Client was driving down I-495 in heavy traffic (rush hour).  As usual in rush hour people were moving in and out of traffic as lanes opened up and then got congested again.  This resulted in the need for consistent hard-braking as people in front of our client kept doing hard stops.  Unfortunately, on one occassion, our client could not stop in time and struck the person in front of them resulting in a fender bender.  There were no injuries and minor vehicular damage.

A nearby State Trooper worked the accident.  Since our client was the following vehicle they were charged with Following Too Closely and issued a ticket.  There were no other issues involved.  These charges are difficult because it's usually the following vehicle that gets cited.

Because Following Too Close is a 4-point offense pursuant to the DMV's guidelines our client wanted to minimize the ticket as much as possible so we had them take a defensive driving course to use in conjunction with their good driving record.  We appeared for court on their behalf (so they could go to work) and discussed the case with the State Trooper who didn't have any heartache over the case.  We put the case before the Judge and made a motion to amend the charge to reflect Defective Equipment which the Judge accepted.  Defective Equipment is a no-point non-moving offense for DMV purposes.  This will save our client points on their driving record and avoided them needing to come to court.