Who would have thought that working for the government would get so many new and interesting types of sucky customers?
Well, for those who haven't heard (so, pretty much anyone who isn't friends on Facebook), I have a new job at a government agency, and has this brought out the best in the people I deal with. Shall we begin?
Don't admit to crimes we didn't know about
Here is a very important lesson if you are ever pulled over by Nevada (or any state's) Highway Patrol DON'T MAKE YOUR DEFENSE A CONFESSION OF CRIMES THE OFFICER DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT.
Yeah, we had someone who was pulled over for not having a properly apportioned plate on a commercial vehicle. All the officer knew was that this guy was illegally operating for that day... what was the driver's defense?
"Officer, I don't understand the problem, I've been driving with these plates without any type of temporary permit for over three months now."
So, for those of you keeping score, in addition to any moving violation that NHP assesses, there is also a registration violation that is assessed at a $500 base fine, plus $5 per day of violation, plus $0.15 per estimated mile traveled (based on bill of lading for the vehicle). So, this guy, rather than looking at a fine of roughly $525, in attempting to "defend" himself is now looking at a $2,200 fine. Yeah, don't confess to crimes we don't know about.
Nice try scammer
Oh, that's nice, you are trying to claim that you shouldn't have to pay the fine for not having a properly apportioned plate because you had a temporary permit, and you have attached said permit in your appeal... oh, and look, it is a horrible copy that is almost unreadable... that's okay, we recognize which vendor you bought it from, we were able to call them and find out when they sold it to you... oh, you bought it about an hour before you faxed it to us as "proof" that you had a proper permit when you were pulled over and the officer made a mistake...
Yeah, nice try... I was nice enough to apply what the vendor was going to remit to us towards your fine, but I hope you realize we allow them to take a massive commission, so you really just paid an extra $30 over what you would have paid if you had just been honest enough to pay the fine. Good going.
Nice try scammer, the sequel
Another fun appeal to a fine, trying to claim that the vehicle was a personal use vehicle and shouldn't be subject to commercial vehicle laws... and then proceeded to send in a registration that listed the vehicle as a commercial vehicle... oops.
Nice try scammer, the threequel
We tend to get a lot of these... appeal came in, this time on a violation of maximum registered weight violation, with the claim that they had fixed their registration and therefor were no longer in violation of the registration rules.... well, here's the problem, we appreciate that you sent us a copy of your current registration, but as it is that you are registered in Nevada, we already had that, oh and we had the registration history and we saw that despite the law saying that you have 30 days after conviction of any moving violation regarding weight class to fix your registration, you didn't fix yours until nearly two months after you were convicted and after we sent you a letter stating that you were facing a fine for not having fixed your registration on time... so, while we appreciate you fixing your registration, don't try to pull a fast one on us and claim you did it on time.
Oh, I am so scared
So, how Nevada law works, any violation that involves registration is both a criminal offense and a civil offense. And, with how the law is written, we must wait for the NHP to finish with any criminal fines before we can begin assessing civil fines. Would it be nice if we could just get all fines done at once? Yeah, it would be, but that's not how the law is written.
Well, I had a fun phone call last week. This lady had sent in a letter stating that she refused to pay the same fine twice, and besides, her driver had purchased a permit right after being notified that he needed one. Great, he fixed his registration violation quickly enough that we can reduce the fines, by quite a lot (specifically, the state mandated minimum fine of $100 in this case). Sent out a letter letting her know that we had accepted her appeal and had reduced the fine to $100, and explicitly stated in the letter that this was a civil assessment separate from and in addition to any criminal fines that had been assessed.
Well, this lovely lady called and immediately started screaming that we were guilty of double dipping her and she was going to report us to the USDOT.
Umm, a few things, first, I'm almost positive that the phrase you were looking for was double jeopardy, and nope, criminal and civil are two separate things, this is why OJ was found not guilty of murder but guilty of wrongful death. Second, USDOT doesn't give a damn about registration rules, they are responsible for safety rules, and that is it. Third, the person you'd want to contact is the US Attorney General, and I doubt the USAG is going to get involved in your complaint about being given a civil assessment separate from your criminal one. Fourth, go on, sue us, no, sue me personally, I invite it, my boss has the state's AG on speed dial, let's just see where this goes, it will amuse us.
Well, for those who haven't heard (so, pretty much anyone who isn't friends on Facebook), I have a new job at a government agency, and has this brought out the best in the people I deal with. Shall we begin?
Don't admit to crimes we didn't know about
Here is a very important lesson if you are ever pulled over by Nevada (or any state's) Highway Patrol DON'T MAKE YOUR DEFENSE A CONFESSION OF CRIMES THE OFFICER DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT.
Yeah, we had someone who was pulled over for not having a properly apportioned plate on a commercial vehicle. All the officer knew was that this guy was illegally operating for that day... what was the driver's defense?
"Officer, I don't understand the problem, I've been driving with these plates without any type of temporary permit for over three months now."
So, for those of you keeping score, in addition to any moving violation that NHP assesses, there is also a registration violation that is assessed at a $500 base fine, plus $5 per day of violation, plus $0.15 per estimated mile traveled (based on bill of lading for the vehicle). So, this guy, rather than looking at a fine of roughly $525, in attempting to "defend" himself is now looking at a $2,200 fine. Yeah, don't confess to crimes we don't know about.
Nice try scammer
Oh, that's nice, you are trying to claim that you shouldn't have to pay the fine for not having a properly apportioned plate because you had a temporary permit, and you have attached said permit in your appeal... oh, and look, it is a horrible copy that is almost unreadable... that's okay, we recognize which vendor you bought it from, we were able to call them and find out when they sold it to you... oh, you bought it about an hour before you faxed it to us as "proof" that you had a proper permit when you were pulled over and the officer made a mistake...
Yeah, nice try... I was nice enough to apply what the vendor was going to remit to us towards your fine, but I hope you realize we allow them to take a massive commission, so you really just paid an extra $30 over what you would have paid if you had just been honest enough to pay the fine. Good going.
Nice try scammer, the sequel
Another fun appeal to a fine, trying to claim that the vehicle was a personal use vehicle and shouldn't be subject to commercial vehicle laws... and then proceeded to send in a registration that listed the vehicle as a commercial vehicle... oops.
Nice try scammer, the threequel
We tend to get a lot of these... appeal came in, this time on a violation of maximum registered weight violation, with the claim that they had fixed their registration and therefor were no longer in violation of the registration rules.... well, here's the problem, we appreciate that you sent us a copy of your current registration, but as it is that you are registered in Nevada, we already had that, oh and we had the registration history and we saw that despite the law saying that you have 30 days after conviction of any moving violation regarding weight class to fix your registration, you didn't fix yours until nearly two months after you were convicted and after we sent you a letter stating that you were facing a fine for not having fixed your registration on time... so, while we appreciate you fixing your registration, don't try to pull a fast one on us and claim you did it on time.
Oh, I am so scared
So, how Nevada law works, any violation that involves registration is both a criminal offense and a civil offense. And, with how the law is written, we must wait for the NHP to finish with any criminal fines before we can begin assessing civil fines. Would it be nice if we could just get all fines done at once? Yeah, it would be, but that's not how the law is written.
Well, I had a fun phone call last week. This lady had sent in a letter stating that she refused to pay the same fine twice, and besides, her driver had purchased a permit right after being notified that he needed one. Great, he fixed his registration violation quickly enough that we can reduce the fines, by quite a lot (specifically, the state mandated minimum fine of $100 in this case). Sent out a letter letting her know that we had accepted her appeal and had reduced the fine to $100, and explicitly stated in the letter that this was a civil assessment separate from and in addition to any criminal fines that had been assessed.
Well, this lovely lady called and immediately started screaming that we were guilty of double dipping her and she was going to report us to the USDOT.
Umm, a few things, first, I'm almost positive that the phrase you were looking for was double jeopardy, and nope, criminal and civil are two separate things, this is why OJ was found not guilty of murder but guilty of wrongful death. Second, USDOT doesn't give a damn about registration rules, they are responsible for safety rules, and that is it. Third, the person you'd want to contact is the US Attorney General, and I doubt the USAG is going to get involved in your complaint about being given a civil assessment separate from your criminal one. Fourth, go on, sue us, no, sue me personally, I invite it, my boss has the state's AG on speed dial, let's just see where this goes, it will amuse us.
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