Registration renewal form for NJ not received and I was ticketed for exp registration

[Dirk Gently]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Jersey

In early September I was pulled over by the police and while the officer was prepping to approach my car, I got my license, registration and insurance card ready for him. The officer did not tell me why he pulled me over...When he came to the drivers side door, I just volunteered "Would you like to see my license and registration?" He replied to the affirmative and took the documents and said..."and you registration is current?" I said, "Absolutely!"...(not knowing it had actually expired.) He wrote me a ticket for expired registration.

I have two questions:

1). I did not receive a registration renewal notice in the mail or I would have acted on it. According to the NJ MVC website, under Registration, the MVC sends out renewal notices enabling car owners to register on line, by phone, by mail or in person. In my case, however, I did not receive this renewal notice and I wish to use this as an argument in my defense to get the fine over turned. Would this argument hold up?
2). How did this police officer know to pull me over? He came up from behind me...In NJ, there are no stickers on the license plate displaying the month and year of the registration renewal deadline (ex: CA). What possessed him to run my plates? I did not ask him this at the time as I did not wish to be viewed as argumentative. Does there need to be a specific reason for an officer to run plates?

I am going before a judge tomorrow and I am wondering if anyone would care to help me craft a winning argument to have the fee and the ticket (which I think does not have points) over-turned.

Thank you all! Dirk

[The Occultist]

The courts will generally not accept the defense that you did not receive a renewal notice.

Is your address with the DMV current? If not, that's your fault.

If otherwise, I'm not sure what to tell you except that registration renewal occurs at the same time every year, so there's not truly an excuse for now knowing when you needed to renew your registration.

As far as running your plates, officers are generally allowed to run random plates for any reason or no reason at all as long, of course, as it's not for any personal reasons (e.g. to get the phone number of the hot blond driving in the vehicle over there).

[patstew]

Originally Posted by Dirk Gently

1). I did not receive a registration renewal notice in the mail or I would have acted on it.

Do you register your vehicle in your birth month? Dunno how you could forget about that.

2). How did this police officer know to pull me over?

I'm guessing by the expired registration sticker on your plate.

[The Occultist]

Originally Posted by patstew

I'm guessing by the expired registration sticker on your plate.

Haha, the OP stated in his post that in NJ they don't wear tags on their plates