Red light traffice violation ticket in San francisco with a rental car

[Tween]

What is the name of your state? California

I live in Texas. Last month during thanksgiving i visited San francisco where i took a rental car from dollar rent a car.

I received a letter from the rental car company today stating that i have received a red light violation ticket in san francisco and it is my responsibility to pay the fine and the violation issuing agency will send me a bill directly for the amount due on citation. The copy of the ticket was attached with the letter.

Now the copy of the ticket said that the deadline to respond to the court is Dec 19th 2007, While i received the mail just today which is Dec 24th 2007 from the rental car company.

While checking online for the amount of fine, with my citation number, i found it was whooping $400 ( $100 fine + $300 extra for not paying the fine on time !!!!!!!) . It's fine with me to pay the original amount of fine , but i don't understand why i should pay $300 extra without my fault.

Any help in this regard will be very much appreciated.

Thank you

[JIMinCA]

First thing you should do is call the number on the bottom of the ticket and explain that you just recieved it. Keep the envelope it came in which is postmarked.

Next, you need to decide if you intend to plead guilty or not guilty. If you want to plead guilty, you can probably get everything worked out over the phone (hopefully). But, even though you live in Texas, you can still have a trial as California will allow you to do a trial by written declaration.

It is likely you don't even remember driving through the light you are accused of running. There are good defenses for red light photo tickets. If you are interested in pursuing, you should provide all the info here that you can (assuming you came here for help with the ticket).

[The Occultist]

I...actually agree with your post, Jim.