Parked car - uninsured ticket?

[Nikos 31]

So, I have a car parked on the street in front of my residence which I haven't driven for about a year. The registration expired which attracted a plate scanning police cruiser. I get a ticket for the expired registration (no complaint -- my fault) but there was a second ticket (39:6b-2) for "uninsured mv" which makes it a WTF scenario.

 

The vehicle has always been insured with no coverage lapses and it was not being operated. So, to our forum LEOs, I just have to ask... Is it common to tack on an "uninsured mv" ticket to parked car with an expired registration based on assumption?

 

This is a pretty serious summons with severe consequences which requires a court appearance. Although I know it'll be dismissed, the premise of how the ticket was issued is "F"ed up. Hopefully I can have the judge look into this sooner and have the ticket dismissed without having to show up in court.

 

Considering all the recent WTF events in NJ, I would like to say that I'm surprised... but I can't.

 

39:6b-2

2. Any owner or registrant of a motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this State who operates or causes to be operated a motor vehicle upon any public road or highway in this State without motor vehicle liability insurance coverage required by this act, and any operator who operates or causes a motor vehicle to be operated and who knows or should know from the attendant circumstances that the motor vehicle is without motor vehicle liability insurance coverage required by this act shall be subject, for the first offense, to a fine of not less than $300 nor more than $1,000 and a period of community service to be determined by the court, and shall forthwith forfeit his right to operate a motor vehicle over the highways of this State for a period of one year from the date of conviction. Upon subsequent conviction, he shall be subject to a fine of up to $5,000 and shall be subject to imprisonment for a term of 14 days and shall be ordered by the court to perform community service for a period of 30 days, which shall be of such form and on such terms as the court shall deem appropriate under the circumstances, and shall forfeit his right to operate a motor vehicle for a period of two years from the date of his conviction, and, after the expiration of said period, he may make application to the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles for a license to operate a motor vehicle, which application may be granted at the discretion of the director. The director's discretion shall be based upon an assessment of the likelihood that the individual will operate or cause a motor vehicle to be operated in the future without the insurance coverage required by this act. A complaint for violation of this act may be made to a municipal court at any time within six months after the date of the alleged offense.

 

Failure to produce at the time of trial an insurance identification card or an insurance policy which was in force for the time of operation for which the offense is charged creates a rebuttable presumption that the person was uninsured when charged with a violation of this section.

 

L.1972,c.197,s.2; amended 1983, c.141, s.1; 1987, c.46; 1988, c.156, s.15; 1990, c.8, s.49; 1997, c.151, s.12.

[BOOMSTICK 6]

I was always under the assumption that once a vehicle's registration expires, DMV notifies the insurance company and then it automatically cancels after a certain amount of time.

[Nikos 31]

Never heard of that. As I stated above, there was never a lapse in insurance coverage and the vehicle has not been operated to warrant the ticket.

[Howard 538]

I think a lot of insurance is not valid unless the car is properly registered, I vaguely recall reading that in a policy once. But the other issue is how do you leave a car on the street like that? The town where I live bans all street parking between 2am and 6am. The only way you can do it is if you call the police ahead of time and notify them that the car will be there for things like when you coat or pave your driveway.

[Tactical Turtle 11]

You dont need to have your car registered to have valid insurance on it. I have a 91 geo metro sitting in my back yard with liabilty insurance but no registration...(dropping a new trans in) anyway take your valid insurance card for the vehicle with you when you pay the fine. You will probably have to show up to court for it and just show your insurance. Ur lucky fyi.. my neighbor had a car towed drom infront of the house due to no reg and no.insurance. cost a decent penny tonget it back

[FishNHard 145]

Ive had this happen to me many years ago , My motor blew so the car sat in front of my house for months got a red sticker to move it and the next day got a ticket for unregiserted vehicle , When i called the PD to ask about the summons they told me if they car is parked on a public road then yes they can summons you for both unreg, and no insurance , if the car was park in my driveway or just on my propierty then they cant say anything.

John

[tony357 386]

you guys have that backwards, you have to have insurance to register it..

[kman 56]

Something similar happened to me once, my car parked in front of my place got hit in a collision that occurred in front of my house while I was at work. The police did their report but I wasn't there. They mailed me a letter asking for my insurance info but I didn't respond since I didn't want to report an accident and was going to pursue damages from the perpetrators myself. Since the cops didn't hear from me they mailed me a summons for "no insurance".

 

I went to court with my insurance card and the case got dismissed right there.

 

However before I went I did some research, and the law doesn't require you have insurance all the time. The law is that you have to have insurance to "Operate" a vehicle. The ticket that I got (which was like five or six years ago) had two check boxes - one box was "Operated" and the other box was "Parked" to indicate whether this was ticketing of a parked car or a car that was being operated that they pulled over. The ticket was checked "parked". "Operated" was not checked. Well, if it was parked, and not operated, then even if I had no insurance, I still should have got off, because while it is illegal to "operate" a vehicle without insurance, that is not what the ticket said - in fact the ticket said the exact opposite, the policeman did not check "operate".

 

Just go to court with your insurance card and whatever other paperwork you got from your insurer, and they will dismiss it. Hopefully you are in a small town, in which case the town prosecutor is not going to give you a hard time. It's just a pain to go to court. If they give you trouble (and assuming your ticket is marked up the same) then give them the operating argument.

[Vlad G 345]

I'd say a vehicle on a public road would be reasonably expected to be insured/registered, but not one on your property. Think of it this way, you are "using" part of the road or keeping it from being used, you are getting "free" parking on public space, if someone runs into it your car was part of the accident, etc.

[Zerosignal 1]

Maybe a neighbor complained about it because they were sick of looking at the thing lay there for over a year....

[Nikos 31]

kman, On the ticket w/ the registration, the (Park) is circled but on the "uninsured mv" there's no mark. Doesn't matter anyway since I have proof of coverage.

 

 

I'd say a vehicle on a public road would be reasonably expected to be insured/registered, but not one on your property. Think of it this way, you are "using" part of the road or keeping it from being used, you are getting "free" parking on public space, if someone runs into it your car was part of the accident, etc.

I fully understand that the public street parking makes our cars fair game for tickets. My problem is that an LEO is willing to issue a summons based solely upon assumption. LEO had no proof that my car is not insured and no proof that it was being operated w/o insurance yet she issued the ticket regardless. Now the burden is on me to prove that my car has insurance which is b.s.

 

Maybe a neighbor complained about it because they were sick of looking at the thing lay there for over a year....

[Qel Hoth 33]

I think a lot of insurance is not valid unless the car is properly registered, I vaguely recall reading that in a policy once. But the other issue is how do you leave a car on the street like that? The town where I live bans all street parking between 2am and 6am. The only way you can do it is if you call the police ahead of time and notify them that the car will be there for things like when you coat or pave your driveway.

 

Sounds like quite a dumb ordinance. It would be quite annoying with all the shuffling if I kass to park in the driveway every night.

[BlueLineFish 615]

you are lucky. unregistered vehicles on public roadways are subject to tow.

[Barms 98]

I think you should call Nappen