Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/671314
Law 101 Trucking by Jim C. Klepper - Attorney at Law 800-333-DRIVE www.interstatetrucker.com www.driverslegalplan.com Citation: The Next Step Y ou know how on a warm Sunday summer afternoon, when you get the spouse and kids outside on a picnic how the fl ies just seem to know you are there? You pick a place, get the food out and get ready to eat and BOOM, the fl ies just show up and want a bite of whatever you are eating. It's the same way in trucking. Trucks and truck drivers just seem to attract traffi c tickets, like fl ies to a picnic. Very few, if any, professional, care- ful, and safe truck drivers have not received a citation during their career. What you do after receiving that cita- tion will have a large impact on your CDL, your MVR, and your CSA score. To protect yourself you must understand what a citation really is. First, it is the opinion of a law enforce- ment offi cer that you violated the law. Second, it is a summons to either pay a fi ne or appear in court to answer for the alleged violation of the law. Third, if issued during an inspection, it is a violation that may add points to your CSA score. Fortunately for the driver, the deci- sion of guilt or innocence is left to a judge or jury, neither of which wit- nessed the alleged infraction. Un- fortunately for the driver, the citation/ violation issued during an inspection is left to the offi cer who did the inspec- tion and wrote the violation, which was there and has little inclination to change his mind later. You have a citation in your hand, what should you do? You could just pay it which is a guilty plea and go on down the road unless the judge demands you show up in court. You could plead not guilty and get a court date, where you could return to the court and defend yourself. You could just ignore it and hope it goes away. I suggest you DO NOT ignore it and hope it goes away because it will not; it will get big and mean and come to fi nd you. When it does fi nd you, it will either put you in jail, out-of-service, suspend your license, give you a big fi ne or all of the above plus the fi ne. The question becomes what is the best thing for a driver to do when he receives a citation. My answer; fi ght it, fi ght it, fi ght it. You should fi ght the citation because you might win, you 12 www.studentdriverplacement.com May '16