What Every Parent Should Know About Common Out of State Tickets and Citations
Posted By Attorney Dave Hershey on Apr 23, 2010 8:19am PDT
Your 18 year old son or daughter is off to Ocean City, Maryland for a week to celebrate graduation. What happens if he or she gets a speeding ticket or is arrested for drug possession or underage drinking? When young adults make bad decisions in other states, the legal ramifications can be severe. Bad decisions can even affect your teen's Pennsylvania driver's license.
If your teen has a regular Pennsylvania driver's license, points will not be assigned against their Pennsylvania driver record if convicted of a drug offense or underage drinking. However, ignoring the ticket, or a delay in responding to the ticket will create serious problems. Once the issuing state notifies PennDOT that the ticket has been ignored, PennDOT will suspend the teenager's Pennsylvania driving privileges indefinitely until they properly respond to the out of state court. Also, the teen driver will now have Driver License restoration requirements in Pennsylvania that must be met before driving privileges are reinstated. If this happens, your teen driver will have a permanent black mark on his or her driving history.
Underage drinking laws vary from state to state, but all can affect a Pennsylvania driver, so before responding to such a citation, parents should contract an experienced Criminal Lawyer and Driver License Lawyer at Colgan Marzzacco for proper advice and assistance.
Drug charges occurring out of state which are reported back to PennDOT will result in a license suspension of at least six months in Pennsylvania. If your teen driver gets convicted of drug charges in another state, make sure you consult an experienced Driver License Lawyer at Colgan Marzzacco to seek advice about your options under Pennsylvania law. Call today to set up a consultation!