire a traffic defense attorney. Washington State traffic laws and court proceedings are complicated. This puts you at a disadvantage when you go up against the system to fight your ticket. However, an experienced traffic attorney knows the system and how best to fight the case in court.

Callahan Law can help with your failure to maintain lane ticket. Do not delay, because there are time limits for responding to traffic citations, and failure to respond in a timely matter may result in further difficulties, increased costs and possibly, a suspended license.