If you have received a letter from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles that you are being classified as a Habitual Traffic Offender (HTO), you should contact a criminal defense attorney in Broward County.   There may not be much time to act on your behalf, so time is of the essence.   In some situations, you may be able to avoid receiving this status and losing your license for five years, but you will likely need the help of a criminal defense attorney in Broward County.   The steps you may need to take include:

Request Your Driving Record 

Request a copy of your driving record.   To avoid HTO status, you will need to try to remove one or more previous offenses in your driving record.   Your criminal defense attorney will have a limited amount of time to file a motion to remove an offense, such as 30 days after the conviction of a conviction for driving while your license was suspended.

Have an Attorney Review Your Record 

Your criminal defense attorney will need to carefully review the charges against you.   He or she will need to know the type of charge, the underlying circumstances and the possible timeline to move to undo such a conviction.   One of the most common scenarios that leads to HTO status is receiving three tickets for driving while your license is suspended without knowledge.   In this type of situation, an attorney may be able to file a motion to try to vacate one or more of the previous offenses.   In other situations, your criminal defense attorney may have to file a motion to withdraw a plea.   An attorney may have to request an administrative hearing to review records when an error resulted in the HTO status.