Washington
Washington State cell phone tickets may be invalid Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Thousands of cell phone traffic tickets may soon be dismissed in Washington State.
Certain police departments in certain areas of the state may not have had the authority to issue the tickets and charge individuals with this particular violation because the state forgot to update a rule book after the current stricter law passed.
Tickets written by state troopers apparently are not in question. The ones in question are those written by a handful of local police departments scattered around the state which rely The Model Traffic Ordinance, or MTO. The MTO is a document created by the Department of Licensing that most smaller and mid-sized cities adopt. It puts state laws into effect in the city and saves smaller cities the time and money required to write hundreds of traffic laws. It is supposed to be updated automatically when new traffic laws go into effect.
The state is still trying to sort out which police departments are affected.
Drivers who got a ticket after July 1 are out of luck because the state of Washington quickly updated it’s rule book.
If you have any questions about a cellphone ticket issued anywhere in Washington State, feel free to see if there is a local TicketHELP.com attorney in the area who can help.