I received a ticket in NY for “no inspection”.
Officer told me my inspections been expired a little over a year, which isn’t true because my car is properly registered in Arizona, with my NY address, and no inspection is required. My AZ registration needed renewing during the pandemic, and they gave me a waiver which allowed my car to be registered to me while out of state until 2025.
I told the officer Arizona doesn’t require inspection, handed her all of my registration documents and she still gave me the ticket. She said don’t even show up to court, just bring proof of inspection to the precinct and they will dismiss the ticket. That info was incorrect. I went to the court where you say innocent/guilty and told them everything above, I even went the next morning and got an inspection for NY even though it wasn’t needed. They still gave me another court date for the pre trial…
Anyone else experience something like this? What should I expect and what should I say? I’ve never had to go to court before for traffic tickets.
Also, I have been pulled over at least 10 times in the same car and not once have they mentioned the inspection… (I live in a small town and they love to bother people with out of state plates).
You should consult with a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Sorry for such unhelpful advice, but that’s really what you should be doing.
And welcome.
From here.
Register an out-of-state vehicle
Do I need to register my vehicle in New York State?
It depends
if you aren’t a resident of New York, the registration from your state of residence is valid here
if you move to New York and become a resident, you must register your vehicle here within 30 days of becoming a resident (moving)
Are they going to ask for proof of where I’m a resident of? What if I say I’m a caregiver for someone in each state and I go back and forth… it’s not a lie… my registration is legit and it’s an Arizona registration with my ny address because I was out of state, in New York, when I had to do the registration renewal
Thank you but I don’t have time for a lawyer because my court date is tomorrow… I also think a lawyer would cost more than the fine
IANAL, but if you live in NY for over half a year you might be officially a NY resident. Unfortunately your NY address may be damning in this case.
Just googled it. If you live more than 184 days in NY you are a NY resident. There might be an exception for college students but I don’t know, never having been one in NY.
I would never tell someone to not get a lawyer. It’s their personal choice.
I do believe your legal argument is simple enough to put forth without a lawyer. In general out of state registered vehicles are not held to state laws such as inspection stickers, front plates etc. Depending on how the law is written it may include vehicles that are principally garaged in NY regardless of the registration. You aren’t arguing that the car was inspected. You are arguing the car shouldn’t be subject to New York laws because it’s registered in a different state. The judge will either agree or not.
How small a town is it ? Small enough that all the police officers know you’ve been pulled over at least ten times in whatever time period it was and or that you live in that small town and are not visiting?
IANAL and you are going to make whatever argument you make to the court - but do not be surprised if you find out you are required to register the car in New York as it is garaged in NY , you are required as a NYS resident to have a NY license and of course you need a NY insurance policy.
It doesn’t actually matter where you are a resident - what matters is where the car is principally garaged. A NY resident can have a car they keep at a second home in Arizona, Florida, Texas and have it registered in that state and it’s perfectly legal. Lots of people do that - but they actually keep that car in the other state and are not driving it in New York. It becomes less believable when the car is registered in PA and is driven in NY every day and even if it is registered in Arizona and driven in NY every day for months.
This is really the nub right here. What does NY law say about your situation? That’s what the judge knows, you don’t know, and we don’t know either.
So tell them your situation and you’ll get a decision. You might not prefer the decision you’ll get, but at least then you’ll know how to comply with the law. Assuming of course you actually want to comply with the law rather than simply doing whatever is most convenient. Not meant as a criticism; you’d hardly be alone in prioritizing convenience over compliance.
I personally have done the same thing: live in multiple states and drive on out of state plates longer than was locally legal. But since that wasn’t in NY I can’t you give any NY-specific insight.
Be aware that if we’re talking about a really small town in New York State you may be dealing with a “village court” or “Justice court,” which are presided over by an elected local citizen who may or may not have any actual background in the law besides a mandatory anti-bias training course.
I went to the court date and they adjourned it… they said it would be a $75 parking ticket if anything but they are going to give me 30 days to decide if I want to pay or take it to trial
Can you still get a multi-car discount if you have cars in different states or is that considered separate policies? Is the answer (pairs of) state-specific? What if your insurance co isn’t licensed in that other state?
I’m not sure - but I know insurance policies differ by state, so I suspect that even if I had GEICO for both my car that’s registered/garaged in Florida and the one in New York it would be two separate policies. But there might still be a discount, just like some companies give a discount for having both home and auto policies.
Steve Lehto (well know long-winded internet lawyer) discussed a similar case from MA in this video: State Reverses Itself: Man Not Required to Register Car in MASS - YouTube
You are in a legal twilight zone. The states can try to do these things but it could result in chaos if they all do it and get away with it. I went through some of this nonsense when I spent a year in CA. I had my car driven out there from NY, but I wasn’t the registered owner of the car, that was the GMAC leasing company so I couldn’t re-register the car in CA. I was also supposed to get a CA drivers license after being there for 6 months. I was pulled over once but the police didn’t think it mattered, and it made sense because I had NY plates on the car and a NY registration. Oddly I had to sit in my car for nearly 1/2 hour waiting for a plain clothes detective to show up. I was baffled by this and assumed they were going to ask to search my car for drugs or something. Turned out the confusion was about how to enter my driver’s license number in there system. It’s a very long number in NY, at least 10 digits I think, but they had no way to run a check on it through their computers. After waiting a very long time they came back to issue me a ticket for an illegal turn (dumb move on my part).