Marysville Docs - Main Page - Illegal Red Light Cameras

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City of Marysville Documents
(and Information)

Marysville, pop. 13,000, is 42 miles north of Sacramento.

Docs Set # 1
Misleading Info on the Court's Website

On Oct. 12, 2006 I noticed that the court's website ( http://www.yubacourts.org ) said:

"If you receive a photo-enforced red light citation or notice of violation and you were not the driver, you must follow the instructions on the citation or notice of violation and complete the accompanying form to identify the driver who committed the violation. If you need further assistance contact Marysville Police Department. Failure to respond to the citation or notice of violation may result in further penalties such as additional fines or driver's license holds."
[Emphasis (bolding) added by highwayrobbery.net.]

I then called them and pointed out that the mandatory "must" was incorrect and should not be on a court website, because no defendant is required to tell anyone who was driving their car, .
( It is OK for such a misleading/false statement to be on a document sent to you by the police - they are allowed to lie to you! But not so for the court. If you do not understand why that is, see the "It's Not Me!" section on the Your Ticket page.)

By Oct . 16 they had changed the website to read:

"If you were not the driver, complete the appropriate section on the citation and mail it immediately to the address on the citation. The agency will contact the court regarding your information. If you fail to complete the required information and return it to the address on the citation and do not appear or contact the court by your assigned date, additional penalties will be added to your case and your driver’s license will be suspended."

While the court personnel removed the "must" and added a mention of appearing in court, the paragraph still is misleading. In fact, in one way they made it even worse. The new wording gives the impression that in addition to filling out the form, you must also ("and") appear in court or contact it, by the due date.
The new wording still fails to make it clear that if you do not want to fill out the form and give the name of the driver, appearing in court is an alternative.