My question involves vehicle maintenance laws for the State of: California


I bought a used vehicle from a dealer 3 weeks ago. At the time of purchase, I paid the fee to let the dealer handle the vehicle registration. I have not received my registration from the DMV yet.

Today, driving on the highway, I got pulled over for an expired registration. I pointed the officer to the temporary registration the dealer slapped on the corner of my windshield. He looked at it, took it back to his vehicle, then came back to me and said the system still doesn't show that my vehicle is registered or that the DMV received any related paperwork. He then issued me a fix-it ticket. The specific citation is 4000(a).

The person at the dealership who deals with the vehicle registration does not work on Sundays, so I have not yet verified if the delay is with the dealer. In any case, how am I supposed to fix this fix-it ticket? The court location shown on the ticket is actually about an hour away from where I live (I was coming back home from Sacramento when I got pulled over). Do I really have to go to court there, or can I get this fixed up somewhere else?

Thanks.