New rule.law????

Since September of 2002, there has been a Federal law in place that required the states to not only report ALL convictions for traffic offenses of CDL holders, but it was also a crime for any court to reduce or mask a conviction as well.

When a CDL holder is ticketed, the court is either to convict the offender of the charge, or dismiss the charge. There are not supposed to be any other options on the table, nor did it matter what type of vehicle was being driven at the time of the ticket.

The thing is, this law is not being honored by all states, and/or there were cases of some skirting of the law by sympathetic judges.

Now here is what has happened in the past year;

The Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act has been refined to close some of the loopholes that existed, that were being exploited by the 2002 enactment of the "masking" provisions.

These loopholes were discussed and published in March of 2006. They became enforceable on January the first of this year.

• First of all, if the driver is CONVICTED of an offense, and he is allowed to have the charge dismissed LATER by attending a "traffic school" or other program, then the law has been broken. However, if an adjudication is made, or a "setting aside" of the conviction, pending the attendance of a program, BEFORE a judment is entered, then there is no law broken.

• If a charge is dismissed due to lack of evidence, then no law is broken.

• Of course, if you effectively defend yourself in court, and the charge is dismissed, then no law has been broken in recording it as such.

Now for the tricky stuff...

• If a traffic citation for a violation is changed PRIOR to it being in front of a judge, and you are convicted for a lesser offense or another violation of a non-moving nature that was not listed on the original ticket, then no law has been broken.

The judge himself cannot change the nature of the charge and convict you of the lesser offense. That is considered masking of the offense. If the prosecutor makes a change prior to court, then this is considered a legal manuever, mainly because the judge will specifically be ruling on the charges presented to him.

This dictates that those needing to fight a ticket that may well place them in danger of being convicted of an offense that endangers their job or their CDL status, will have to do so PRIOR to the court date.

The same applies to speeding or other moving violations. The prosecutor has full right to change the charge to a lesser offense, but it must be done prior to it being in front of a judge. He is only allowed to convict or dismiss, based on what is presented to him in court by the prosecutor.

But what if you are convicted of an offense that does present a problem to you, and/or places you in suspension of your driving privileges as determined by the FMCSA for serious convictions. Is all lost?

No.

• If you can convince the judge withdraw or vacate the conviction, and a new court hearing determines that there was an "error" in the conviction, then the charge can be changed to another offense ONLY.

Expect to have to pay big bucks to achieve this, and expect it to be granted in a hardship case, where the original conviction resulted in an instance where you are completely unable to work anywhere due to the conviction. You can also expect that your CDL history will be scrutinized severly, to determine if you have a history of violations, outside of the serious violation that sidelined you.

Other changes and clarifications:

• The "leaving the scene of an accident" provision has been clarified to include ANY instance where a driver is required by law to stop under state laws, including those instances where you may be a material witness to the accident, or to render aid to those involved in the accident.

In other words, it may be a good policy to stop even if you were not directly involved in the accident, but under state law, are required to stop because you were a factor involved in what happened.

• 
  If you are convicted of a moving violation that results in the suspension of your CDL, no state may issue a driver a temporary permit to operate a commercial vehicle, not even within your own home state. They may permit you to drive a non-commerical vehicle under such a suspension of privileges.

• All convictions, despite the type of vehicle operated for moving violations, apply as well to your CDL. If the state suspends your license under the state "points" criteria, then your CDL status is suspended as well, and you are not allowed to drive a CMV, even though your driving record while driving a CMV is spotless.

• If a driver moves from one state to another state to change licenses from one state to another, in order to avoid a suspension from the previous state, and it is discovered and reported by either state to the other, the current licensing state has the right to consider the driver an "imminent hazard", and may suspend all driving privileges, dictating that the driver must appeal to the FMCSA for a ruling, to determine whether or not their license may be reinstated in any state.

• All convictions considered serious or disqualifying, that are issued while driving a non-commercial vehicle, are applicable to the status of the CDL as well.

• It is not necessary for any state to collect any previous license NUMBER held in another state, when complying with the provision that drivers report all CDL's held in other states. Records are to be kept by name and birthdate for comparison. In the rare event of a discrepancy or duplication, the Social Security number should refine the search to identify the previous state driving record by clerks.

 

WOW!! that was a mouthful or.. was it a keyboardful??

good post there turbotrucker