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Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

How to Fix a Ticket in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (CN) - Two Las Vegas law offices are fighting in court over rights to use "The Ticket Fixer" trademark.

Kenneth G. Frizzell III claims his law office owns The Ticket Fixer trademark, which the Law Office of Janice E. Smith is infringing on TheTicketFixer.com website.

In his federal complaint, Frizzell claims he registered the trademark in 2008, and uses it in his law office's website domain name, The-Ticket-Fixer.com.

Frizzell claims on his website: "The Ticket Fixer of Las Vegas, NV is the first and foremost Traffic Ticket law firm in the State of Nevada. Our law office resolves thousands of traffic ticket related issues every year for Las Vegas residents and tourists alike. As a law firm, The Ticket Fixer will work to ensure that no demerit points are placed on their driving record and we will eliminate the need for traffic school. In almost all cases clients will not even be required to appear in court."

Frizzell claims that Smith started using the mark in May to promote her ticket-fixing services. Smith's website uses language nearly identical to Frizzell's: "TheTicketFixer.com of Las Vegas NV is the first and foremost Traffic Ticket law firm in the State of Nevada. Our law office resolves thousands of traffic ticket related issues every year for Las Vegas residents and tourists alike. As a lawfirm [sic] TheTicketFixer.com will work to ensure that no demerit points are placed on their driving record and we will eliminate the need for traffic school. In almost all cases clients will not even be required to appear in court."

Dozens of law offices in Clark County advertise ticket-fixing services. A county judge told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that hundreds of thousands of traffic tickets are written in and around Las Vegas every year.

"If you're a good driver and this is your first speeding ticket in 10 years, I don't have any heartburn over giving you a parking ticket," Chief Justice of the Peace Ann E. Zimmerman told the Review-Journal in June 2010. "The county is still receiving its revenues, because we collect a lot of revenue over the year. If everyone wanted to have a traffic trial, I don't know how that would be possible."

Las Vegas law offices that fix traffic tickets generally charge between $50 and $100 for it, but an attorney is not required to fix a traffic ticket.

One Las Vegas resident told Courthouse News he paid an attorney $50 to fix a ticket for running a red light. The attorney got the $300 moving violation reduced to a $225 parking offense.

Two years later, the same driver says, he got another ticket, for not coming to a complete stop. Without an attorney, he requested a pretrial hearing, which came several months later. At the hearing, an assistant district attorney offered to reduce the ticket to a parking violation with a $145 fine, but he refused.

Virtually all of the dozens of other people attending pretrial hearings that day were offered the same $145 settlement, with violations reduced to parking tickets.

Courthouse News' doughty informant refused to pay the $145, and demanded a court date, which was set for 364 days from the date of the citation. That day, the prosecutor offered to reduce the fine to a $65 parking violation, which he refused. The charge was dismissed.

Then he got a third ticket lane-splitting on a motorcycle. Acknowledging his guilt, the man asked for a pretrial hearing, at which an assistant district attorney offered to reduce the mover to a parking violation and a $65 fine, which he accepted.

Frizzell seeks injunctive relief, payment of profits derived from using the mark, and damages for trademark infringement, cybersquatting and unfair competition. He represents himself.

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