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Seat Belts Tickets: Officer Observation and Testimony is Enough

by Seth Azria on 1/02/2024

To be pulled over, it is enough for a police officer to observe the driver or passenger not wearing a seat belt. People v. Smith, 158 A.D.3d 1081 (4th Dep't 2018).

To be convicted of the seat belt charge, it is enough for the officer to testify that he saw the driver or passenger fail to wear a seat belt. Of, course the driver will testify that he was wearing a seat belt. This creates and issue of credibility for the judge to decide. In Whitten the judge decided in officer’s favor and convicted the driver. Whitten v. Martinez, 24 A.D.3d 285 (1st Dep't 2005).

However, a person wearing belt, under the arm rather than over the shoulder is "restrained" and therefore permissible within the meaning of the law. People v. Locke, 1 Misc. 3d 482, 765 N.Y.S.2d 468 (City Ct. 2003).

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As mentioned in many of the other reviews. Seth and Monica spelled out what should happen and it did. Ticket for my daughter from our of state was reduced to nonmoving violation. She was visiting colleges in NY, as she only has her permit a moving violation would have resulted in, a loss of her license for 3 months, driving school, and fines etc... 
I had no referral, just read the reviews and crossed my fingers. The price was affordable, they were very responsive, I could not be happier. Wished I had used him a couple of years ago when I got a ticket in NYC that I made the very expensive mistake of trying to defend myself...

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Seth Azria is a brilliant traffic attorney. I had a near perfect driving record for nearly 38 years and then got two speeding tickets on Route 17. He did a superb job for handling both tickets and getting me just a small five an no points on each tickets. Highly professional, excellent service and great results!!!

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Mr. Azria was excellent, fast and very courteous handling my case for a speeding violation upstate. And most importantly he was very successful lowering my fine and reducing my charge. Highly recommend.

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David and his office did a great job in getting two speeding violations both over 25 reduced. They are very professional and although they make no guarantees after speaking with David I was confident a reduction was possible. 
David's assistant Shannon did a great job keeping me up to date during the process. 
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