Should I enter PTIT at the City of Atlanta Municipal Court?

The City of Atlanta Municipal Court has a unique method to resolve certain traffic tickets called PTIT (Pre-Trial Intervention – Traffic) program. PTIT is an alternative to a typical plea of guilty, not guilty or Nolo to a traffic ticket that is exclusive to the City of Atlanta Municipal Court. The City of Atlanta Municipal Court PTIT program can be used one every twelve months allows an individual to have their case dismissed after completing the terms of the program. The terms of the PTIT program typically consists only of a “participation fee” (fine). However, in more serious traffic infractions, the PTIT terms may also include defensive driving. An additional benefit to the PTIT program is the fact that the “participation fee” is generally lower than the fine would have been had you plead guilty to your traffic ticket.

When individuals who are not represented by a traffic lawyer hear of these benefits, they typically enroll in the program. However, depending on your traffic offense, it may not be in your best interest to enroll in the PTIT program. The main reason that you would not want to enroll in the PTIT program is if your traffic ticket is not a moving violation. Non-moving violations do not show up on your driving history. Therefore, because you can only use the City of Atlanta PTIT program once every year, you would not want to use PTIT to have a citation dismissed that will not appear on your driving history if your plead guilty to the original traffic ticket.

One exception to the above is individuals who receive a traffic ticket on an out of state driver’s license. Typically, when an out of state driver receives a citation in the State of Georgia, Georgia reports the end result of the traffic ticket back to the issuing state – regardless if that traffic ticket would have reported in the State of Georgia. Therefore, a ticket that would not report to your driving history if your have a Georgia license will likely report to your out of state license.

I recommend before entering the City of Atlanta Municipal Court PTIT that you contact a traffic lawyer to discuss the specifics of your situation and your traffic ticket. You can call me, an Atlanta traffic lawyer, directly for a free consultation at 678-988-1199.