What? Insurance not verifiable?

Meriden said:

I would skip the forums and call the county court clerk or a local (it has to be local) lawyer.

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As it starts in a magistrate court (J.P.; City; etc.), I would call there first. Calling the county clerk or the county attorney might be premature as they are usually involved only after the matter has been appealed from the magistrate court to the county court.

In my experience the person taking the call was reasonable and simply asked that a copy of the insurance form be mailed or faxed and the matter will be dismissed. They are in a better position to determine whether or not the insurance was valid at the time of the stop. Clearly the officer was suspicious (or incompetent) and passed it onto the magistrate to further investigate. (or, was on a fishing expedition for generating revenue)

Bottom line, if the insurance was in effect there should be no violation. Even when you have insurance and are unable to produce the card there is a violation for failure to prove insurance. Proving there was coverage is a remedy they should be okay with.

M38A1 said:

So here's a sidebar question....

In theory, if an officer made the stop under the premise of issuing a 'non-verifiable insurance' violation (which is assumed does not exist), could there be a constitutional argument that an unlawful seizure has occurred?

For the common citizen, mistake of fact is not a defense against a criminal charge. But what happens when a member of a police agency stops, detains and issues a citation for something which does not exist? Has an unlawful seizure been effected?

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I believe unlawful seizure has gone the way of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Its called "Civil Forfeiture" now:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/institu...-texas-seize-millions-by-policing-for-profit/

Speeding was the infraction and the Probable Cause for the stop.

Texas Transportation Code 601.053 states what is evidence of financial responsibility. Apparently, according to the officer, the document provided to him/her was insufficient to prove financial responsibility.

It's now gone to the Justice of the Peace (JP) court and she should contact them in the proscribed time frame given on the citation. Failure to do so will result in a warrant issued for her arrest for "failure to appear".

The database used by Texas police is maintained by Texas DPS. It has its flaws but it does work correctly most of the time. It is up to the insurance carriers to report to DPS each vehicle registered and insured with them in TX then someone at DPS has to enter that information into the database. Other states have similar databases and sometimes that information is shared, sometimes not. If the system from OK did not relay insurance information or stated that the vehicles insurance was expired it's not set in stone, all you have to do is provide proof of a valid policy. The law does not state it has to be a paper copy only that you have to provide adequate proof. An app on a phone, say if Progressive has an app, that shows proof of liability would be adequate to most.

It all breaks down to show proof to the JP court before the deadline and they should dismiss it. Show the entire policy if that's what it takes, proof that it was in effect at the time of the stop. Failure to do so will give her a warrant that will never go away so if she comes back to TX in ten years and gets her info run again through TCIC/NCIC it will pop up and it's up to the police officer to decide whether or not to take her to jail for it.

Argue about how the system works or doesn't work all you want but that's how it is. Without having been there it's hard to make a judgement on if the officer made the right decision or not. Usually the person telling the tale will embellish their side to make them sound like the victim and leave out some important details that may incriminate them. She may have argued with the officer or shown an old outdated insurance form then found the new one later. Only your daughter and the officer knows what went on at that stop.

An interesting way to address this type of problem (assuming one exists in this case), would be a state law precluding cities and counties from keeping the proceeds of traffic fines. The money, every cent of it, would all go to a state fund for something totally unrelated to police activities, perhaps road construction, and would be allocated without regard to its source. That should eliminate the motive for all these small towns near busy roads to view them as a revenue source. If these towns still want a big police force, they can still have it, but will have to fund it themselves. The conflict of interest would be gone.

Any update from the OP on this issue? I have been following this one close as I once got a ticket in Kansas for the same thing. The odds of me going back to Kansas to fight it was never going to happen since I live in Florida. I called my insurance company and gave them the number to call and they did all the work. A few days later I got a note in the mail letting me know it was dismissed. But Kansas isn't Texas....things are different in Texas.....a lot different...

Swagfu said:

Any update from the OP on this issue? I have been following this one close as I once got a ticket in Kansas for the same thing. The odds of me going back to Kansas to fight it was never going to happen since I live in Florida. I called my insurance company and gave them the number to call and they did all the work. A few days later I got a note in the mail letting me know it was dismissed. But Kansas isn't Texas....things are different in Texas.....a lot different...

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See my post #14

wanabeguru said:

See my post #14

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I read your post originally and thought the same thing. I was just curious if the OP got it solved.

Last time I got a ticket I spoke to the ADA and got deferred adjudication without going to court. I'd assume you should do the same thing to clear up this stupid situation.