Legal Question in Traffic Law in New Jersey
I got pulled over in NJ by a cop. He stated that my car's registration was expired. I did renew my registration, however I didn't have the latest registration card in the car at the time. One additional thing was that when I renewed the registration I signed up for special number plates. When I received the special number plates I received two registration cards one for the special number plate and the other for my existing number plate. I thought both plates were valid (both registration cards said its valid through 2013), thus I kept using the old plates.
I explained this whole scenario to the cop, but after running his search, he said that my car wasn't registered. He stated that he searched based on my car's VIN and it was not coming up. He then said that he cant let me drive the car. Thus he got my car towed. I even showed him an email receipt for my payment to dmv for the renewal, but he said that it didn't mean anything to him.
After a couple of hours I went to the state police headquarters, explained the whole scenario and showed both the registrations and got release papers for the car. They said that the fault was still mine because I didn't put the new plates and that I still have to pay the fine (the ticket is for driving an unregistered vehicle)
Now my question here is; did the cop have any right to confiscate my car even though my car was registered? I might be at fault here because I didn't put the new plates but does this fault deserve a punishment of getting your car towed, paying for the cab service back home and also paying the tow company? Clearly this was a mistake on his end as he didn't search properly. Also I think he lied when he told me that he searched based on my car's VIN number as if he had done so, the car's new registration/license number would have come up.
What could be my course of action here? Thanks for the help!
1 Answer from Attorneys
You are lucky you were not charged with fictitious plates. I do not see anything wrong with the issuance of the summons or the towing based upon the plate issue.
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