My question involves vehicle maintenance laws for the State of: California
I moved here a couple of years ago from Arizona where it is perfectly legal (and normal) to have a slightly darker window tint on your car. I have never heard anything about my window tint being too dark here in CA before (I even got pulled over 2 years ago for a moving violation and the officer never even mentioned it). Recently, I was dropping my daughter off at school and a police officer came up behind me an wrote me a ticket for my tint being too dark. He said that it was a $25 ticket and it is due around mid June. This was on my 1998 Isuzu. Having about 160,000 miles on it (as well as a few mechanical issues), I had already been planning on getting a new car anyway. I traded in the Isuzu and leased a new Honda. I just called the number for the court on my ticket to pay the $25 and was informed by the "operator" that, since I "don't have proof that the tint has been removed", I would now have to pay $200! I've never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. If I had known this would be an issue I would have simply removed the tint before I traded in my car, but now that it has been disposed of, is there anything I can do? She said I could set a court date and talk to the judge, but the soonest court date I can get is not until January, 2012! Thanks for any advice.

