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lothar56 · Mar 16, 2006, 02:27 AM

I was coming home from the mechanic today when I stopped in my neighbor's driveway to put her blown-over trash can back where it belongs. Along comes our local small town cop, turns out my tags are expired, by 10 months. I also didn't have current proof of insurance with me, but I assured him I was covered (I am) but I still ended up with a $70 ticket. Now my permanent address is here in town but I live at college, so any registration forms would have come to my house. My dad is VERY anal about cars and finances so I know there is NO way it would have slipped past him, so apparently we did not receive a renewal notice for my car, but we did for the other four (mine is titled seperately me to me, the others are to my dad).
Do I have any grounds for arguement that they didn't send me a renewal form, or do I just have to suck it up and pay the $70?

mduell · Mar 16, 2006, 03:10 AM

It's your repsonsibility to keep registration on your car current, not their responsibility to mail you the form (consider it a courtesy). When your registration expired and you hadn't received a new form, you should have gone to the DMV (insert local equivalent initialism as necessary) office.

Recontech · Mar 16, 2006, 03:17 AM

As a police officer I can tell you really the best thing you can do is go in, see the solicitor in charge of your case, and say "Look, I know I'm in the wrong, and I appreciate the officer pointing this out to me...however I am a college student, is there any way I can have this lowered to $40 or so?"

Most of the time, that works if you are sincere about it and have a clean driving history.

Good luck.

lothar56 · Mar 16, 2006, 02:45 PM

Yeah, I really should have done it myself but this would have been the first time I would have had to renew a registration, so it's not really the first thing on my mind most days.
Thanks, for the info, I'll head over to the courthouse and try that.

Recontech · Mar 16, 2006, 02:47 PM

Oh, one more thing...fix as much as you can with your license and registration before you go there. SO you can go there and say "I've taken care of it all already" good luck.

ghporter · Mar 16, 2006, 03:50 PM

What the nice officer said. Really. And particularly point out where you live versus where your car is registered, as this has a bearing on lost mail, etc. Showing up with a current registration, proof of insurance, a positive attitude, and a willingness to "make things right" will go a LONG way.

ort888 · Mar 16, 2006, 04:28 PM

This happened to me. Them not mailing you a reminder is not an valid excuse. I didn't realize I had expired tags until I got pulled over for it. The cop was not very sympathetic and no one at the courthouse cared that I never got a reminder. Ultimately it is your job to stay on top of it. You are probably just going to have to pay it.

olePigeon · Mar 16, 2006, 05:08 PM

I got a speeding ticket for doing 70 in a 65. Under any light I could've argued it easily, there's even statute in California law that if it's within +/- 5 mph that it's technically within limits. The problem is that we have this thing called "Zero Tollerance" which happens randomly on random highways, but usually after holidays.

If there's a special condition attached to the ticket, I can't argue it. So I got a $274 speeding ticket (maximum penalty because of Zero Tollerance) for doing 70 in a 65 zone. I've kept the ticket ever since, makes a decent conversation peace. No one ever believes me until I show them the ticket. $274. 5 over.

So if you see a blue Toyota pickup actually doing 65, that's me. I'm so god damn paranoid now.

andi*pandi · Mar 16, 2006, 05:16 PM

well that's messed up. $274!!!

krillbee · Mar 16, 2006, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

well that's messed up. $274!!!

agreed

any officer who pulls someone over under 'zero tolerance' and forces someone to pay that much for only going 5 over, is a sickening sad excuse for a human being.
police officers like that are a waste of human life.

Rolling Bones · Mar 16, 2006, 05:52 PM

That cop does not like stupid white people.

turtle777 · Mar 17, 2006, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

I got a speeding ticket for doing 70 in a 65. So I got a $274 speeding ticket (maximum penalty because of Zero Tollerance) for doing 70 in a 65 zone.

Wow

-t

lothar56 · Mar 17, 2006, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

$274. 5 over.

What's kind of funny is that I've gotten a ticket in Iowa for 41 over (in a 55) and my ticket was $123. But I did lose my license for 7 months...Iowa has since raised their fines, so it wouldn't be that easy now. But thanks to everyone for the replies, I'll see what I can do.

lothar56 · Mar 18, 2006, 03:29 PM

So here's what I found out from visiting the courthouse. Because of the aforementioned loss of license, I had to bring in proof of insurance and a letter from the DOT when I first got license plates for my car (I got my license back in March of '04, I bought my car in August of '04). My plates were technically suspended until I brought those documents in, then I was able to legally register my car and get plates. I went in yesterday to first renew my registration, when the woman told me I was not in the system. She did some further checking and found that my plates were still suspended, apparently they didn't "authorize" them or whatever back when I got my plates, a year and a half ago. Luckily, I've only been pulled over once since then, and that was right after getting the plates, I remember the officer saying something about the plates not being valid yet but he thought that was just because I had just gotten them. So I've been driving for a year and a half on suspended plates, and I never received any type of renewal because as far as the state is concerned I had no plates. So I had to get all new license plates, and I had to pay a full year of registration ($35) plus a $16 fine for not registering on time. So now I don't have any money left so I'll have to wait until my tax refund comes in to talk to them about the ticket, but I think I have grounds for dropping it down a bit, right?

ghporter · Mar 18, 2006, 10:33 PM

Lothar, your extra registration and fine don't add up to my normal registration. Plus you apparently have a full year's worth of registration now, and that's a plus.

I think the real sticking point is going to be why the state never "authorized" your original plates. Since they gave you the plates, you should have had every expectation that they were valid, and that the state would properly list them so you wouldn't get pulled over because of the plates. In other words, you acted in good faith but the DOT fell down on the job. It sounds to me as if you didn't get the year of registration you paid for because they didn't enter your new plates into their system properly, and as you didn't know any better, (and you were noticably NOT pulled over a lot in the intervening time, demonstrating your good citizenship), you figured you'd get a reminder. If they can forget to enter a new set of plates, what other "oopses" can they accidentally cause?

lothar56 · Mar 19, 2006, 12:05 AM

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Except I paid for a full year's registration plus the fine, but I still have to renew (and pay another full year) this coming May. My registration is so cheap because I'm driving a '96. My dad doesn't have it so easy, with a '99, a '01, and an '03.

DigitalEl · Mar 19, 2006, 11:23 AM

Do I have any grounds for arguement that they didn't send me a renewal form, or do I just have to suck it up and pay the $70?

In Arizona, you'd have had your vehicle impounded for 30 days. As someone pointed out, it's your responsibility to have your tags, proof of insurance, etc up-to-date and at the ready.

I got a speeding ticket for doing 70 in a 65.

Many of the officers I work with would write you a ticket for 70 in a 65 even though you were going 80 or more... So as not to jam you up. I myself have been stopped doing, I believe, about 70 in a 55 (I-79 in Pennsylvania). The State Police trooper only wrote me for 60. I got the message and still had to pay a fine, but didn't get a crazy fine or excessive points on my license. The guy gave me a break.