A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over a Lake Worth Beach woman on February 11 and cited her for using a wireless device while driving. The infraction: holding a phone in her “right hand” while traveling northbound on North Dixie Highway.
She doesn’t have a right hand.
The woman — who posts as @slightlyoff.balance on TikTok — recorded the traffic stop and pushed back immediately. The deputy doubled down. She posted the video online. It went viral. She requested the body camera footage and says she’s fighting the $116 Florida distracted driving ticket in court.
Good.
Because, according to attorneys who reviewed the citation, it wouldn’t hold up even if she had two hands — and the real cost of just paying it would’ve been closer to $1,200 over three years.
What the Law Actually Says (And What Officers Think It Says)
Florida Statute 316.305(3)(a) doesn’t ban holding a phone while driving. It bans manually typing or entering letters, numbers, or symbols into a device — and only in school zones and active work zones outside of those areas.
Attorney Ted Hollander from the Ticket Clinic told CBS12 that neither the school zone nor the construction zone box was checked on this citation. “Whether she’s holding it in her right hand or her left hand, it really doesn’t matter,” he said. “If you are not in a school zone or a construction zone, you are allowed to hold a cell phone.”
Attorney Donahue called the statute “really explicit” and noted that texting-while-driving citations are rare in Palm Beach County — in part because they’re nearly impossible for officers to prove.
Then Hollander said the quiet part out loud: “A lot of times people pay tickets that shouldn’t be paid, and this could have been one of those examples. But luckily, this lady seems to be standing up for herself.”
Most people don’t.
The $116 Fine Is Just the Cover Charge
The ticket says $116. The actual bill runs closer to $1,200 — and it comes due over the next three years through insurance premium increases that most drivers never see coming.
An analysis by The Zebra found that a distracted driving violation raises premiums by an average of 23%, or roughly $357 per year. Since insurers typically hold the penalty for about three years, a single ticket costs more than $1,071 in additional insurance alone — on top of the original fine.
Insurance.com’s data shows an even steeper hit: a 28% average increase. Nationwide policyholders, for example, see their annual premiums jump from approximately $1,548 to $2,119 — a 37% increase — after a texting violation.
California drivers face a 51% premium hike after a distracted driving ticket — more than $1,235 per year. New York drivers? Just 11%.
The range is wide. The pattern is consistent. Pay the ticket, eat the premium increase, never connect the two.
Why Traffic Ticket Attorneys Cost Less Than Compliance
Traffic ticket attorneys typically charge $200 to $500 for a standard case. That’s a fraction of the three-year insurance hit that follows a conviction.
A lawyer can try to negotiate a moving violation down to a non-moving one — or get it dismissed entirely — keeping both points and the premium spike off your record. The math isn’t subtle: spend $300 now or spend $1,200 over three years.
Most people still just pay.
Florida’s Distracted Driving Problem — And the Law That Almost Passed
A crash occurs every 44 seconds in Florida. One in seven involves a distracted driver. Preliminary data for 2024 shows that nearly 300 people died and over 2,200 suffered serious bodily injuries due to distracted driving in the state.
Nationally, 3,275 people were killed in distracted-driving crashes in 2023, with an estimated 324,819 injured. NHTSA pegged the economic cost at $98 billion annually — or $395 billion when quality-of-life losses are factored in.
Florida’s current penalties are among the most lenient in the country. A first texting offense carries a $30 base fine — a non-moving violation with no license points. A second offense within five years bumps to $60 with three points. Court costs push the total higher (which is how this woman was charged $116), but compared to states like Oregon, where first offenses can reach $1,000, Florida’s penalties are light.
In the 2025 legislative session, SB 1318 — the “Florida Hands-Free Driving Law” — passed unanimously through multiple Senate committees. It would have banned all handheld device use while driving statewide, not just in school and work zones. The bill died when its House companion failed to advance.
More than 30 states already have similar laws on the books. Advocates expect Florida legislators to revive the effort.
What Attorneys Say You Should Actually Do
Attorney Donahue offered a warning that cuts both ways: “You don’t want to be in a position where you have to prove your innocence. Although the law is not that strict, you really need to treat it almost like it is.”
Translation: don’t assume the officer knows the statute better than you do — but also don’t assume you’ll win just because you’re right.
The woman in Lake Worth Beach says she’s going to fight hers. Given what the attorneys say about this particular citation — and what a conviction could cost her over the next three years — it’s hard to argue with that.
For anyone weighing whether to contest a Florida distracted driving ticket, the fine on the citation is almost always the cheapest part. Between insurance premium increases, potential license points, and the downstream effects on employment and driving records, a single distracted driving ticket can quietly run into the thousands.
The instinct to just pay and move on is understandable. The math says otherwise.
Source: Yahooo Finance