Car Insurance

There are two broad categories of traffic tickets. Knowing which you have is important when determining what to do in your situation.

A lot of times when you have a minor violation and it wont result in any points on your license its best to go ahead and pay it and avoid trying to challenge it in traffic court.

Traffic violations come under two main headings. They can either be moving violations or non moving violations. They usually involve smaller fines and can be something as simple as a parking or headlight ticket.

Plus, as a bonus they do not show up on your driving record, which means your auto insurance company won’t find out about them.

Non moving violations can be things such as not wearing your seatbelt, a broken headlight or improperly parking your vehicle.

These types of violations are usually better dealt with by just paying the fine. Taking the matter to court is more of a hassle on your part because the fine being imposed is normally not more than $50. The amount of time, energy and cost involved in contesting the charged violation is not worth it. Besides, these types of tickets are very hard to beat in court. I mean, either you parked illegally or you didn’t.

However if the ticket can cleared easily you should certainly try. For example a ticket for a non working tail light can be dismissed if you show proof you fixed it in most cases.

A moving violation on the other hand, is any violation of the law, committed by the driver of a vehicle, while it is in motion. The term “motion” distinguishes it from ‘non-moving’ violations. While parking tickets are charged against a vehicle (which will be towed if violations go unpaid or are frequent), moving violations are charged against the person driving. Moving violations are usually classified as infractions or misdemeanors, but serious violations can be considered felonies.

In most places, moving violations involve fines which must be paid as well as punitive points assessed to the license of the driver. As a driver accumulates points, he or she may be required to attend defensive driving lessons, re-take his or her driving test or even surrender his or her license.

In the US fines are in set amounts that can vary from $50 or so, up to and even surpassing $750 in some instances. In other countries traffic violation fines can be set proportional to the individuals income, and judgments of $100,000 or more aren’t unheard of!

Common moving violations include: speeding (by far the most common violation) , running a stop sign or red traffic light, failure to yield to someone with the right of way, failing to maintain a single lane, not stopping for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, crossing the gore (striped area), failure to secure a load to a truck, driving in a car pool lane illegally, or driving too slow for road conditions, particularly in a left-hand lane

More serious moving violations include: racing on a public street, road rage, drunk driving, and vehicular homicide

Traffic violations are also broken down into either civil or criminal. While they both have points and fines associated with them, only criminal violations can wind up you up in jail.

The sentence imposed in a criminal case is an obligation that a person has towards the “state” for violation of law; that is, it is a punishment for the act that was committed. The ‘state’ could be a local township, municipality, city, county, state or the federal government. These are moving violations to avoid at all costs, obviously.

Learn more about different moving violations. Stop by Steven Swihart’s site where you can find out all about fighting traffic tickets for your individual needs. This article, What’s The Difference Between Moving Violations And Non Moving Violations is available for free reprint.