Wednesday, July 04, 2007

More on Virginia's Civil Remedial Fees

Why are the new Virginia Resident Traffic Fees discriminatory?

Well, besides the obvious - the fact that it's just not fair to charge a resident of one state thousands of dollars more than you charge a resident of another state for the exact same infraction, there's this:

Suppose this is you
and you are sitting on the side of I-395 or behind a bush somewhere alongside of The Beltway and you see two cars, one in the 2nd lane and one in the 3rd lane - Both cars are
and they are being driven by middle aged
moms and both vehicles are, oddly enough, the same color, the same make, the same model and the same year and both are going exactly 22 miles over the posted speed limit - but because it is late and you are alone you can only pull over and ticket one of these vehicles. Will you choose Vehicle # 1

which will net your employeers a grand total of $100.00
regardless of this soccer mom's previous driving record?



Or will you choose Vehicle # 2


which is now magically worth a minimum of $1,050.00 even if the driver of this vehicle has a perfectly clean driving record to date and a maximum fee of over than $3,500 if this careless Soccer Mom's already accumulated previous points on his/her license?

A gold-mine for the State of Virginia? Sure, but a gold-mine for


and for someone else as well.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for this link- I'm sending it out to everyone i know around here who drives- this is a bill tailor-made to be self-serving to the people who have the most to gain- I hope it doesn't stand for long- but it will be there long enough for these people to benefit!

I don't have a single moving violation ticket on my record, nothing other than parking, and I seldom speed- but this is still wrong, wrong, wrong!

Lo said...

Yeah, I've never gotten a ticket, either. (Although I once had my license suspended for not having current tags and then forgetting to pay the ticket for not having current tags, even though I had gotten the tags current in between the ticket and the suspension but apparently neglected to tell the court I had done so. I plead stupidity and a kid getting married.) I've never even had a parking ticket. But I'm paranoid now. I'm convinced that I am going to do something wrong and I am going to get pulled over and WHAM BAM THANK YOU M'AM, it is going to cost me a month's salary.

Ugh.

mslevin5 said...

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/VAtrafficfees/index.html

890 Signatures and growing

Anonymous said...

Oh come on get real people, this is not a new law, Va residents did vote on this during last election when they voted for no new taxes. And besides whats to worry about if you're doing the speed limit and obeying all the other traffic laws out there. Seems to me that theres alot of guilty consciousnesses out there. Worrying too much about if they're going to break the law instead of going with it and obeying the laws. Two words for all you Virginians out there, "SPEED LIMIT". Learn what it is and you have no worries.

Lo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lo said...

And, of course, we all know that no one's ever been accused of doing something they weren't doing, right?

Besides, it's not the law itself, or even the "civil remedial fee" that's the kicker, it's the uneven application of law/fee which is the subject of disgust.

In other words, if it's too much to comprehend, imagine how much trouble a government would get into if it fined a person of color at a different rate than a white person for the same offense. The fact that I am a Virginian should not of itself be sufficient reason for the state to hold me to a different standard of conduct than it does a resident of DC or Maryland for committing the same offense.

In this country, laws are meant to be applied across the board - not to single out any one particular group of people and make them "more" guilty than the others.

It's called "equal treatment under the law" and it should mean just as much in Virginia as it does in the other 49 states - one of which I assume you live in.

Lo