Fighting a ticket for not having apportioned plates in PA?

I reread the entire thread. I see nothing that indicates I am wrong. I see nothing to apologize for. Licensing is pretty cut and dried. He was supposed to have it and didn't. What an officer might do or what a court could do, or even what happened to someone else in a different state is irrelevant. All he can do is go to court and see if the court might cut him some slack. And even if the court does, it wont change my position or make me wrong, because the court would not have to change anything. Nothing that happens now will change the fact that he got caught without required documents when he should have had them. Good day.

 

Jon,

Sorry I am late to the party, it has been a busy week and I have had limited access to the internet.

There is nothing to fight, and PA is not like NY where they automatically look to enter a plea agreement in a pre-trial conference. You can plea not guilty and try to have the court reduce the fine, but most likely they will not. This citation will go in front of an elected magistrate that is not a lawyer or professional judge and as such they usually have little knowledge of law and often rule based on the officer's recommendation or their personal feelings.

You need apportioned plates any time you have a vehicle with a gross weight rating or actual weight greater than 26,001 pounds or your power unit has 3 or more axles. There are a few exceptions for school bus, rv and farm vehicles.

PA is tough on this, they also enforce a dual registration program for under 26,000 pound vehicles that either are based in PA but owned/operated by out of state businesses or that are based out of state but do point to point work within the Commonwealth often. Western PA, specifically the Pittsburgh area is notorious for enforcing this on Ohio and West Virginia based businesses. They require you to register and display a PA plate in conjunction with your home state (since they don't allow apportioned registration under 26k in PA). Very few states still enforce this, ours is one. Most others only care about the heavier trucks.

As for the fine, it is based on your actual weight as if your truck was not registered at all, and PA does not have to provide a scale ticket along with the citation, the officer's will put the weighr on the citation and that meets their burden of proof.

 

Thanks for your detailed response as always!!

The officer didn’t provide a scale ticket and he didn’t provide the weight on the no apportioned plates ticket. Not sure if that matters at all, I just wish I knew what weight we were at.

You mentioned the fine is based off our weight. Is it our total weight? Or weight over 26,001? Also do you know what the fine is per lb? Thanks

 

If he didn't note the weight on the citation then he may have just written the citation for the no registration violation. That fine is usually twice the cost of the registration plus court costs.

If it was weight based it would be for total weight, as he most likely considered your truck as unregistered. That fine can be .05 per pound if I recall correctly. I did not look this up today, but it can be found in Title 75 PA Vehicle Code which is easy to find with a google search.

One last thing, if you.do decide to fight it, in PA the officer that wrote the ticket acts as prosecutor, sonif your driver had a bad experience with him roadside it will most likely carry over into court, unlike NY where you typically deal with a junior member of the local District Attorney's office and not the officer directly.

 

No, you’re wrong

 

Once I got pulled over, in Pa. Officer claimed my trailer wasn’t registered. He said, He could tow It, and fine Me $1000. Gave Me a break, log book ticket. ( I had rolled through a stop sign, in Industrial Park.) right in front of him. Lol not good, went to court, and beat the ticket, He was angry, Lol. Only good experience I’ve had in Pa. court, other times the Magristrate, and Officers both agree on everything. I wouldn’t go to court in Pa. without a Lawyer, you don’t have a chance. Good Luck,