FOR more than seven years, drivers have been overcharged hundreds of dollars for minor traffic violations.
Despite a state law setting the fine at $25 in 2017, Columbia Municipal Court has been fining people $232.50 – an increase from $207.
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“Unfortunately, this fine was not uploaded to the City of Columbia Municipal Court Management System,” the court said in a statement.
Of the 129 cases closed in South Carolina court, only nine were charged the correct amount, resulting in more than $22,000 in unfair fines, an investigation by the local NBC affiliate found. WIs-TELEVISION uncovered.
The discovery of this error came to light when Tony Gradel, a local driver, was stopped and fined on June 3.
Gradel was stopped for “illegally changing lanes” and fined US$232.50, an amount he considered excessively high.
After some research, Gradel found the specific section of state law that sets the fine for his exact violation at just $25.
Due to Gradel’s curiosity and diligence, he discovered that the court had been systematically overcharging drivers for years.
“How was this lost?” Gradel asked WIS-TV.
“How come the people charged with upholding the justice system don’t read our laws?” he questioned further.
Online court records indicate that 99 of the 129 drivers were fined the incorrect amount.
Some were even charged an additional 3% or other surcharge fee of more than $25.
Although some drivers received credit for time served on related charges, the total unfair fines amounted to nearly $26,000, as opposed to the approximately $3,225 it should have been.
After realizing the error, the court and the Columbia Police Department promptly adjusted their system on June 5 to reflect the correct amount of the $25 fine.
The city has begun the process of reimbursing those who were fined excessively.
City officials, in a statement, blamed a lack of updating their systems because they were run by Richland County at the time.
The South Carolina Judiciary said no request was found in its call tracking software for the City of Columbia’s fine to be changed to $232.50.
They confirmed that the Richland County IT department, which supported Columbia until May 2023, should have received a request for such a change if necessary.
As the investigation continues, the director of the Richland County IT department is looking for any requests from the city of Columbia to change the fine amount.
Each agency blames a lack of communication for the unfair accusations.
Meanwhile, Gradel’s hearing for his fine is scheduled for next month, with the fine now amended to $25.
“If no one brought it up, they would have continued to do so,” said Gradel, wanting to highlight the importance of paying attention, vigilance and accountability in the justice system.
How to fight a speeding ticket
According to a legally reviewed post, there are five effective strategies for fighting a speeding ticket if it was issued improperly.
- If stopped and a ticket is issued, drivers can discuss or dispute the driver’s personal opinion. When issuing a speeding ticket, the police officer is required to write his opinion and come to an “objective” conclusion. If the fine was written based on this judgment, it can be challenged. An example would be if you were traveling at 75 mph in a 65 mph zone because other people were traveling at the same speed, you could argue that it would be more dangerous to travel at 65 mph.
- You can challenge the police officer’s presentation of evidence. If you’ve been ticketed for something like running a stop sign or making an illegal U-turn, you can’t contest it if a police officer saw you, but you can take things to court like eyewitness accounts, diagrams, or photos.
- Argue that the ticket was issued due to an “error of fact”. This is complicated, but a “mistake of fact” is a mistake made by a driver over a situation that was beyond their control, or if a driver legitimately did not know they were violating the law. For example, you were driving in two lanes because the lane markers were so worn out that you couldn’t see them.
- You could say the circumstances justified his direction. You could say you were speeding to pass a possibly drunk driver or avoiding an accident by quickly changing lanes. However, the argument will not work if there is evidence that you continued to speed after passing.
- Similar to the above, it could be argued that speeding was necessary to avoid harm. The key is to argue that if you weren’t speeding, you or someone else could have been injured.
- Consult a traffic lawyer if all else fails. Many have free consultations to decide whether or not there is a case.
Source: Find Law
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
