Legal Question in Traffic Law in Virginia

Can a law in NYC be enforced for VA resident?

According to the VA Code 46.2-716 (http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+46.2-716) it's not prohibted to have a license plate plastic cover as long as ''in any way alters or obscures (i) the alpha-numeric information, (ii) the color of the license plate, (iii) the name or abbreviated name of the state wherein the vehicle is registered, or (iv) any character or characters, decal, stamp, or other device indicating the month or year in which the vehicle's registration expires.''

I often go to New York with my car and twice already I got a ticket for having the cover on my license. The first time I fought for the ticket showing them the VA Code and I won. The question is... Can NYC keep giving this tickets to a VA resident? NYC prohibits licence plate covers but Virginia does not. So what is the deal here? So if I travel with my car I am suppose to know every state law and if they do not alow covers I am suppose to stop the car and remove the cover so I do not get a ticket before I pass through these states? I not understanding here. Diferent states have their own traffic laws but we all travel with our cars. What are we suppose to do?


Asked on 2/11/04, 7:40 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Can a law in NYC be enforced for VA resident?

The ticket dispensers in NYC may have seen your vehicle parked on city streets often enough(and long enough) that they've come to believe that you've either changed residences or are in the process of doing so and, therefore, are subject to New York laws and city ordinances even though you still have VA tags on your vehicle.

When vehicles from one state are obviously on the

move through another, this type of ticketing(for minor equipmemt disparities) virtually never occurs by enforcement officials of the latter. However, when a vehicle from one

state appears to have "taken up residence" in another (at least in the minds of some of the local enforcers), it then becomes an object of closer scrutiny by these officials who may then as in your case, take it upon themselves to make certain assumptions about the owner of the vehicle and attempt to make him or her subject to local laws with respect to the vehicle.

Placing an easy to read sign somewhere on the dash

board of your vehicle when it is parked on NYC streets for any length of time which makes it emphatically clear that you continue to be a legal resident of VA and nothing more than a short term visitor to NYC may be one solution to this problem.

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Answered on 2/12/04, 5:49 pm


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