Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/683061
Legal Lane By Jim Klepper, Attorney at Law 34 // COMPANY DRIVER // JUNE 2016 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 flies just seem to know you are there? You pick a place, get the food out and get ready to eat and BOOM, the flies 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 traffic tickets, like flies to a picnic. Very few, if any, professional, careful, and safe truck drivers have not received a citation during their career. What you do after receiv- ing that citation 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 enforcement officer that you violated the law. Second, it is a summons to either pay a fine 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 decision of guilt or innocence is left to a judge or jury, neither of which witnessed the alleged infrac- tion. Unfortunately for the driver, the citation/ violation issued during an inspection is left to the officer who did the inspection 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 un- less 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 find you. When it does find you, it will either put you in jail, out-of-service, suspend your license, give you a big fine or all of the above plus the fine. The question becomes what is the best thing for a driver to do when he receives a citation. My answer; fight it, fight it, fight it. You should fight the citation because you might win, you might get the charge reduced or the fine reduced; all which help you keep your CDL. The citation today may not cost you your job or your CDL, but if you add it with future citations it certainly will cost you your job or CDL. Sounds harsh, but it hap- pens every day. What if you think you are guilty, should