Duty to Register a Car

[Brewingold]

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California.

I got pulled over for a speeding ticket a few weeks ago and today my passenger received a citation because his vehicle is not registered in CA. He lives in CA however, the car is kept in his home state for his father to use since his father's car has many problems. The car is only in CA when the father is in town visiting, which he was when I got that citation. The officer NEVER took my passenger's driver's license and did NOT issue the ticket to them at the time he issued my ticket. My passenger just received the ticket in the mail yesterday. The ticket is not signed because my passenger did not have it issued to him at the time.

[jk]

if it is the kids car, he has no legal right to register it in another state if california is his home state and the ticket is righteous.

if that did not answer your question, you might try actually posing a question for somebody to answer.

[Brewingold]

The car is registered in both their names. The question was if it was legal to give a passenger a ticket when the driver was the one being cited for speeding. He did not ask the passenger for his license or give him the ticket at the time so I don't see how he can issue this citation.

[jk]

yes, since his car was on the road. Heck, there doesn't even have to be anybody in the car. It could have been setting along side the road and if an illegal registration was discovered, it could be ticketed. The violation is still there regardless of where the owner of the car was. Did the officer even know this was the passengers car?

whose name is the car in? (the title).

[Brewingold]

yes, since his car was on the road. Heck, there doesn't even have to be anybody in the car. It could have been setting along side the road and if an illegal registration was discovered, it could be ticketed. The violation is still there regardless of where the owner of the car was. Did the officer even know this was the passengers car?

whose name is the car in? (the title).

Yes, the officer knew it was the passenger's car because the passenger had to provide the registration info and the registration contains both the father and the son's names. I'm confused as to why the officer didn't issue the citation at the time since it was written one minute after my citation for speeding. He never mentioned that he would be citing the passenger, but he wrote both the speeding ticket and the registration ticket at the same time.

The title is in both the father and son's names. Since the son has moved to CA and has another car (which is registered and operated in CA), he left the car to his father in the state in which it is operated.

If my passenger provides proof that his father indeed lives in the state that the car is registered in could this help his case?

[jk]

I do not see any reason the ticket should not be argued. If the car is in both peoples names, I do not see why it could not be registered in either state.

I would get the title, a copy of dad's drivers license and ask the courts how the reg is not proper.

Hang on for a few others (cdwjava is the california expert). It seems California has a lot of odd laws and it would be a good idea to hear out others.

[Brewingold]

Thanks for the advice!