|
||
|
City of Dallas has changed its procedures. (1-22-13) The City of Dallas has decided to change the procedure for handling traffic tickets. In order to make the process
more difficult for the citizens that are charged with traffic offenses, the Court now requires the appearance of the Attorney
at a pretrial conference in order to obtain a plea bargain offer from the city prosecutor. Then the case is set to a pretrial.
The Defendant must make a timely appearance at the pretrial in order to set the case for trial and possibly to accept the
plea bargain offer. If the Defendant fails to appear at the pretrial then the Court will not set the case for trial although
the Defendant is represented by their attorney. If the attorney does not finalize the case on the pretrial the Judge will
probably issue a warrant for the Defendant and will forfeit any bond that has been posted. Once the case is set for trial
the Defendant must appear on time in order for the prosecutor to request the appearance of the police officer. The police
officer also has approximately 2 hours to come to the court house for the trial. If the Defendant appears late for trial,
the Defendant does not get a trial and may run the risk of having a warrant issued for their arrest.
Stop for the School Bus (1-22-13) The Dallas City Council has passed a new ordinance under Dallas City Code Chapter 28, Article XX, Section 28-224 for the offense of School Bus Stop Arm violation. It carries a civil penalty of $300.00 if paid within 30 days from the date of issuance and a $25.00 for late payment. There may be additional penalties and court costs if paid late. The new offense is not a class C misdemeanor; therefore the offense will not be reported to the Department of Public Safety or your insurance company. There is also a class C offense in the Texas Transportation Code Section 545.066 which carries a criminal penalty for the same offense. A vehicle must come to a complete stop behind the stop arm of an unloading school bus. Unless there is a raised median separating opposing traffic, traffic traveling opposite the school bus must come to a complete stop as well, and all traffic must wait until the stop arm is retracted to continue. Even if the vehicle is in a turn lane, the vehicle must stop. The buses are equipped with cameras that capture violators traveling in either direction. Violations are verified by peace officers, and if the reviewing peace officer determines that there is a violation the citations will be mailed to the vehicle owners just like the municipalities handle photo red light camera cases. If you receive one of these violations read the instructions on the ticket for payment or for contesting the offense. Front License Plate (1-25-13) The front license plate has been a requirement under Texas law since 1934. The violation of this law has been a Class C misdemeanor punishable with a fine up to $200.00 plus costs of court. If the front license plate was missing this could be used by the police to stop a citizen, and this legal stop was used for searches and resulting arrests for drug cases and DWI cases. Now due to a mistake in the legislature, the requirement of the front license plate is no longer required because the legislature forgot to include a punishment range for this offense. This began on January 1, 2012, and will continue until the mistake in the law is possibly remedied this year. The legislature left out the punishment portion of the statute so that it would remain unknown which criminal court had jurisdiction over the case; therefore making the law unenforceable. It may still be a good idea to keep the plate on the front of your car in order to avoid police officers who do not know the law from stopping you. The Judge in Carrollton Municipal Court is using the old law to punish citizens who fail to have a license plate in the front of their vehicles. |
||
|
Law Offices of Martin J. Rubin - Blog of Martin J. Rubin
|