Q: Expired plate sticker, bought them a day after they expired but got 2 tickets in less than 24 hours can I contest it
I renewed the tags online on March 1st and the tags expired the last day of feb I renewed them online because I had forgotten and didn't have time to go to a western union to buy them. I then went to my car and found a ticket for expired tags, went home woke up with another ticket. Can I contest both ?
A:
Hello Asker,
That is a difficult situation to deal with. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to contest the ticket itself as your failure to affix the sticker to the plate forms the basis of the violation. They, from your description, have you dead to rights. With that said, many prosecutors are very understanding for these types of violations and it is not uncommon to see prosecutors dismiss them if you provide proof of compliance.
My recommendation would be to first request a court date on both tickets if you do not already have one. Prior to court and as soon as possible, take a photo of the license plate with the sticker in the frame of the photo showing that you did purchase a new registration. When you do come to court, show them the photo and its time stamp to verify that you purchased the sticker very recently rather than much later. If you have happen to have an online receipt for said registration purchase, I would recommend bringing that as well. In the future, I would advise going to the Secretary of State for registration renewals because the date of purchase is time stamped on the sheet when you purchase it there (as opposed to currency exchanges).
Whatever you do, just make sure you are friendly to the prosecutor. Know that they aren't trying to jam you up and the officer was just doing his or her job. If you are respectful and patient, it will go a long way towards the prosecutor being more willing to dismiss the ticket.
In this situation, I would not recommend hiring an attorney as there is a high likelihood that the ticket will be dismissed and the cost of representation is likely to exceed the value an attorney would bring. If going to court would cost you more than $120 in lost time for missing a few hours of work, I would recommend that you pay the fine of $120 as it will be cheaper and these violations in my experience are not found on driving records.
Hope that helps and let us know if you have any additional questions!
Sincerely,
Jason A. Wilkins
Traffic Attorney
(630) 445-2293
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