By Criminal Defense Lawyer Near Me John Webb Serving Portland ME and Saco, ME
Under Maine Law Title 9-A, the possession, transportation or storage of fireworks other than sparklers, morning glories and paper or plastic caps without a permit can fetch up to $1000 in court fines and a maximum of 6 months in jail, provided the value of the fireworks exceeds $100.
The following products are illegal to sell, use or possess in Maine:
By: John S. Webb, Traffic Lawyer near me in Saco ME and Portland ME, with the Webb Law Firm, featuring two experienced local traffic ticket attorneys in Portland Maine and Saco Maine
Not all traffic violations justify hiring a criminal defense lawyer near me. In Maine, minor driving offenses are civil legal issues, while serious violations like driving to endanger, OUI and criminal speeding in Maine justify retaining a defense attorney in Portland or Saco to use his or her legal knowledge and relationships with local criminal courts to be your traffic ticket attorney nearby.
By way of example, with a Maine OUI arrest, that driver facing operating under the influence (OUI) charges has only 30 days to file an appeal pf the pending administrative license suspension, under Mainer’s implied consent law. If convicted you may be required to pay for installation and monitoring of a DUI interlock, an electronic device that requires a clean breath sample before your vehicle will start.
A decade ago I commented that roadblocks are a very poor way to catch DUI drivers. Police can stop a thousand citizens at a roadblock near me without catching a single impaired driver. This wastes taxpayer money, and is an infringement on our rights as citizens.
Proof of that comes from California. A DUI checkpoint was set up on the corner of Collier Avenue and Riverside Drive in Lake Elsinore, California.
Police claimed that this sobriety roadblock location was selected due to being a high DUI area. Cops stopped 1,358 vehicles and questioned the people in them.
Ten years ago the Maine Legislature changed the driver’s license suspension penalties for an OUI offense, which directly impacts a person’s continued driving privileges. These changes went into effect December 1, 2013. They affect only those OUIs that occurred after midnight on November 30, 2013.
Some of the changes affect only a few people. The length of suspension for some repeat offenders increased. Also, some repeat offenders will get their licenses back sooner if they install an Ignition Interlock Device, or DUI interlock. This device acts as a car breathalyzer because a person has to blow into the IID to check their blood alcohol content (BAC) level before the car will start. Its inventors were looking for a way to automatically stop drunk driving.
These changes only affect a few people because these repeat offenders make up a very small percentage of the people who are charged with operating under the influence.
In Maine if a person is driving a motor vehicle and has a blood alcohol concentration (BAC level) of 0.8% or more, they are arrested and charged with a criminal offense known as OUI (operating under the influence). In other states, this type of driving offense is called driving under the influence, or DUI.
A lot of our law firm clients ask us if they are accused of a felony or misdemeanor crime. The answer depends on the circumstances of your criminal case. For example, if this is your first OUI and no one was injured, you likely will be charged with a misdemeanor.
On the other hand, understand that if you have prior OUI convictions in any state within a certain number of years, or your impairment caused injuries or even death, then felony charges will be brought against you. This is complicated legal work that an experienced DUI lawyer near me in Portland, Maine can handle more easily.
By Southern Maine OUI Super Lawyer John S. Webb – ME Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me
One of the most debilitating OUI penalties is a driver’s license suspension. This means you are banned from legally driving for a certain number of days, months, or years. Since 2009 the license suspensions for repeat DUIs has gotten longer – a lot longer.
The year 2020 was one that several generations of Americans will never forget. High stress, bereavement, domestic togetherness and spending more time at our homes that ever before has contributed to more family violence crimes, motor vehicle accidents and driving under the influence.
Sales of alcohol, drugs and CBD products escalated. Depression, stress, and the desire to calm down led many to imbibe and to use prescribed medication or other sources of relief to get through the past year.
Research shows that the number of OUI-DUI-DWI cases involving drug use across America has increased. In addition, two recent US Supreme Court cases, Missouri v. McNeely in 2013 and Birchfield v. North Dakota in 2016 have clarified when and how blood extractions for implied consent purposes are proper.
In Maine, your income makes no difference in how much your ticket will cost. The fine scale is predetermined and applies evenly to everyone, which seems reasonable. But is it really fair? That all depends on who you are and how much money you make. For some, a speeding ticket could be devastating and for others, it could be nothing more than a slight annoyance.
Lets say that you are driving on the interstate with a speed limit of 60MPH and you get a ticket for going 75MPH. The cost for this tickets will likely be around $200. According to datausa.io, the median household income in Maine is around $55,000 a year. That means that this ticket would be 4.36% of your household income for the month. This would perhaps be a difficult hit, but at the end of the day, would not be the end of the world. It would probably be a good incentive to be more careful and to drive slower in the future. This is exactly the hope of the law makers who set the fee scale for the ticket.
But now lets say that the NFL commissioner gets the same $200 ticket while he is at vacation house in Maine. His income, according to USA Today, is around $40,000,000 a year. That would mean the same ticket would be 0.006% of his monthly income. That type of punishment would be the equivalent of the person making $55,000 a year getting a ticket for around 28 Cents. Is there really any incentive there to follow the speed limit? There are other penalties such as possible license suspension that come with enough points on your license. But if your income is high enough, paying a driver a full time salary would be a realistic option. That is obviously not an alternative for the average Mainer.
A Maine protection order is issued in an effort to protect a spouse or girlfriend from further harrassment and physical abuse by their partner. These domestic violence orders also can protect any children involved. The no contact order specifies the distance that one person must stay away from the filing party, for example 50 yards. This legal document also lists the prohibited means of communication like no phone calls, no Facebook messages, and no other social media contact.
The first thing you need to be aware of is if there is a temporary order in place when you are served the order. A temporary protection order takes effect as soon as it is signed by a judge. However, the defendant must have actual notice of the temporary order, or have been served with the order, in order to be charged with a crime for violating it. Even if you feel that the allegations are false and the case is eventually found in your favor, the temporary order still must be respected or you could face criminal charges. For example, if the temporary order prohibits you from entering a home you shared with the plaintiff, you will be charged with a crime if you enter the house, even if the plaintiff has invited you. Violation of a temporary protection order is a Class D crime that carries penalties of up to 364 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $2,000.
There is no easy answer here. It depends on your situation and why you got the ticket. When we talk about tickets in this blog, we mean civil traffic violations such as failure to signal, speeding (under 30MPH over the speed limit), failure to stop at a stop sign, and other minor traffic infractions. We are not referring to more serious criminal driving charges like Operating Under the Influence, Criminal Speeding (over 30MPH over the speed limit), or Illegally Passing a School Bus. For any criminal charge, you should always have an attorney.
If you have a Commercial Driver Licenses (CDL), drive for a living, or have any concern that the ticket could cause you to lose your license, you should absolutely speak with an attorney. Any person whose driving record shows an accumulation of 12 demerit points for convictions or adjudications within a one year period may have his or her license, permit or privilege to operate suspended for a period of up to 15 days.
Here is a short list of examples of some of the demerit point values for common traffic tickets:
Southern Maine Criminal Lawyer Blog
