South Carolina State Police extortion racket

OOIDA dosen't get involved with tickets. Nor do they care.

 

Glad to hear that.

 

I couldn't agree more. I've dealt with the pre-paid legal plans for years and most, not all, are worthless. In my state, if the attorney shows up and you, as the driver, do not the only TESTIMONY that will be heard is the officers. Now the attorney can argue in mitigation and questions the officer but no TESTIMONY will be given from the defense. From my experience I know the pre-paid legal attorney's quite well. Some are good and some are not. Again these are the ones I see in court dyay in and day out. I have had two in the recent months that must be new because I could have a 4 year old represent me and get better results. These two have not a clue about the rules and regs or overweight laws. This is where an experienced officer can have fun with an inexperienced attorney. Granted when I was new, a few attorney's had there fun with me. So one good turn deserves another. Kinda like when I first was assigned our commercial vehicle unit and more than a few "seasoned" drivers pulled the wool over my eyes because I was new to the truck regs.

I also agree that have seen many different types of officers out there. Unfortunataley I have seen dumb a%% officers, who can't testify to what they saw 10 minutes earlier and give all officers a bad name. Sounds kinda like your SC officer. There has been numerous times in my many years as a law enforcement officer that "I can't recall, I can't remember or there will be no evidence your honor." There's no way to remember everything I do as a officer, unless I take exceptional notes. At times, I forget, times I do not have time to do it while still on the stop and forget to go back and do it. However with the electronic inspections, I as well as most other officers detail the notes on the computer and it is attached to the inspection. These notes are also available to any other CMV inspectors if the do a federal query in one of the inspection query databases. This has proved invaluable over the years as most departments are using the electronic inspections. A lot of information available for the officer to see on your company, your vehicle and your driving history/inspection history.

Now to get back on point. If you get a citation, you document everything you have done to satisfy the obligation. My suggestion is that you keep these records forever. Many, many times I find drivers that have a valid CDL in there home state, but another State has suspended or revoked their privileges. Some of these are last month, last year, 10 years and the other day I had a guy suspended from New York from a 1982 citation. It took him all day to get straight with the court and the DMV. You as a professional driver have an obligation to yourself to maintain your CDL and all that comes with that.

I see drivers all the time that are either unorganized or don't care at all. Before you all blast me, I know you know the type. I can usually tell within the initial contact if the driver has his "stuff" together or is he a total slob that has his paperwork all over the truck. For those that have your "stuff in order" let me give you a preview of the other type of driver. Greet driver and ask for license, med.card, log book, bills and registration. This type of driver pulls a pile of papers from there, here and everywhere, stuff blows out on the highway. After a few minutes you might get the license after he can locate his 3rd wallet. The registration has the last two weeks worth of food smeared on it, that's if they can find it all. The medical card they hand you every medical certificate dating back to 1990, except for the current one. The log book....oh where to begin. "I left it at the truck stop, ....I forgot to fill it out since 3 weeks ago,........I just forgot to draw my line." "Forgot to draw your line from when?.....Last month...there's noting in here". And my favorite is "I don't have any bills" Why not? "They are going to fax them to me, but my load is sealed" I know some of you will not believe drivers do this, but I had one driver last week that did exactly all of this on a traffic stop. The very next truck I stopped I met one of the most professional drivers, for that fact person in general, than I have dealt with in my entire 12 year cateer. Fella had it all together, had a binder with all the registrations, permits, log was completly filled out and current, license and registration and had it ready by the time I walkd to the truck.

I can tell you how most guys and gals I work with are. When we encounter the first scenario driver, you can usually find all kinds of violations and a lot of out of service ones as well. When I encounter a driver that has his "stuff" together I rarely find anything wrong. I can't tell you why but that has been my experience. The only thing I can attribute it to is that the squared away driver, takes the time to do it right and in the long run it pays off.

 

Don't know if this is any help. The SC Highway Patrol as been under much turmoil the past year and many stories on in the news. Just a suggestion. Send your story to WIS TV in Columbia SC. They love getting on city, county and state government. Good luck.

 

Was it the SC Highyway Patrol or SC Transport Police . Both are under the Dept Public Safety.

 

Both LEOs and Truck Drivers are supposed to be "PROFESSIONAL." And I believe for the most part, most of both groups are.

But there is another thing that both groups are. "Human Beings." And human beings are fallible. We screw up. We make mistakes. We have egos. We have other problems that sometimes are on our mind, when we should be concentrating on our jobs.

Those of us who have done both the LEO bit, and the driving bit, know this. I have seen a LOT of LEOs that are really down on truck drivers. And a LOT of truck drivers that are down on LEOs. I think that in both cases, it is because of folks who are so involved with themselves, that they can't even begin to picture themselves in the other guy's shoes.

If we can work together to keep our interactions on a strictly "professional" level, it will go a lot smoother for both of us. After all, we both have jobs to do.

 

Then would you please be so kind as to tell me what I would have done had I not contacted my law firm in Columbia, SC when I got a citation by a butthole of a local police officer in Kentucky?

The idiot couldn't give decent hand signals to save his life! He threatened to have me arrested and hauled off to jail. By the time it was all over and done, I wrote out a statement, informed my company regarding the entire situation, then called my firm and told them about the whole disgusting scenario. They found a lawyer in KY in the original jurisdiction who was qualified to handle the case. I paid $150 to him to represent me. He did his job and I still have a clean driving record.

I'm sorry that you had such bad luck, but I don't have the time nor the energy to stand before a judge or a jury and try to explain my side of the story. As a professional driver, a judge or jury will not be on my side. I need someone (if this ever happens again) who understands the legal system better than I do to represent me.

I have a prepaid plan, and it's been worth its weight in gold for those times that I just needed some advice on what to do. Again, they understand the system and a good attorney knows the lingo and what he needs to do to keep points off my driving record.

If any driver chooses to go to court and represent themselves, here's what I have to say, and I have absolutely no problems saying this:

"He who represents himself in court has a fool for a client."