I screwed up.

[jscwerve]

Final update on the case.

The lawyer I hired handled the informal hearing for me. All I had to do was a phone consultation with him and he took care of the rest.

My fine was reduced to $700. A far cry less than the $3000 the TSA letter initially assessed. I contacted the lawyer on Friday, the case was settled this afternoon. Not too bad considering Monday was a holiday. I'll be paying it off ASAP and will now have to continue to use the plebe line at the airport for the next three years, but it's my own fault.

It ended up better than I thought it would. Thankfully.

Just in case anyone else needs his services:

Scott Klippel
http://tsanovdefense.com/

[Gunner]

Final update on the case.

The lawyer I hired handled the informal hearing for me. All I had to do was a phone consultation with him and he took care of the rest.

My fine was reduced to $700. A far cry less than the $3000 the TSA letter initially assessed. I contacted the lawyer on Friday, the case was settled this afternoon. Not too bad considering Monday was a holiday. I'll be paying it off ASAP and will now have to continue to use the plebe line at the airport for the next three years, but it's my own fault.

It ended up better than I thought it would. Thankfully.

Just in case anyone else needs his services:

Scott Klippel
http://tsanovdefense.com/

Glad it worked out in the best way it could have!

[brutal]

Final update on the case.

The lawyer I hired handled the informal hearing for me. All I had to do was a phone consultation with him and he took care of the rest.

My fine was reduced to $700. A far cry less than the $3000 the TSA letter initially assessed. I contacted the lawyer on Friday, the case was settled this afternoon. Not too bad considering Monday was a holiday. I'll be paying it off ASAP and will now have to continue to use the plebe line at the airport for the next three years, but it's my own fault.

It ended up better than I thought it would. Thankfully.

Just in case anyone else needs his services:

Scott Klippel
http://tsanovdefense.com/

Assuming you can't pay for clear?

[jscwerve]

Assuming you can't pay for clear?

Yes, I have clear. Works well for long lines, but still have to the whole remove the shoes, jacket, laptop, etc thing. And all the non-travelers in those lines.

[68Charger]

Yes, I have clear. Works well for long lines, but still have to the whole remove the shoes, jacket, laptop, etc thing. And all the non-travelers in those lines.

I travel significantly, but not enough that I have bothered with pre-shit...

welcome to normal- it's not THAT bad, I have gotten thru Denver airport in <20min, and COS in <5min... DFW in <20min if I plan ahead (not booking prime-time flights,etc)

Come to think of it, this is more of a PSA for those that don't travel all the time...

[KevDen2005]

What was your lawyer fee?

[Irving]

What was your lawyer fee?

$2,300.

[davsel]

What was your lawyer fee?

Latest update:

I got back from another work trip yesterday to finally receive my TSA "Notice of violation" and "civil penalty" assessment. They batch send out these things at the end of every month.

As anticipated, The fine is $3000. $1500 if I pay within 30 days. There are also other options, formal hearing, informal hearing, financial hardship application, etc.

I have found an attorney that deals with TSA regularly and is quite affordable. He can't get the fine eliminated, but he guarantees he can get it down to $750. That plus his flat rate fee of $350 brings it to a total of $1100. The lawyer is formerly a chief counsel in the TSA NOV office. Before that he worked at the DOJ. I did as much research that I needed to satisfy my curiosity that he is legit and found quite a lot of info on him (mostly about him representing the TSA in court cases). His website is a bit basic, but oh well. If for some reason he is some extremely elaborate con artist that is targeting a VERY niche market of people with firearm TSA violations, I guess I'll be losing a few dollars. I sent him an email this morning for information and he called me within 5 minutes. After talking to him for a bit I feel this is the right way to go. It will save me a few hundred bucks and he takes care of all the paperwork, communication with the TSA, etc.

I will update once again next week once the case is settled as to how it goes.

[Ramsker]

I travel significantly, but not enough that I have bothered with pre-shit...

welcome to normal- it's not THAT bad, I have gotten thru Denver airport in <20min, and COS in <5min... DFW in <20min if I plan ahead (not booking prime-time flights,etc)

Come to think of it, this is more of a PSA for those that don't travel all the time...

We signed the whole family up for the Global Entry program, so we're in TSA Pre. I had been "randomly selected" for extra screening maybe twice in the decade before when going through the regular lines. I've been selected on both legs of my last trip and once on another trip before that since signing up. WTF? Wasn't that partially what the added hoops to jump through were for to get cleared for Pre?

Glad the whole thing seems to have worked out about as good as could be expected, OP.

[funkymonkey1111]

We signed the whole family up for the Global Entry program, so we're in TSA Pre. I had been "randomly selected" for extra screening maybe twice in the decade before when going through the regular lines. I've been selected on both legs of my last trip and once on another trip before that since signing up. WTF? Wasn't that partially what the added hoops to jump through were for to get cleared for Pre?

Glad the whole thing seems to have worked out about as good as could be expected, OP.

got pulled out of the orlando Pre Check line for "random" shaking down on Monday. at least the idiots at frontier have decided to join Pre Check.