If you drive for a living, the rules are different — harsher, federal, and unforgiving. A ticket an ordinary driver could shrug off can disqualify a commercial driver from the only license that pays the mortgage. If you hold a CDL and picked up a citation in Carteret County, do not pay it, and do not handle it the way your cousin handled his.
“Serious traffic violations” stack against you
Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-17.4 and the federal rules behind it, offenses like speeding 15 or more mph over the limit, reckless driving, and following too closely are classified as serious traffic violations for CDL holders. Stack two of them within three years and you face a mandatory disqualification; a third brings a longer one — the exact lengths are set by the federal rules, and we’ll tell you precisely what your record exposes you to before you decide anything. For a company driver, a disqualification letter and a termination letter are often the same piece of paper.
And the one-year rules are harsher still: a first DWI conviction disqualifies a CDL holder for a year — even if it happened in your personal vehicle (§ 20-17.4(a)(1)).
Why the usual tricks don’t work for CDL holders
Federal law prohibits states from “masking” a CDL holder’s traffic convictions — which means the escape hatches ordinary drivers use are largely closed to you. A prayer for judgment continued generally will not protect a commercial license. What remains is the harder, better path: challenging the charge itself, or negotiating it down before conviction to an offense that doesn’t count against your CDL. That is plea strategy, it has to happen early, and it is exactly the work we do in the Beaufort courthouse.
Highway 70 is a working road
Carteret County isn’t just beach traffic — it’s the port at Morehead City, seafood haulers, and every box truck running Highway 70. We’ve represented working drivers for more than seventeen years, and we treat a CDL case with the urgency it deserves: your license is your livelihood, and the margin for error is zero.
Fees
CDL cases take more care than ordinary tickets, and the fee reflects the stakes — we quote a flat fee for your specific situation up front, before you commit. In most cases it is a fraction of one lost paycheck.
Call 252-728-1373 or send us the citation before your court date — and before you talk to your employer, talk to us.