Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Outstanding Tickets

I don't know how serious this is. But I have about 10 unpaid parking and moving violation tickets dating back 5 years! I didn't think I'd get caught I guess. I was driving home from work one night and a Califonia Highway Patrolman was right behind me on the freeway. I was going the posted speed limit of 65 MPH. I was not doing anything that would grab his attention. But as I feared his lights when on and I had to pull over. He told me I had these outstanding tickets and I was arrested. How did this Highway Patrolman know just by being behind me and I was not breaking any traffic laws????? Does law enforcemnt radomly run plate checks on cars even though they're not breaking any laws or rules???? I can't imaging cops having the time to run all the license plates of almost every car they have in sight!

Will I need serious legal representation for my case???


Asked on 8/12/04, 6:05 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Outstanding Tickets

I don't know why you are so surprised that the police are too busy to run license plates. What else do you think they are doing in their cars that would take up their time?

Police need a good reason to actually stop a car, but they can run license plates whenever they want even if there is no evidence of wrongdoing. If running the plate reveals nothing suspicious then the officers simply don't pull the car over.

Your major problem here is not so much the tickets themselves; instead, it is your repeated decisions to ignore them and not to appear in court as ordered. If you let this happen once and had a reasonable explanation the court might believe it was an innocent oversight, but having done it ten times in five years demonstrates that you are thumbing your nose at the legal system. There may not be much you can do to defend against the tickets themselves, but it might be a good idea to have a lawyer to argue against a stiff penalty.

I should add that your writing style is very similar to that of several other recent postings from someone who seems to have a number of arrest warrants outstanding for multiple acts of embezzlement. If you are the same person, then you should expect trouble from those warrants any time now, and you should definitely consult with a criminal lawyer before this happens so that you will be prepared to deal with whatever awaits you in court.

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Answered on 8/12/04, 2:16 pm


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