Seat Belt Violation

[jakejohnson50]

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California

First time poster so i would like to start thanking anyone who offers their advice.

I was in california in march for a competition. I hadn't been in the state for 10 minutes while riding in the back seat of my friends car when he got pulled over and the officer wrote me a ticket for not wearing my seat belt in the backseat.

I had mentioned i wasn't familiar with state law and that i didn't know in the backseat i had to wear my seat belt. He said to contest it, and that if i didn't live in california it wouldn't matter what happened.

Well i returned home and several weeks later received a ticket at the price of 160$. I was astounded and as i read the FAQ it said that the baseline fine is between 20$-100$, but my ticket was 160$. I didn't respond remembering the officer said it wouldn't matter if i didn't live in the state.

I now have received a ticket for 800$ and it says that my license will be put on hold. I was under the impression that one states actions to hold your license wouldn't affect your license in another state.

in there any way to dispute this, or to get my fine down to the original outrageous 160$? Thanks again.

[Mr. Knowitall]

So you were instructed that if you contested the ticket you might be able to convince a court to dismiss it or perhaps reduce the fine, but instead you chose to default? And you let the fines and penalties grow to $800? And now you're at a point where if you don't pay you will have your license suspended? Well, then, it sounds like you had best break out your check book.

An out-of-state suspension can catch up with you in a number of ways once abstracted to your state of residence. It can result in a notification that your state is going to suspend your license, or it can result in their declining to renew your license once it expires until you have resolved the out-of-state suspension. You can end up having to pay reinstatement fees in both states - on top of that $800.

You are free to consult a lawyer in the county where the ticket was issued about trying to negotiate a payoff less than the $800 you now owe; I can't promise that you'll succeed, or how any reduction in costs will compare to the attorney fees you would incur if your retain a lawyer.