How to appeal traffic fines if you disagree with them

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The punishment can be canceled or lightened.

Who can appeal traffic fines

The administrative penalty can be challenged by the person fined or by his representative under a notarized power of attorney. However, if the violation is recorded by the camera, the punishment order is issued for the car, and not for the driver. So the owner of the car will have to appeal against the traffic police fine.

Where to go to challenge traffic fines

There are few options.

1. To the traffic police department

It is necessary to challenge the punishment through the department that is responsible for writing out the order. The same applies to fines issued on the basis of data received from cameras. The decision on the penalty for a violation is still made by a specific official assigned to a specific division.

2. To court

This method is suitable if the fine was awarded by court order or you could not challenge it through the traffic police, but still want to get justice. Accordingly, in the first case, the higher court will do with respect to the one that made the decision, in the second - the district or city court at the place of consideration of the administrative case.

If you miss the addressee, both in the traffic police and in court, your complaint will be redirected to the correct address. Moreover, the document can be directly submitted to the person who fined you. The papers must be sent to a higher authority.

How long does it take to appeal traffic fines

You have 10 days to file a complaint from the time you received a copy of the order. You can get this document in several ways:

• Will be given by the inspector who recorded the violation.
• They will be discharged based on the results of the work of the traffic police analysis group, which analyzes the details and establishes the circumstances of the incident.
• Will be handed in court if the decision on the fine is made there.
• Will be sent by mail if the violation was automatically recorded. In this case, the period for appeal is counted from the day following the day of receipt of the letter.

Mail notification is the hardest part. Until you see the letter, the appeal deadline does not seem to start. But the decree could have come, but you simply did not receive it. For example, it was sent to the place of registration, and you do not live there, or the mail "forgot" to bring you a notification. If the letter was in the mail and returned back, it is considered received.

If you failed to appeal the traffic police fine at the time established by law for objective reasons, for example, you were on a business trip or in the hospital, you can apply to renew the appeal period. It is worth doing the same if the letter with the decree is lost or was not delivered due to the fault of the mail, and is not listed as returned. An application for an extension of the time limit should be submitted in the same place as the complaint.

What to write in the complaint

The complaint is made in a free form. In it, you need to indicate where you submit the document, your personal data, information about when, for what and on what grounds you were brought to administrative responsibility - this is in the decision on the offense. And then explain why you think this decision was wrong.

You can complain not only to cancel the traffic police fine, but also to lighten the punishment.

For example, you did not have time to finish overtaking before the start of the solid line and returned to your lane in violation. You may be fined or revoked from your driver's license for up to six months. If you are facing the second option, you can explain in the complaint that you really broke the rules and you regret it. But the maneuver was safe, since there were no other cars around, so you consider the punishment unnecessarily harsh.

If you want to fight for the abolition of the fine, look at Article 24.5 of the Administrative Code, which lists the grounds for this. For example, such:

• There was no offense. And nothing confirms that you committed it, except for the words of the traffic police officer. Here it is worthwhile to understand that they will believe him with a greater degree of probability, especially if you have no proof of innocence.
• There is no corpus delicti. For example, you receive fines for violations recorded by cameras, but you sold your car long ago.
• Action in case of emergency. For example, in winter, a car from the oncoming lane skidded into yours, and you, in order to avoid a collision, drove into the oncoming lane through a continuous one.
• Violation of the procedure. Let's say the inspector has filled out the paperwork incorrectly.

In the end, the complaint may look like this:

In the [branch] of the traffic police [of such and such area]

Address:_

from_

residing at:_

Telephone:_

COMPLAINT

on the decision in the case of an administrative offense

On the _ day of _, at _ hours _ minutes, the inspector _ issued a ruling against me in the case of an administrative violation [document number], in accordance with which I was found guilty under article 12.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

I consider the decision to be canceled due to the fact that I was fined for allegedly driving without a seat belt. However, I am ready to provide a record from the registrar, directed into the interior of the car, which proves that I removed the belt after stopping the engine, when I parked at the direction of the inspector.

Based on the above, I ask you to cancel the decision on administrative offense No. _ issued against me.

"_" _ G. _ /_

How to submit a complaint

You can apply in person or send a letter by mail - registered with a list of attachments. Your signature should be on the complaint - this is a fundamental point. That is why it is not yet possible to challenge the fine online, for example, through the complaints section on the traffic police website.

However, from September 2021, it will be possible to try to appeal the fine when the violation is recorded with automatic cameras through State Services.

How long to wait for an answer

The traffic police have 10 days to consider the complaint, the court has up to two months. The answer should come to you by mail.