[BayAreaC32]

Originally Posted by link146

I am an attorney in NJ and PA, I am not familiar w/ CA MV statutes; however, I am familiar w/ the judicial process in general...Since the citation you speak of seems like it simply carries w/ it a fine and no other punitive measures a court would likely have to find that you committed the offense by a "preponderance of the evidence" rather than the more strict "beyond a reasonable doubt standard" which applies to criminal offenses and perhaps moving violations and DWIs in your state.

So the municipal court judge in the town where you were ticketed can find you guilty based on far less evidence than otherwise. Basically, if the judge you go in front of is intellectual genuine, he will throw the ticket out b/c it is quite an evidentiary stretch to conclude that b/c a car has its rear windows tinted it has its fronts tinted too (obviously if that logic applied, every factory SUV, minivan, conversion van, etc., with rear tints all the way around should get a ticket for front tints as well if they are stopped w/ the front windows down. if I were representing you that would be the argument i make to the judge. Do you see my point, the officer makes a huge leap in his assumption here, which most young kids seem to do once given a badge, gun, a pen and a citation booklet.)

On the other hand; however, in my experience, you've got a 50/50 shot at finding a muni court judge who is intellectually genuine. The other half, simply gives the rubber stamp approval of what the cops do since the revenue go towards the twp. which pays the judge's, clerk's, cops' and other workers' salaries.

Bottom line, if you're court date is scheduled on a date and time when you can make it and not miss work or lose any money in the process go fight the ***** out of this. If your court date is scheduled for a time you are jammed up w/ another obligation, call the court clerk and see if same can be rescheduled for another time (some muni cts around here have am and pm dockets). If same can't be rescheduled to a time and date where you can make it w/o any loss of $$ on your end, pay the *** ticket.

SAS

You Make Very excellent points with the Factory SUV/Minivans factory tint. Surprisingly the Officer who pulled me over was around 25-26 and very rude. I shall bring up the points you made and see if the judge has some brains and moves to a dismissal of the ticket.