Did You Receive a Ticket and You Have a CDL?

Seek help now from an experienced CDL lawyer

Did you receive a traffic ticket? Are you a CDL driver? As an experienced cdl violation lawyer, we will assist you with your traffic ticket, so it doesn’t affect the status your commercial driver’s license. We understand how important a commercial driver’s license (CDL) is to you and your livelihood. Therefore, we will make sure to aggressively advocate for you so no adverse effects occur to your commercial driver’s license. We represent all CDL holders and trucking companies that are dealing with traffic tickets in DuPage County, Will County, Cook County, and Kane County. Call us at 773-657-4427 or contact us by clicking here. Contact the CDL Violation Lawyer at our firm for representation.

Serious Traffic Violations Can Lead To CDL Disqualification

If you are a CDL holder and you receive a traffic ticket, your risk having your CDL privileges disqualified. Illinois law states that receiving a serious traffic violation conviction can lead to a disqualification of CDL privileges such as driving a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). Examples of serious traffic violations are reckless driving, speeding 15 mph over, following too closely, texting while driving on the CMV and improper lane usage. However, the first serious violation offense conviction will not lead to a disqualification. When you incur two serious traffic violation convictions within a 3-year period, however, you are facing a minimum of a 60-day disqualification. This means not being able to drive the CMV as part of your employment, for example. If you incur three serious traffic violation convictions within a 3-year period, then you are facing a minimum of 120-day disqualification of your CDL privileges. It does not matter whether you are driving a CMV or not for these violations. What matters is if you hold a CDL, you risk CDL privileges disqualification by a violation of these offenses. Obtaining court supervision on these offenses will be meaningless for a CDL holder because the Illinois Secretary of State will treat the court supervision as a conviction for purposes of disqualification. 

Major Violations Will Lead to Disqualification Even After The First Offense

If you commit and are convicted of a major violation, then you will be disqualified from driving a CMV for a minimum of one year. This is true even if it is your first offense. Examples of some major violations include:

• DUI.
• Refusing to submit to testing to determine blood alcohol content (BAC) or another drug while driving a CMV or non-CMV.
• Driving a CMV with a BAC of 0.04 or more.
• Knowingly leaving the scene of a crash while driving a CMV or a non-CMV.
• Driving a CMV while driver’s license is suspended or revoked or the driver is disqualified from driving a CMV
• Causing a fatality through negligence operation of the CMV.

A subsequent violation of the above can disqualify your CDL privileges for life.

Additional Tickets You May Receive While Operating a CMV

Other common tickets that CDL holders receive are overweight restrictions tickets. Police officers are allowed to stop trucks if they believe that the truck or load is unlawful. Once stopped, officers can require truck drivers to submit to weighing. These types of overweight tickets are commonly issued by State Troopers on highways to truck drivers. Additionally, these types of tickets are for alleged violations of driving overweight on gross, overweight on registration or overweight on axle. These truck overweight fines are costly and there is a set formula in place for these tickets to determine the costs. These tickets are not considered serious traffic violations for CDL holders. But you can be looking at thousands and thousands of dollars in costs for truck overweight fines. The ticket may be issued to the driver’s name, but the driver may be able to get reimbursed by the trucking company. An experienced cdl lawyer could also negotiate with the prosecutor to get the cost down. 

Additional Repercussions

If your CDL becomes suspended or revoked due to violations in Illinois, but your CDL was issued in another state, the Illinois Secretary of State will notify the other state regarding the suspension or revocation. 

You can also face increased insurance rates and employment issues by virtue of being convicted of moving violations as a CDL holder. Employers can take action against CDL holders due to the traffic convictions which can lead to an employment termination and preventing future employment opportunities. 

Get The Representation You Need

If you are a CDL holder and you received a traffic ticket, contact the cdl lawyer at The Traffic Defense Firm immediately for representation. We will fight to prevent a disqualification for your commercial driver’s license and fight your ticket. Do not just pay the ticket as that could lead to negative consequences which can affect your employment. You may be surprised on the outcomes we can achieve for you. 

As a CDL driver, you worked too hard for your CDL privileges and do not let it be negatively impacted by just simply paying it. You may have defenses, and we may be able to get the ticket dismissed. Or we may be able to get the ticket amended to another form of citation where you will not risk a CDL disqualification or points on your driving record. Contact us or call us at 773-657-4427 to represent you on your ticket if you are a CDL holder. As a dedicated CDL violation lawyer, we will use our knowledge, experience and skills to represent you.