Partial Victory in My MRCA Ticket Appeal!

Well, what do you know.  I got a notice this weekend that the decision is that I owe only $100 for my MRCA Photo-enforced Stop Sign Ticket. So with any luck, I'll be getting a $75 check in the mail from the MRCA or from Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc. I had to pay the $175 fine up front, so at this point I have to wait for a refund. It would be so nice if it came promptly for the holidays.

Incidentally, the argument against my argument against the photo-enforced part (say that five times fast) was that the statute I quoted (Public Resources Code 5786.17) didn't apply. I was not remotely equipped to argue back against that.

But I do remember thinking at one part during the hearing when the lawyer was addressing the second part of my argument about the amount of the fine, Did he just say that the MRCA can just set whatever fines they want? That doesn't seem right. I argued back that I thought that the MRCA has to be meant to operate within the system and at least within the spirit of the laws of California.

Of course, I still feel very strongly that photo-enforced tickets are wrong and should be fully illegal, but given that the judge upheld that part of my appeal, her lowering of my fine to the $100 stipulated by Government Code 53069.4 (although it should be noted that the notice I received doesn't specifically refer to this as relevent, it just lowers my fine) seems logical and fair. And I am very pleased to have had any success at all in this endeavor. And getting $75 back is pretty great and does make the fine for running the stop sign more reasonable to me.

The end of a chapter! Case closed.

~

My previous posts about my MRCA ticket:

Photo-enforced Traffic Tickets Are Cruel and Unethical.

What's What's Wrong at the Heart of MRCA Photo Enforced Stop Sign Tickets

So I went to my MRCA Administrative Hearing

Temescal Canyon, You Are Dead To Me

Comments

[Melissa]

That's great! Ha, I stumbled upon your blog via Google, I was checking Yelp.com to write a kind review about Temescal (as I just moved here from North Carolina) when I noticed all the negative reviews due to the Stop Sign Ticket....Pretty sure my roommate stopped...pretty sure...But so I decided to research it because $175 ticket with video sounds ridiculous and voila: Here I am. Anyway, that's fantastic that they lowered your ticket - - I'm very impressed with your due diligence on the matter. I hope you feel satisfied, seems like you put a lot of effort into fighting this and rightfully so. Not a lot of people would have followed through, it's very commendable and inspiring - - I'll be sure to keep my friend motivated if she too gets that ticket.

[lizriz]

Thanks, Melissa. I have to tell you, it was *really* hard. Because the appeal isn't to traffic court - It's like *real* court. I was in way over my head, but it was really important to me, so I really wanted to try. Very painful, but definitely worth it to me.