$500 Red light ticket + $325 Civil Assessment Fee.. Wasn't me

[wrduc]

CA - Santa Ana

Hi All,

Here's the situation, hope someone can help. So my brother ran a red light ticket in my mother's car in Oct 2012. My mother received the RLT in her name, which obviously wasn't her. I scheduled a court date for her to fight the ticket and they sent a letter dismissing her of the chargers shortly thereafter. My mail goes to my parent's house, while I live away. Unfortunately they filed away most of the mail into a pile that I didn't get to until Thanksgiving. I noticed all the notices and the civil assessment fee and scheduled an arraignment date.

I went to court and the judge told everyone you'd have to be in the military, hospital, etc to really get out of the civil assessment, other than that he would only take your plea and leave it up to the trial to determine if we were not guilty. I gave them my not guilty plea and went out to pay the civil assessment.

Now I have no doubt I'll be found not guilty because it obviously isn't me. My question is if that's a good enough reason to vacate a civil assessment? I'm not too bitter about it, I know it was on me to take care of it.. would just be a really expensive learning experience. Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[ecmst12]

Why are you involved at all if your brother was the driver and your mom was the owner? You shouldn't be filing or scheduling anything unless you enjoy practicing law without a license.

 

[sandyclaus]

CA - Santa Ana

Hi All,

Here's the situation, hope someone can help. So my brother ran a red light ticket in my mother's car in Oct 2012. My mother received the RLT in her name, which obviously wasn't her. I scheduled a court date for her to fight the ticket and they sent a letter dismissing her of the chargers shortly thereafter. My mail goes to my parent's house, while I live away. Unfortunately they filed away most of the mail into a pile that I didn't get to until Thanksgiving. I noticed all the notices and the civil assessment fee and scheduled an arraignment date.

I went to court and the judge told everyone you'd have to be in the military, hospital, etc to really get out of the civil assessment, other than that he would only take your plea and leave it up to the trial to determine if we were not guilty. I gave them my not guilty plea and went out to pay the civil assessment.

Now I have no doubt I'll be found not guilty because it obviously isn't me. My question is if that's a good enough reason to vacate a civil assessment? I'm not too bitter about it, I know it was on me to take care of it.. would just be a really expensive learning experience. Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Why are you involved at all if your brother was the driver and your mom was the owner? You shouldn't be filing or scheduling anything unless you enjoy practicing law without a license.

Exactly! Why would you even be associated with the RLT in any way, shape, or form? Your mom owns the car, and your brother was the one who was driving and earned the ticket. And, as you said, they supposedly sent a letter to dismiss all the charges against your mom already. You were never even a part of this, and now you are pleading on the ticket and expecting to be found guilty - of WHAT?

 

[wrduc]

I'm sorry, I left quite an important piece of information out! -___-

Soo after they dismissed my mother's case, they had sent my brother's RLT to me, in my name. So it was my brother in my mother's car, they had sent the RLT to her and dismissed it, then they sent it to me. I hear this is pretty common and easy to fight. The only complication is that I live away from home and don't check my mail often so I had not received any of the mail for the ticket and it went into collections and a civil assessment. Stupid on my part to not check up on it, had plenty of chances to grab my mail so I'll own up to it. My court date is next week and I'm sure I'll win the $500 bail amount, since it's not me. My only question is if I'll be able to vacate the $325 civil assessment fee by saying it wasn't me and I should have never received the ticket in the first place.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

When you have a family that obstructs judicial process, sometimes everyone gets to share in the effort.

 

[CdwJava]

First off, why did they say you defaulted and owe the civil assessment? Are they claiming that you failed to appear?

Second, why did a citation for YOU go to your mom's house? Did you update your address with the DMV as is required under state law?

 

[wrduc]

First off, why did they say you defaulted and owe the civil assessment? Are they claiming that you failed to appear?

Second, why did a citation for YOU go to your mom's house? Did you update your address with the DMV as is required under state law?

Yep, it was failure to appear. The notices that went to my family's house went unanswered. I've been moving around a lot for work as a consultant, so I'm in different pockets of Southern CA for months at a time. That's not a good excuse though, I still managed to visit home, just never really took a hard look at the stack of mail. Most of everything I get is paperless, so I wasn't expecting anything important in the mail. Usually just credit card offers, etc.