By Gabrielle Orum Hernández, From Daily Report

Throughout his career as a criminal defense attorney, Michael LaScala often found himself waiting around in courthouses, twiddling his thumbs and wondering how he might be able to put to use all the time he spent waiting.

This is how LaScala came up with the idea for Atticus, a new app intended to connect criminal defense attorneys to clients in immediate need of assistance with low-level traffic citations, such as speeding or reckless driving violations, for a $249 flat fee.

Atticus allows users to solicit both same-day and future legal help by taking photos of traffic citations and inputting basic information like court dates, personal information and payment. This information is then sent to a register of vetted criminal defense attorneys close to the courthouse who can then offer assistance.

When attorneys accept a case, users are given updates about the times attorneys check in and out of court. Following hearings, attorneys are prompted to enter the final fine amount and submit a photo of the final disposition. The app also offers an option for attorneys and users to mutually agree to have the representative attorney pay the fine at the courthouse and pull the fine amount from the user’s account so that attorneys can be compensated immediately.

Atticus CEO Jabari Moore says the app is intended to help individuals mitigate the consequences that traffic citations can have, many of which people don’t realize until it’s too late.

“It definitely pays to fight your ticket. There’s a high success rate and likelihood of a positive outcome. Not having the points on your license is the biggest advantage because those points are a killer,” Moore said.

Moore said that points on a license caused by small traffic citations can cause an average of 22 percent increase in insurance premiums, which can add up to thousands of extra dollars spent insuring drivers.

“Some people don’t even think about the insurance cost,” Moore said. Atticus’ flat fee structure allows users to hire attorneys for a one-time fee and head off a multitude of future increases in insurance premiums, netting far greater possible savings.

LaScala said in a statement that he’s seen plenty of clients hit with unintended consequences. “I’ve seen it time and again; clients call me after the fact and didn’t realize the collateral consequences at the time of the plea.”

Atticus caters to the public’s ignorance of these consequences by offering users the option to put out an immediate request for attorney representation, which notifies all vetted attorneys in the immediate area of the courthouse. In these cases, an attorney who may be nearby, or even sitting around in a different part of the courthouse, can be hired to help in a matter of minutes. The same flat fees are applied.

Similarly, for users who may rack up traffic violations in parts of the state far from their home communities, Atticus can be an access point to attorney representation in the area where citations are received.

Moore notes that Atticus benefits the attorney community just as much as potential clients because of its capacity to offer small and easily completed side work.

“For attorneys, the premise is small cases that they can handle very quickly. This is a supplemental income for them when they’re waiting for a client or just hanging around the courthouse,” Moore said.

Attorneys are paid a flat fee of $200 for every case they close.

According to Moore, LaScala came up with the pricing for the flat fee. “He thought that was a sweet spot because it’s enough for the attorney for it to still be worth their time to take the case, and on the consumer side, it’s a price that consumers are willing and able to pay.”

Atticus attracted a big first seed funder in former Atlanta Falcon wide receiver Roddy White, a friend of LaScala. According to a statement, White agreed to invest in Atticus’ initial needs for hiring, marketing, and further app development.

“Roddy and Michael have been friends for a long time. He saw the vision of the company and the business opportunity, and so he jumped on it,” Moore said of the partnership.

The app’s name evokes the famed lawyer character Atticus Finch of Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” who was known for his legal virtuosity until her recent companion book, “Go Set A Watchman” painted a more complex portrait of Finch as a segregationist and a racist. Moore said the app’s name was a direct reference to the version of Finch in the first book, and that he had not read the recent book.

While the service will initially be available only to Georgia residents, Atticus hopes to expand service into the Southeast, if the service takes off in the state. The app is still working to onboard attorneys, but expects to launch for public use later this year.

IMAGE:Jabari Moore is CEO of Atticus, which is based in Atlanta. John Disney/Daily Report

For more on this story go to: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202764241660/Atticus-Gives-Users-Legal-Support-to-Fight-Traffic-Citations?mcode=0&curindex=0&curpage=ALL