One of my new trucks failed a Level 2 today,

Firstly, Civil law is defined quite specifically in the United States law.

What this means is one cannot just say that enforcing a regulation that has penalties, can be judged in the context of "Civil Law". If a regulation doesn't carry weight in criminal law then one could just choose not to follow the regulation or pay fines that are gotten from non-compliance with the regulation... Then, one should be able to sue directly in "Civil court" the issuing officer of any fine or penalty of the Regulation.. as a direct dispute between individuals...

However, this is clearly NOT what happens in any citation/regulation dispute. An officer can and does evoke state or federal actor status. Meaning one cannot sue them in and Civil law case under the dispute... because they just made it a case between the Gov't and the Regulation breaker... You see the problem here? What your saying is that officers get to use Regualtion enforcement under civil law... as long as it's convenient, and works in their favor.. then, if and individual calls them on it in "Civil Court" they can and do change it to Criminal law... They cannot play it both ways on both sides of the fence... and this makes your position in your argument moot.

 

Possibly I should have been more clear in using the phrase "civil action", even though I did not state "civil Law", but that was for a reason. Let me explain.
Administrative law is the area of law concerned with regulations, their implementation and enforcement. Penalties are civil rather than criminal, and even though there is usually a review process are generally less open to review. Usually there two types of review, first the law or regulations allows that the administrative body or a part of it review decisions made (Kind of a self review). Second a judicial review usually by an administrative law judge who looks at the procedures and methods used, which is where any due process claims are handled. Again though, due process here is different than criminal due process. Any penalty's here are civil penalty's, as you are not within the criminal process.

I didn't say that, in fact didn't mention civil law. Any action other than a criminal/penal action is considered civil, with some differing rules for different actions. Any penalty for regulation violations are civil penalty's, meaning not criminal.

I did not say this, but the fact is regulations do not carry the weight of criminal law. Can you find a FMCSR that allows for jail/prison time? What happens if you do not pay the fine for a violation of a FMCSR? What happens if you do not pay a fine for violating a criminal law?

Nope, that's now what I said or am saying and I made no mention of changing anything.

Additionally, think of it this way. For a regulation violation, administrative law is being administered which carries civil penalty's.
An officer, depending his charge/commission has several options on a stop. Take speeding for instance. A Trooper who is also an inspector stops you for speeding. He can write you a hard or soft copy ticket under state law, he can write you for failure to obey local laws under the FMCSR's, he can perform an inspection and show a warning, he can inspect and cite and show the cite on the inspection, etc. He can just tell you to slow down and have a good day. Whatever he does though, he commits himself to.

I did not suggest anyone playing both sides of the fence, nor did I state several items you apparently attributed to my comments, so what does that say regarding your conclusion?

Best regards

 

Anything that carries çivil penalties... should be covered under civil law... correct? I do know what your saying and have heard the same argument before... However, it is flawed in the sense that the civil action is used to protect rights of private citizens and is also defined under "civil law". Administrative law, is also defined and is treated as something yet again different... in the realm of Corporate law... which is another separate branch of civil law... However, as I describe before... Under civil law, one should be able to sue an officer that writes a warning for damages IF it is not criminal. Hence, the fence jumping... Thus, if one tries this it doesn't go to civil court but criminal court as it is then the State or the United States vs Whom is filing the civil action... One exception is when there is a law suit determining if one's civil rights were violated. Can someone sue an officer under a civil action for the warning or citation issued? If so, how would that go?

 

No, a civil penalty is a penalty imposed by a governmental agency for violations of regulations or wrongdoing. Look it up.

You may want to look up civil law, which by either legal definition is not relevant. You can make it seemingly relevant by filing civil lawsuits until the sky turns green or you go broke, or get sanctioned by the courts.

You may want to look this up also. It has nothing to do with corporate law other than how government regulations are imposed and enforced.

Bottom lines are these.

The FMCSR's are regulations, not laws. Failure to understand the difference allows for some false conclusions.

Violations are subject to civil (Meaning not criminal) sanctions. (Don't confuse this with Civil Laws)

Due process as mentioned in the 4th and 14th Amendments is generally not relevant outside of criminal law.

Best regards

 

oh hell, I hope that cop never inspects intermodal equipment, 99% of them are missing a healthy portion of the reflective tape, heck he would be putting everyone of them OOS.

 

Missing reflective tape can not put a vehicle out of service.

 

It's the revenue patrol, Uncle Sam is broke and needs more money.

 

How much are your fines for over there.
Had a mate who was was carrying a dozer on a float and was pulled in for an inspection. He was fined $1000 for being 1/4" over width and not displaying his oversize signs, we can go to 2.5m before we have to display signs and 3.5 before we need permits. He then told the "mermaid" (c u n t s with scales) as we call them, that the dozer must have been made out of spec as its is not more than 2.5m wide, he didn't care. So he put his signs on and kept going. He got pulled into another weigh station a couple of hours latter and was fined again, this time for displaying his oversize signs when his load wasn't oversize, another $1000. They also fined him $700 for a spelling mistake in his logbook. Pretty ruff day.

 

lol..I got one of those for a LED tag light. 3 out of 5 were lit but, he wrote it as out because in the 75 degree burning sun, it didn't reflect on his pad of paper

 

Since I've had my authority, I've had two vehicle inspections. Each time I was nailed for a light out. The first time was my fault, the ABS light wasn't working properly on my old trailer.

The second time, I had just left out and was extremely confident everything was fine. All lights were working, everything was good, etc. Thirty minutes later, I get a random roadside.... right rear tractor running light was out. No clean inspection for the second time. I hopped out and saw it, it was out. And it wasn't the light, it was the wire coming from the plug had just snapped right in the middle. Looked like maybe a rock had just nailed it perfectly to cut the wire. But, it was cut, and I again don't get a clean inspection.