The questions you should ask yourself when you type “traffic lawyer near me” into your search engine are what do you mean by “near me,” and does location even matter. The location should be a secondary consideration when you are trying to hire a lawyer to fix a speeding ticket or any other traffic matter. If by “near me” you mean in the St. Louis area, you are on the right track. Most traffic lawyers will handle tickets in the entire metro area and sometimes a little further out. Of course, the river is a big dividing line; some attornies will work both sides and some will not. Traffic law is substantially different in Missouri and Illinois, so it might be best to hire someone on your side of the river. 

Instead of proximity, you should be looking for price and effectiveness. Hiring a lawyer just because they are close to you doesn't make much sense. If you can get a reasonable price from a lawyer you are comfortable with, it shouldn't matter if they are 1 mile away or 20.

Price 

When it comes to minor traffic tickets, price is king. Unfortunately, much of what you see on the internet is designed to capitalize on this. Some companies have built marketing campaigns around extremely low prices, but it appears that those prices are seldom, if ever, the price given when you call them. Do yourself and others a favor: if a company lures you in with a low price that they don't honor, do not reward that behavior. Give your business to someone with a more honest approach. 

Effectiveness

Effectiveness is hard to judge, and may not even be an important consideration with minor traffic issues. If you have, let's say, a 15 mile per hour over speeding ticket, most lawyers are going to get you the same result. Location is not very important with this kind of ticket. Any lawyer in the area, and maybe even the state, can take care of a minor traffic ticket where you are. 

 When you have a more complicated issue, you need to be careful to hire someone you feel confident in. Here at Beerup Law, we handle a lot of high-speed tickets and cases where clients have holds and warrants from multiple jurisdictions. These cases are not easy and require knowledge and experience.

When you talk to a lawyer about one of these more serious traffic issues, make sure they are able to clearly explain what they are going to do to fix it, and what you will need to do to make it happen. This clear communication and trust should always take precedent over location. The lawyer's ability to handle the complications of a case like this is far more important than how close they are to you.