Legal Question in Traffic Law in Florida

Here in Tampa there is a toll-road that has a split-off point where a side road takes you around one of the tolls. The sign for the by-pass says " Sunpass OR Toll-By-Plate". There are cameras that take a picture of your tag when you go this way and then you are billed for the toll. This by-pass is seperate from the general sunpass lanes and nowhere does it say that you have to have a sunpass, so I drove it quite a few times though I don't have a sunpass account. It was months before I received the first toll-by-plate bill and I received 4 on the same day. Instead of receiving a bill for the tolls, I received tickets for driving through a sunpass lane without a sunpass account. I ended up paying over $450 on tolls that were supposed to be $1.75 . The representative on the telephone told me that I had 4 more violations that with late fees totaled over $1200 and they would cause my drivers licence to be suspended. I never received any bills for these 4 violations in the mail or any kind of notice at all still to this day but I was charged with late fees. I can't afford to pay this and the whole situation seems unfair , is there anything I can do to fight the payments?


Asked on 7/27/10, 1:22 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Craig Epifanio Craig Epifanio, P.A.

Your case is not uncommon. Oftentimes, the driver does not receive notice due to a new address or other reason. Now your issue regarding going around and that you should only be charged for the toll is incorrect. That said, I have fought many of these tickets and have dealt with the officer in court that deals with these cases. The officer in Tampa has gotten tougher on enforcement of these as I have had as many as 70 or 80 dropped down to two or four. One of the biggest things you can do now, is pay the outstanding tolls. If I go to court and the officer sees that tolls were never paid, then they have little sympathy. That still doesn't solve your other problem and that is that you have more tickets coming. I may be able to go to court and get several dismissed so that you are not looking at the $1200 total, but I would need to hear from you and know all the circumstances. Call me at 813-277-0800 and check out my website below.

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Answered on 7/28/10, 8:53 am


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