Got ticketed for violating the "move over law" (Jackson: attorney, costs)

[rebel12]

Originally Posted by NCN

I have heard more stories about tickets for this law. I wonder if the law needs to be repealed. Part of the law is to slow down. I would think 20mph would be slow enough that you should not have been ticketed. Somebody needed to meet their quota.

I think a person could panic because of this law and actually cause an accident.

When I was working, one of my fellow workers got a ticket on the left of the road because a policeman had pulled a car over to the left of the road and she pulled to the left in order to make a left turn. We thought that was really a stretch.

I move over whenver I see vehicles stopped on the side. Don't want to run into some moron trying to put gas in his car right on the interstate.
It's comon sense, isn't it?

Another thing that always strikes me is how people are not aware they should put hazard lights whenever they stop on the side. How didfficult it is to put the lights on or open the trunk if your eelctrical system is out.
In Europe you have to carry a refelctive triangle and a vest (yes a reflective ornage vest) in your vehicle at all times. In the US only truckers are required to have the triangle in the cab. It's crazy how many accidents could be avoided if people exercised more common sense.

[ja1myn]

Originally Posted by rebel12

I move over whenver I see vehicles stopped on the side. Don't want to run into some moron trying to put gas in his car right on the interstate.
It's comon sense, isn't it?

Another thing that always strikes me is how people are not aware they should put hazard lights whenever they stop on the side. How didfficult it is to put the lights on or open the trunk if your eelctrical system is out.
In Europe you have to carry a refelctive triangle and a vest (yes a reflective ornage vest) in your vehicle at all times. In the US only truckers are required to have the triangle in the cab. It's crazy how many accidents could be avoided if people exercised more common sense.

.........

[testa50]

Look on Google Earth and find the distance the pullover was from the neighborhood. If it's less than 1,000' or so, you should be able to argue that making two proper lane changes into and out of speed limit traffic was hazardous. 20mph is more than an appropriate speed to reduce to. If there was heavier traffic in the other lanes, that would make your argument stronger.

Seriously, it shouldn't be a huge fine for you. You clearly were driving in a manner that was thoughtful to the safety of the police officer and road safety in general. $750 fines are meant for people blatantly ignoring traffic safety, which was clearly not the case.

[red92s]

This law is so freaking subjective. I wish they'd clarify what "safe and reasonable speed" really means. As is, it's at the discretion of the officer, and because the fines are so high there is great incentive to just issue the ticket for anyone who passes them. Passing at less than half the posted speed limit should show the fact that you are proceeding with caution and are aware of your surroundings.

I've seen departements just park a car with the lights on on the side of the road, not responding to anything, with 5 patrol cars pulling people over for passing it. Also saw a guy parked on the left shoulder of 75 gunning speeders leaning out out the window, sitting in his car, with his lights on so that he could bust speeders OR anyone who passed him. Just gross abuse of the a law intended to protect officers in the name of revenue generation.

[cwkimbro]

A few other things not mentioned yet.


The law pretty much requires that you to change lanes, unless there is reason that is "impossible, prohibited by law, or unsafe."

In the legal world you take the meaning of the phrases and words they use carefully. In this case it wouldn't have been prohibited by law, so you need to focus on showing it was impossible (ie a series of cars right next to you) or unsafe (ie. car next to you, cars moving faster then you, car tailing you, low visibility, was it night?... did the bright LED blue lights lower your visibility in dark spaces? were there street lights? Were there cars in the far left lane and did you have time to judge if they were turning into the middle lane?). In short... You need to focus on those two words... You also need to focus on this question: Were you prepared to stop? if needed.

-Was there anyone in the lane next to you? If yes, it is easier to argue you deemed changing lanes in such a small space unsafe. If no.... that won't help you, but we can still analyze the situation.

-I'd focus what the exact distance was between the turn and where the officer was. You would need the ability to turn, see the police, make the judgement, and safely get over. Did that distance give you time to do that? (would a reasonable judge think that?)

-I honestly don't know how well the argument you had to make a right turn would play out. If it was immediately after (a very short distance), i guess you could try to argue you were afraid you couldn't safely get back into the right lane without fear of another car blocking your way. But... I can also see a judge saying that wasn't important. You needed to worry about the situation first and then worry about the turn second (even if you missed the turn and came back and turned left). This is honestly an unknown to me. The law doesn't actually write in any exceptions on what you need to do to get to your destination after passing the cop. It merely requires you move over. You have to mention it, but I'm just afraid if you make needing to turn right your main argument... it could come back to bite you.

A few quick other points to watch out for with your story, so you don't get blind sided and a few details left out from your story.

For about 1/4 mile PIB is 3 lanes going southbound. The turn lane mentioned allows cars to got into the middle lane or the right lane. The right lane ends right after the first intersection, which is Chattahoochee Dr. and is about 1/4 mile away. The next right turn is over 1/2 mile away from the left turn. PIB is a divided highway and not a city street.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=dulut...,+Georgia&z=18

I really can't tell how this will play out for you, but like someone else mentioned earlier... try. Judges can lower fines if you are guilty.

I'd also stay away from arguments like -I didn't know about the law or the officer wasn't outside his car. If you do bring up up the officer not being in his car... I'd say it like this: I slowed down and decided to slowly move forward after I saw no one was outside of their car and -insert reasons it was impossible or unsafe to move over here- It shows you were slowing down, analyzing the situation and were prepared to stop.

Bring your proof of insurance as someone else mentioned. The fines for that are greatly reduced automatically under law, as long as you show it in court and were actually insured at the time. It happened to my dad once. The joke was the real punishment was going down to the courthouse to show you had it.


As for the old addage... You really need to contact a lawyer for anything legal.

It might not make sense to do so, because it could be as expensive as your fine. But... if there is any reason you haven't told us that you absolutely can't have those points on your license it might be worth it. But you mentioned you only had one previous charge... so if that is true it might not be worth it.

[rebel12]

Don't even bring up " I want aware of the law" defence as it is not valid. Not knowing about laws is not a mitigating factor in most situations...

[bernsee]

Jesus, it's so nice to live in a military, Republican police state.

[ja1myn]

Originally Posted by rebel12

Don't even bring up " I want aware of the law" defence as it is not valid. Not knowing about laws is not a mitigating factor in most situations...

Every time I think about that it just makes me mad. I'm glad the government thinks we're all lawyers but we aren't.

[rebel12]

Originally Posted by ja1myn

Every time I think about that it just makes me mad. I'm glad the government thinks we're all lawyers but we aren't.

You're not a lawyer but you had to pass a test to get your driver's license, didn't you?
There is so many people on the road totally oblivious to most traffic laws, I have been always saying that in most states it was way to easy to get a driver's license.

[etrigan]

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=P...sz=17&t=m&z=17

Here is the approximate mapping of the incident. Point A was where the cars were stopped. Point B was approximately where the blue lights came on for me. Point C was where I came to a stop for the officer (at the beginning of the turn lane). Just slightly over 700ft. according to the scale provided. As I previously mentioned, I was in the rightmost left-turn lane, and there were cars in the turning lane to the left of me. Normally I do move over a lane for stopped cars, emergency or not, but given the circumstances and where I needed to get to, I decide to simply slow down as I passed the stopped cars since I noticed nobody outside. And no, I do not intend to say "I didn't know". I've always assumed that the judge would just say, "Well you know now." I've thought this for years.

As for traffic, it was moderate, but still moving at around the 55MPH speed limit. It was also pretty dark. Between 9:15pm and 9:30pm.