{"id":1886,"date":"2012-08-01T00:38:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T00:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/matt-barnes-fails-traffic-ticket-101if-ignore-ticket-just-gets-worse\/"},"modified":"2020-10-30T20:48:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T20:48:36","slug":"matt-barnes-fails-traffic-ticket-101if-ignore-ticket-just-gets-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/matt-barnes-fails-traffic-ticket-101if-ignore-ticket-just-gets-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Barnes fails traffic ticket 101-If you ignore a ticket, it just gets worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former Los Angeles Laker power forward Matt Barnes<\/a> got hooked up yesterday by the Manhattan Beach Police Department<\/a>. \u00a0Barnes has posted $51,000 in bail (that’s likely about $5k to a bail bond company for those of you keeping score at home) and he is now a free man again. \u00a0 Barnes is also currently a free agent in the NBA<\/a> and this arrest certainly won’t help his chances at landing a big contract. \u00a0 His name is getting dragged through the mud on TV, sports radio, and social media<\/a>. \u00a0 Barnes is being portrayed as a selfish badboy with headlines such as “Anger Problem lands Matt Barnes in jail for a felony”. \u00a0 \u00a0 What likely started as a simple traffic ticket, may end up costing him millions.<\/p>\n

The saddest part of this whole deal is that Barnes could have easily avoided the whole mess. \u00a0 \u00a0From the information available online so far, I am going to guess that Barnes fell into the same trap that many California Drivers face. \u00a0 He missed a court date<\/a> on a simple traffic ticket and the problem snowballed. \u00a0 After the failure to appear, his license was suspended and ultimately he ended up with a warrant for his arrest for $26,000. \u00a0 It sounds crazy but this happens to thousands and thousands of California drivers every day. \u00a0 \u00a0 You get a ticket but you are busy with work, family, travel, grabbing rebounds, etc and you miss the court date. \u00a0Next thing you know, you have a suspended license and a warrant. \u00a0You try to call the court or fix it online, but it seems like everything is a dead end. \u00a0 This is the point where most people get frustrated and give up. \u00a0 Some people even try to go into to court to fix it, but that usually just ends up being a wasted trip and 4 hours of your life you are never getting back. \u00a0 Our traffic court system in Los Angeles is a grade A mess, so clearing up these issues can be a huge hassle. \u00a0 \u00a0 Barnes could have fixed it quick and easy in the beginning by calling a traffic lawyer<\/a>, but he didn’t.<\/p>\n

Once you have a warrant issued for your arrest, yes even a traffic warrant Matt Barnes, you are subject to arrest any time any place. \u00a0 And I’m guessing it’s pretty easy for an officer to find Matt Barnes walking down the street in Manhattan Beach. \u00a0 \u00a0He’s a pretty unique looking guy so if the officer knew he had a warrant and he saw Matt, the rest is history. \u00a0 \u00a0Some Los Angeles area police officers will be friendly on traffic warrants and other minor misdemeanor warrants and simply advise you that you have the warrant and that you need to appear in court to clear it up ASAP, but the police don’t have to extend this courtesy. \u00a0 It’s perfectly lawful for the officer to make the arrest and haul you to jail if the warrant is valid. \u00a0 The same situation often leads to a new case for driving on a suspended license and a trip to the impound yard for your car, but lucky for Matt Barnes, he was on foot.<\/p>\n

So how did things get even worse for Matt Barnes? \u00a0I’m going to have to guess again since I wasn’t there, but he likely failed something known as the “attitude test” at the time of his arrest. \u00a0 In over 12 years of practicing criminal defense and traffic law, I talk to uniformed police officers in court almost every day<\/a>. \u00a0 Without fail, the most common explanation I hear from officers when they need to make a judgment call is “he failed the attitude test”. \u00a0 \u00a0Let’s assume the officer from Manhattan Beach PD told Matt Barnes he had a warrant and he was going in. \u00a0 Matt could have remained calm and cooperative, and he likely would have been released on his own recognizance in a few hours. \u00a0 LA jails are so crowded that minor offenders are often released with a date to appear in court even after they have been picked up on a valid active warrant. \u00a0 Instead, I’m going to guess that Matt either tried to use his celebrity or status to get a favor from the officer and officer didn’t like this, or worse yet, Barnes may have let his anger at the situation come out as anger at the cop. \u00a0 Oops, that will be an extra $25,000 in bail money and a felony arrest on your RAP sheet.<\/p>\n

So what happens next? \u00a0Will Barnes actually be prosecuted for the felony? Will the DA reject the case? Will it be charged as a misdemeanor? \u00a0Only time will tell. \u00a0 I’m guessing the end result will ultimately be based on two things.<\/p>\n

Number 1-What actually happened last night? \u00a0Was Barnes just failing the attitude test? Or did he actually use violence or make threats against the officer?<\/p>\n

Number 2-Does he pass the attitude test going forward? \u00a0 If Barnes is smart he will lawyer up immediately and have his legal team start working this thing out. \u00a0If he ignores it, it’s just gonna get worse<\/p>\n

If you have a traffic ticket with a missed court date, don’t pull a Matt Barnes. \u00a0 Get into court and fix it, or send a lawyer to clear it up for you<\/a>. \u00a0 In Barnes situation this likely started off as a problem that could have been fixed with a phone call. \u00a0 Call me anytime Matt. \u00a0800-797-8406 or email me at attorneygallagher@gmail.com \u00a0Oh and one last thing Matt, would you mind giving my number to Andrew Bynum<\/a>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Los Angeles Laker power forward Matt Barnes got hooked up yesterday by the Manhattan Beach Police Department. \u00a0Barnes has posted $51,000 in bail (that’s likely about $5k to a bail bond company for those of you keeping score at home) and he is now a free man again. \u00a0 Barnes is also currently a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,181],"tags":[33,21,6,23,250,35,9,86,47,27,28,10,29,30,32],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california-criminal-law-blog","category-california-traffic-ticket-blog","category-celebrity-law-blog","tag-40509-5-holds","tag-cops","tag-criminal-law","tag-dmv","tag-driving-without-a-license","tag-failure-to-appear","tag-lawyer","tag-misdemeanor","tag-news-coverage","tag-suspended-license","tag-tickets","tag-traffic-court","tag-traffic-ticket","tag-traffic-tickets","tag-vehicle-code"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5557,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions\/5557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}