Parking ticket - contesting it because of incorrect date on citation

[AZjeff]

This whole thing is on you. Man up, accept responsibility, deal with it and move on. Don't repeat. JMHO sorry.

 

[y_p_w]

CA registration isn't cheap. It paid $650 this year to renew the registration on my car. But if you fight it due to the date on the ticket, the judge/DA may still ask for proof of registration as evidence during that time for June to present, and may stick you with a bigger fine if you fight it.

If it was a simple mistake as "forgot to put the new year sticker", then the judge/DA would probably overlook it, and still charge you miscellaneous court fees, since registration was current at that time.

The information I have states that there is no penalty for contesting. And it looks like I can pay it off at any time. But yeah I'm looking at some hypertechnical rationale for somehow dismissing it. Other than that, yeah I get that I'm taking my chances by not getting the registration taken care of immediately.

 

[nomas]

All of this over a parking ticket that you admit is legitimate .. I hope you go to Court and the Bailiff Tases you .

 

[2005jettatdi]

I've gotten exactly one traffic ticket in my life. Officer claimed that I ran a red light but I felt that I entered on yellow. I had to go twice to traffic court. The first time was to get a court date, and the second was the scheduled court date. I showed up (wearing a tied) and the officer didn't. It was dismissed on the spot because of that. But I was prepared to argue that it was yellow when I entered.

In California, if the officer does not show up for your hearing the case is dismissed. In Washington, if you subpoena the officer and he does not show up the case is dismissed. Since Arizona says you must be able to question the person making the accusation against you, I assume if the cop does not show up it will be dismissed.

I have been pulled over for speeding twice in my life, both in early 2016. In both cases I pulled over promptly, I was polite and I did not admit guilt. Both officers gave me warnings.

 

[Eddie]

Don't cheap out on your responsibility. Support your local economy. You try to screw the local police with a technicality. Good luck with that in the long term.

 

[Dave Hess]

I wouldn’t waste my time in court, plus paying for parking, etc… on this ticket.

 

[dishdude]

What's your excuse? It's one of the easiest things to take care of.

He had the date wrong

 

[dnewton3]

So in summary ... let's see if I have this right ...

The OP received a citation for not having current vehicle registration, after knowingly failing to get it renewed.
The citation had an incorrect date on the citation, and the OP is hoping he can use the officer's mistake to get him out of the citation.
But it may cost more to go through the appeal process than just pay the fine.

My position is this; pay the fine because you KNEW you were in the wrong.


This is why I try to avoid social media, but BITOG has become a surrogate for FarceBook, Insta-crap, and Twits.

 

[y_p_w]

But it may cost more to go through the appeal process than just pay the fine.

That's a no. If they don't just toss it I pay what I would have paid previously.

 

[y_p_w]

Update. I just checked online and the update is:

Status​

08/09/22: Violation Dismissal​

If I click on the appeal citation box I see the following:

This citation is currently closed.

So I'm going to take care of the registration.

 

[PandaBear]

What I learned is clerical error will not get you dismissed or your original violation, but it is all about economy of what the court want to handle and what returns they are getting for their efforts.

They will obviously fight those serious cases like drunk driving first. I have a friend who got a seat belt ticket for inside mall parking lot and he was pissed off enought to fight it. He waited the whole day till the court closed and the prosecutor ended up telling him they will just drop it. So yeah he won but he lost a day.

 

[LDB]

It's sad so many people want to avoid and shirk responsibility for things they are clearly responsible for. A very sad condition more and more prevalent as society shifts more and more away from values.

 

[CKN]

I said in the third post his position is non sensical...and he said he would "fix" what was wrong at a later date. His position is still silly and immature.

 

[y_p_w]

Tough crowd. However, I just wanted to ask a question and then relay the outcome. Turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I probably spent more time discussing it here than I did on contesting the citation.

 

[AZjeff]

Tough crowd.

Nah. For the most part a crowd with a sense of personal responsibility. Do it, own it. Might be generational.

 

[JWC86]

I went into court with a speeding ticket with autrocious handwriting. We had time before seeing the judge to try to work things out. The prosecutor man-splained to me that the ticket was just my invitation to come to court where the cop would explain what really happened.

I was by that time embarrassed with myself and just plead guilty, paid the fine, and left.

The rumor that you can "get off" by pointing out bad handwriting is only repeated by "outhouse lawyers."

I know what it’s like in the moment so I don’t blame you but this is the prosecutors job, and they are good at it.

If you would have went before the judge you would have been better off and probably got the ticket thrown out.

Only reason I know this is because my wife works in the legal system and sees this all the time. I fought 3 tickets over the last 20 years and all 3 were thrown out but if I would have listened to the prosecutor you would have thought I didn’t have a chance.

Basically prosecutors are Bullies.

 

[PandaBear]

I know what it’s like in the moment so I don’t blame you but this is the prosecutors job, and they are good at it.

If you would have went before the judge you would have been better off and probably got the ticket thrown out.

Only reason I know this is because my wife works in the legal system and sees this all the time. I fought 3 tickets over the last 20 years and all 3 were thrown out but if I would have listened to the prosecutor you would have thought I didn’t have a chance.

Basically prosecutors are Bullies.

I wouldn't call them bullies. They are hired to do the job and they are doing the jobs.

Once I got a speeding ticket in Florida, and unlike California they do not have a "traffic school" system so I cannot just send in the fine and go to traffic school in Florida, and it would raise the insurance premium by quite a bit. Not sure how Floridians do it so I ended up looking for an online attorney to "represent me", and he pretty much said they trade court representation between other lawyers to always be there representing each other's clients, and he said since it is just a speeding as long as I'll be paying the fine the court would be happy to toss it out (a fine turn into a "court fee"), so win or lose they will get their money. Yup, that's what happen in the end.

If it is in California I'd rather go to traffic school than support the lawyers for something like this, and it is pretty much a system you will pay one way or the other and it is not worth fighting over if you have any value in your time, as long as it doesn't increase your insurance cost (the real killer).

 

[PandaBear]

If the officer says the date is correct and it's your word against his, good luck. It doesn't involve points on your record, add your time and gas to appear in traffic court, what have you gained?

Usually, those "citations" have serial numbers and if the ones before and after are correct it is obvious which one is wrong.

 

[CKN]

I know what it’s like in the moment so I don’t blame you but this is the prosecutors job, and they are good at it.

If you would have went before the judge you would have been better off and probably got the ticket thrown out.

Only reason I know this is because my wife works in the legal system and sees this all the time. I fought 3 tickets over the last 20 years and all 3 were thrown out but if I would have listened to the prosecutor you would have thought I didn’t have a chance.

Basically prosecutors are Bullies.

Just out of curiosity? What is someone who knowing drives around with an expired registration? Gets caught and then still doesn't want to pay it at that point in time? Got a name for that?

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I don't even have to show up anywhere since I can send a message along with attachments. It scanned the citation which clearly shows that the month was wrong. I didn't admit to anything but stated that the vehicle was not there on the date written on the ticket. If it doesn't work they can't make me pay any more for contesting it. And I will eventually fix the problem.

You admit your vehicle has a problem. Why don't you just pay the fine and move on? It's not the end of the world.