Daniel V. Cota & Associates, PC

A few years ago I was pulling out of a Raplh’s in LaCanada and didn’t notice that my daughter (14 at the time) was still fastening her seat belt. Before I even made it out of the parking lot, one of the local motorcycle cops was on the scene trying to shake me down for a few hundred dollars for a seat belt violation– the price is higher if the violator is under 18. I was unhappy, and meant to go to court to fight it, but somehow managed to forget about setting a date. Fast forward 4 years, and my drivers license is set to expire. Along with my renewal letter, is a note that I can’t renew until I take care of what has now become a «failure to appear». You guessed it, the seat belt violation has now snowballed into a bench warrant and potentially a couple thousand dollars.
My employer benefits include the Hyatt Legal Plan, a prepaid legal service that I signed up for but had never used. I thumbed through the lawyers offered. A couple were traffic attorneys, but from what I could find in the way of reviews it seemed like they probably negotiated all their cases for some middle ground settlement. I don’t know why I chose Daniel Cota to represent me, but I am sure glad I did. From the first call he communicated with me personally. First, he managed to get a court date set (which was not a given when a ticket is as old as mine) which removed the failure to appear from my DMV record so I could renew my license before it expired.
As the court date approached, I dreaded the outcome because I still expected to have to pay out some major cash before this was all done. Mr. Cota told me that he would do what he could to fight for me, but even he thought I was going to end up owing $ 500 or so because of the failure to appear. Imagine my relief when he called me to tell me that the entire matter had been dismissed! I was stunned, and delighted.
I just had to come onto Unilocal to sing his praises! Unlike the «ticket clinic» type lawyers, he actually defended me instead of just bargaining. I never had to go to court, and I ended up with no points, and no penalties! I highly recommend Mr. Cota. I can’t say he will always get this great of an outcome for his clients, but I can say from experience that he will sincerely try to win his case… Which is more than you get from those «ticket clinic» attorneys!