You wake up, go outside to get the mail, notice a ticket on your car’s windshield that wasn’t there last night, and are now wide awake and likely angry. How could you get a ticket parked in your own driveway? It turns out that your car’s tags were expired and the officer thought you needed to know.
It’s a frequent question: Can you be issued a citation on private property in New Jersey? One of the most common situations where this question comes up involves stop signs in a private business’s parking lot. Is it permissible for a police officer to issue a ticket for running one of these signs?
These are excellent questions without readily available answers. If you are unsure of the validity of a traffic citation, contact a New Jersey traffic violation lawyer from Jean Baptiste & Associates, LLC to discuss your case and determine what your options might be.
The legality of a citation given on private property in New Jersey all comes down to whether the private property is openly accessible to the public. If it is, an officer can pull you over and ticket you.
For example, if you run a stop sign and then turn down a private driveway where the average individual could be prosecuted for entering, the officer normally cannot follow you. However, if the officer had already engaged his or her lights before you turned onto the driveway, then the police have the right to follow you as a fresh pursuit.
To return to our first examples, the legality of a ticket for expired tags given for a parked car in a driveway will depend on a number of variables: whether the driveway is private or open to the public, for example.
For the question of parking lot stop signs, because the lot is open to the public, the officer actually can issue a ticket for running one of these stop signs.
No matter what happens, you should not argue with the police officer about anything. Doing so will usually only make things worse for you. Instead, you should leave all of the arguing to your attorney. The defense against a violation on private property will depend on the offense you are being charged with and the circumstances it was cited in.
If you have been issued a traffic citation while on private property in New Jersey, you should do everything you can to fight the charges and the penalties. The financial costs can damage your family’s wellbeing, and the points can further strain your finances through higher insurance rates. You may also be at risk for getting your license suspended.
You should contact the New Jersey traffic violation lawyers from Jean Baptiste & Associates, LLC as soon as possible. Please call us at 1-800-531-6442 to schedule a free legal consultation. You can also reach us online and set a time for one of our friendly associates to call you back at your convenience.
