This page was updated on Sept 22, 2009 Back to SafetyLawsuits.com
Lawsuit to stop jailing people
for small traffic offenses
or failing to pay a fine, or failure to appear in court for a minor traffic ticket.
by Tim Vawter
This lawsuit is officially listed on the Justia website, Civil case #09-4770Donations to help this lawsuit proceed
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Tim Vawter with this lawsuit to SafetyLawsuits@verizon.net
United States District Court
District of New JerseyAttorney(s) Tim Vawter, pro se, Office Tel# 732- 431-5024
Office address & Tel. No.; 30 W. Main St., Suite 321, Freehold, NJ 07728
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Plaintiff(s)
Tim Vawter, pro se, and on behalf
of others who may be unaware of
the offenses or unable to sue
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Defendant(s) Civil case #09-4770
State of New Jersey
and Freehold Township
------------------------------------ ComplaintParties
Plaintiff;
Tim Vawter, pro se, 30 W. Main St., Suite 321, Freehold, NJ 07728
Tel # 732 - 431-5024Defendants;
#1. State of New Jersey, Attorney Generals office, 25 Market St., PO Box 080, Trenton, NJ 08625-0080 Tel # 609-292-8740#2. Township of Freehold, One Municipal Plaza, Freehold, NJ 07728
Tel # 732-294-2150Jurisdiction
Violation of the 5th amendment constitutional right to “due process”,
Violation of the 8th amendment constitutional right forbidding “cruel and unusual punishment”, and more.Cause of Action
Definition of terms;
Defendant #1 is the State of New Jersey and also “Motor Vehicles”#1. Defendant #1 negligently writes wrong plate number down
On January 13, 2009 the plaintiff Tim Vawter returned three old license plates to Motor Vehicles. Prior to that time, the plaintiff Tim Vawter was informed by the State of NJ, which runs Motor Vehicles, that his drivers license was suspended because he failed to return those three old license plates. When he brought the plates back, the Motor Vehicles employee incorrectly wrote down one of the license plates with one digit wrong (see Exhibit E; Incorrect receipt NJ Motor Vehicles handed the plaintiff Tim Vawter on 1/13/2009. Two of the receipts were correct, while the third receipt had an incorrect plate number on it # EDK 12X (see Exhibit E). The State of NJ failed to properly train its Motor Vehicles employees. The Motor Vehicles employee then incorrectly told the plaintiff Tim Vawter that his license could now be restored. She said the Plaintiff could pay the restoration fee with a charge card on the Motor Vehicles Internet website and then he could drive. The plaintiff went home and at 11:06 AM on that same day he paid the $200.00 restoration fee to NJ Motor Vehicles on their Internet website. The website said it was operated by a company called Official Payments Corporation, as did the receipt they emailed the plaintiff just after he made the $200.00 payment (see Exhibit A; Receipt for payment of drivers license restoration fee). Neither the website, nor the receipt, gave the plaintiff the slightest warning that his license was still suspended. The plaintiff drove that night and was wrongfully given a ticket for “driving while suspended” (see Exhibit C). The State of NJ engaged in gross negligence and “failure to properly train”.#2. It is “almost impossible” to see if license is suspended
The Motor Vehicles website has a phone number a citizen can call to see if his license is still suspended. The plaintiff Tim Vawter phoned several times, but the phone number was either continually busy, or it rang forever, making it impossible to find out. The plaintiff drove that night as any reasonable person would do, was pulled over and told by the policeman his license was still suspended, and was issued a “driving while suspended” ticket. The plaintiff drove the night of 1/13/2009 for these reasons (#1) He had already returned the three old license plates as Motor Vehicles requested, (#2) The woman at Motor Vehicles told him “Just pay the $200.00 fee and you are fine. You can drive ”, and (#3), The Motor Vehicles payment website accepted the $200.00 payment but failed to inform the plaintiff his license was still suspended. The next day, on 1/14/2009, the plaintiff Tim Vawter phoned NJ Motor Vehicles to find out what happened. They told him that one of the license plates he returned on 1/13/2009 was incorrectly entered on the computer by Motor Vehicles, and he was given an incorrect receipt. They told him to go back to Motor Vehicles and ask them to correct the mistake. On 1/15/2009 the plaintiff returned to Motor Vehicles to tell them of the mistake they made. When he showed the woman at Motor Vehicles the incorrect receipt they had given him, she said “Everybody makes mistakes” and issued the plaintiff a new receipt correctly showing he brought back plate # WDK 12X (see Exhibit F; Correct receipt NJ Motor Vehicles handed the plaintiff). However, the State of NJ has yet to back date his license restoration so it correctly shows he was restored on 1/13/2009. Because of this, Freehold Twp municipal court is unable to drop the charges against him for driving while suspended on the night of 1/13/2009 because Motor Vehicles’ records show his license wasn't restored until 1/15/2009. The State of NJ is grossly negligent by making it “almost impossible” for a person to find out whether his drivers license is suspended. Other citizens have also suffered damages as a result of this negligence. By spending a small amount of money, the State of NJ could have made it “relatively easy” for anyone in New Jersey to use the Internet to see if his drivers license is suspended, which would thus prevent many NJ drivers from incorrectly receiving tickets for “driving while suspended”. Under present NJ laws, people falsely accused of “driving while suspended” can be wrongfully put in jail as a result of the State of NJ's mistakes because it can be “almost impossible” for a person to see if his license is suspended. The offenses engaged in are gross negligence and “failure to properly train” for failure to maintain a simple, quick way citizens can see if their licenses are suspended.#3. Denying 5th amendment right to “due process”
When Motor Vehicles makes mistakes and refuses to correct them, like failing to correctly back-date the plaintiff’s date of license restoration, this can cause a person to be falsely convicted of offenses like “driving with a suspended license” where he receives a big fine and even jail time. There is a pending “injury in fact” threat which will violate the plaintiff Tim Vawter and other citizens’ 5th amendment constitutional right to “due process” if the laws allowing Motor Vehicles to do this are not deemed unconstitutional and amended. Motor Vehicles can basically deliver “a judgment” which has the same effect as a court judgment. That judgment can be based on Motor Vehicles own internal gross negligence which it refuses to correct, where the victim is denied “due process” and is unable to appeal this judgment. Although Motor Vehicles hands down judgments, it is not a court of law, nor is it staffed with trained court personnel or judges, nor does it grant a person a lawful defense or “due process”. In other words, Motor Vehicles is handing down judgments against citizens in the manner of municipal courts, while denying those citizens most forms of a defense, “due process” or appeals, etc., all of this being wholly unconstitutional.#4. Jailing citizens for trivial offenses violates 8th amendment
The State of New Jersey has unconstitutional laws and statutes on the books that jail citizens for mistakes made by motor vehicles, or for minor motor vehicle offenses with no bodily injury, or failure to appear in municipal court. In these days of tough economic times in America, the penalties imposed by such statutes as N.J.S.A. 39:3-40 must be considered “cruel and unusual punishment” and reduced so as to allow low income citizens, injured people, disabled people, and hardship situations to receive much lower penalties than N.J.S.A. 39:3-40 presently allows. By imposing such harsh, unconstitutional punishments, the plaintiff and other citizens can suffer damages in the form of depression, fear, anxiety, and more.#5. Inadequate standards for ink and paper
The State of NJ has failed to set basic standards for the paper, ink, and form of the traffic tickets currently in use by municipalities throughout New Jersey. There is a preponderance of evidence to show that for years many citizens have complained about being unable to read the traffic tickets issued to them, and the plaintiff Tim Vawter is asking the court to address this matter (as an example see Exhibit C; Two traffic tickets given to the plaintiff). Most tickets issued are readable, but some are so illegible they are unreadable. For example, a policeman writes a ticket instructing a driver is to appear in court on 3/1/09. Without ink standards, a number 6 can look like a 0, or a 1 can appear as a 7, and similar. There are currently no adequate standards in place for the ink used by policemen for writing traffic tickets, thus causing the driver to fail to appear in court. Summonses and arrest warrants also have no adequate basic standards for ink and printing. Thousands of NJ drivers experience this problem of being unable to read these documents because ink fades, resulting in people’s improper arrest. These people are incorrectly found guilty and can be wrongfully sent to jail. Under present law, traffic tickets, municipal summonses, and municipal warrants can be of very poor quality, almost entirely unreadable. The outer envelopes of summonses are small and therefore can be mistaken for junk mail. A grandparent, or person with poor eyesight, can inadvertently throw a municipal court summons in the trash can, mistaking it for an advertisement by its outer appearance. The person to whom the summons was addressed may not even know a summons was sent to him, thereby causing him to miss the court date through no fault of his own, even to be arrested. This manner of imprisoning people because grandma accidentally threw away what looked like an ad is beyond outrageous, it is unconstitutional. It is a violation of any citizen’s 8th amendment constitutional right to be free from “cruel and unusual punishment” when minor mistakes are made. The State of NJ must implement basic standards regarding ink, paper, printing quality and similar for all traffic tickets, municipal summons, and municipal warrants that are written or printed. Exhibits B through D are used to show the State of NJ’s negligence in failing to have proper standards for ink, paper and readability. These exhibits are photocopies all made consecutively using the same copy machine using fresh ink of the same consistency and the same brightness settings for all three photocopies. Any reasonable person can see that Exhibit B, which is the text of a municipal summons, and Exhibit C, which is the writing on two traffic tickets, are almost unreadable in comparison with Exhibit D which is a fact sheet on socialist Sweden written by the plaintiff Tim Vawter which is used here for comparative purposes only. This shows an easily readable document in comparison with two almost unreadable documents which can cause an arrest warrant to be issued for the person if he misreads them.#6. Failure to report mistakes to the State of NJ
There is a preponderance of evidence to show that Defendant #2, Freehold Township in New Jersey, along with other municipalities, have failed to report serious problems regarding Motor Vehicles that were brought to their attention by citizens appearing before them in municipal court. For many years a great number of people have honestly complained to local municipalities about errors made by Motor Vehicles. Numerous clerical mistakes are made by Motor Vehicles, as when Motor Vehicles incorrectly wrote down the wrong license plate number when the plaintiff returned his license plates, causing him to incorrectly remain on the suspended list. If Defendant #2 and other municipalities properly reported Motor Vehicles’ mistakes to the State of NJ, those problems might have been addressed in a timely fashion.Demand
A jury trial is demanded.#7. Remedy; A second employee must double check all plates returned
To remedy the negligence detailed in paragraph #1 of this Complaint entitled Defendant #1 negligently writes wrong plate number down, is for the State of NJ to now require a second employee to double check all of the old license plates returned to Motor Vehicles for accuracy. Before Motor Vehicles closes each day, that second employee shall physically look at each license plate that was returned, making sure that plate number was properly entered into Motor Vehicle’s computer. Because returned license plates are made of metal and can contain sharp, jagged or otherwise dangerous edges, that employee will be provided with special gloves, a breathing mask, and other safety equipment if requested or advised, and shall be paid a bonus of $25.00 each day for doing this tedious, dirty work. Motor Vehicles shall not let these old license plates pile up for days, then having an employee verify several days worth of plates all in one day, so as to save money. But rather, Motor Vehicles must have all returned plates verified at the end of each day, and must pay the employee doing this an extra $25.00 each day as a bonus to his hourly or weekly pay. That $25.00 bonus shall not be deducted from any overtime pay, nor shall any overtime pay be deducted from that $25.00 bonus pay. If he stays later to do this work, he must be paid overtime in addition to that $25.00 bonus.#8. Remedy; Use the Internet to show drivers license suspensions
To remedy the negligence detailed in paragraph #2 entitled It is “almost impossible” to see if licenses are suspended, the State of NJ must set up an Internet website accessible to most any person to make it “relatively easy” so he can quickly see if his drivers license is suspended. This order should apply to all 50 states.#9. Remedy; Motor Vehicles cannot preempt Municipal courts
To remedy the constitutional violations detailed in paragraph #3 entitled Denying 5th amendment right to “due process”, the “court-like” powers must be removed from Motor Vehicles and instead be given to the local municipal courts. Motor Vehicles can continue doing its clerical work, charging fees for its records keeping, and similar, but it must be disallowed from imposing any fines, suspensions or similar judgments. Those powers must rightfully be given to municipal courts for the reasons being that municipal courts are lawful courts of law; they are staffed with trained court personnel and judges, they grant “due process”, the right to a lawyer, a defense, and similar. Motor Vehicles preempts all of this. The plaintiff Tim Vawter can factually prove that Motor Vehicles is preempting the constitutional rule of law of municipal courts in the very case that occurred on Jan. 13, 2009 when he returned the license plates, paid the restoration fee, and was wrongfully given a suspended license ticket because Motor Vehicles failed to keep proper records. To further the damages and prove that Motor Vehicles is preempting a municipal court , Motor Vehicles will not back-date his license restoration which would then allow Freehold Twp Municipal court to dismiss the charges. If a state is going to allow its Division of Motor Vehicles to operate like a court of law that can preempt municipal courts, then that state must turn its Division of Motor Vehicles into a court of law, but it has not. As such, then the Dept of Motor Vehicles’ ability to impose fines and suspend licenses are unconstitutional and must be immediately revoked, where the remedy is to give those powers to the lawful municipal courts. The plaintiff Tim Vawter is stating that Motor Vehicles is not a court, nor is it staffed with trained court personnel or lawful judges, yet it is acting like a court of law by handing down unappealable judgments. Any state laws granting Motor Vehicles these “court-like” authorities are unconstitutional because they deny citizens their 5th amendment constitutional rights to “due process”. N.J.S.A. 39:3-40 is one such statute. The plaintiff Tim Vawter will submit to this court a Motion and Order to Deem Unconstitutional the state laws which grant Motor Vehicles these unlawful abilities, and this should apply to all 50 states.#10. Remedy; Removing “cruel and unusual” penalties
To remedy paragraph #4 entitled Jailing citizens for trivial offenses violates 8th amendment , the State of NJ presently has motor vehicle statutes on the books such as N.J.S.A. 39:3-40 which include excessive fines and jail sentences imposed against citizens when clerical offenses are committed as opposed to drunk driving or injury offenses. In these tough 2009 economic times of congress providing trillion-dollar bailouts for banks, the plaintiff Tim Vawter is stating it is “cruel and unusual punishment”, a violation of the 8th amendment, to impose minimum fines or have mandatory jail penalties for clerical offenses (not suspended for drunk driving or bodily injury). Any person whose drivers license is suspended for a clerical matter like failing to return old license plates, filing a paper on time, or similar, must be allowed to pay a fine instead, or have house arrest instead of going to jail. The plaintiff will submit to the court a Motion and Order to Deem Unconstitutional to have N.J.S.A. 39:3-40 and similar statutes deemed unconstitutional and amended with reduced penalties. There is also evidence to show that a certain NJ law suspends a person’s license if child support payments are not made on time, as if preventing a person from driving to drive to work will somehow help that person earn more money to make more child support payments. That law is also unconstitutional and must be amended. All people whose drivers licenses are presently suspended for any clerical offense are to immediately have their licenses restored, including those suspended for failure to pay fines or fees, and that a compassionate payment plan will be worked out. All persons presently in jail due to a clerical Motor Vehicles offense shall immediately have that sentence overturned, vacated, and those people shall be released.#11. Remedy; Basic standards required for ink and paper
To remedy the problems detailed in paragraph #5 in this Complaint entitled Inadequate standards for ink and paper, the State of NJ must implement a more easily readable format for traffic tickets, municipal summons, and municipal warrants. This will include higher quality ink (perhaps even a small printer mounted within a police car), larger text size, more reliable paper, and similar. Presently, the small physical size of a traffic ticket compared with the amount of information required on it, as shown in Exhibit C, must be increased to improve readability for everyone. All 50 states must be required to amend its state and local laws to implement the same standards for writing and publishing traffic tickets, municipal summons and municipal warrants. Exceptions to these basic standards should be allowed for states with temperature differences, where hotter states may require a different type of ink or paper than colder states, but that these exceptions must be factually shown and documented by the Attorney General’s office in those states.#12. Remedy; Establish a three-member commission
To help prevent the overall problems detailed in this Complaint, a three-member commission must be created to study complaints made against NJ Motor Vehicles by citizens charged with motor vehicle violations, where those violations were not the fault of the person, but Motor Vehicles making clerical mistakes of its own. The three-member commission will be comprised of three attorneys chosen by the judge in this case. Those attorneys shall be paid a rate of $300.00 per hour by Defendant #1, and shall work for a total of 40 hours each. Each attorney shall be paid for ten hours of work up front, when they start, and the balance being paid when their work is completed, which must occur within 3 months. This three-member commission shall meet and work together examining factual cases involving Motor Vehicles making mistakes in record keeping which caused citizens to suffer damages such as having their drivers licenses wrongfully suspended, being incorrectly accused of driving while suspended, being wrongfully jailed for motor vehicles offenses, and similar. This commission must place a Public Notice classified ads in the three largest newspapers in New Jersey for a period of at least one month, giving citizens the ability to write down their complaints about Motor Vehicles and send them to the commission using a mailing address. A post office box shall be rented for this purpose, as well as a Toll-free phone number and answering machine, to enable people to leave messages detailing serious Motor Vehicle problems. The three-member commission will randomly examine these cases and other evidence. Their work will involve devising a much better, more streamlined way that municipalities can report Motor Vehicles’ mistakes to the State of New Jersey so the reasons those mistakes occurred can be corrected. Not just that the mistakes are corrected, but that “the reasons those mistakes occurred” can be corrected. Special attention will be made so as not to allow Motor Vehicles to make mistakes which cause innocent people to hire attorneys. The US economy is presently in a serious downturn, so bad that many people cannot afford to hire attorneys, nor should they have to if they are innocent to begin with, simply because Motor Vehicles makes a clerical mistake. This commission will focus on resolving and correcting Motor Vehicles’ problems before people are incorrectly given motor vehicle tickets to begin with. When this three-member commission has completed its study, it will prepare and submit a motion and order to this court that mandates the commission’s helpful improvements needed for Motor Vehicles to correct these problems. That motion and order must also establish a better system for municipalities to notify the State of NJ when Motor Vehicles engages in errors that result in law abiding citizens being given tickets wrongfully, wrongful suspensions, and similar. The three attorneys comprising this three-member commission, upon completion of their work and submission of their motion and order to this court, will then be paid the balance due for their work at the hourly rate specified, with additional expenses being reimbursed for such things as office rental, travel, secretary work, and similar. Furthermore, this court shall authorize additional payments to any of these attorneys who work beyond the submitting of the motion and order, where these attorneys proceed in court on behalf of that motion and order (including appeals and additional expenses needed to help move that motion and order).#13. Compensation for Tim Vawter
(1) For actual “injury-in-fact” damages to the plaintiff Tim Vawter, $264,000.00 for depression, mental anguish, emotional duress, and other damages. Due to the State of New Jersey’s negligence, the plaintiff must now worry whenever he drives that he may be pulled over and wrongfully accused of driving while suspended, as already happened on January 13, 2009. (2) The State of NJ must back date its computer so it correctly shows the plaintiff Tim Vawter’s drivers license was restored on 1/13/2009. (3) All fines, tickets, warrants, and similar against the plaintiff Tim Vawter stemming from the driving while suspended ticket shall be vacated and dismissed.Signed,
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Plaintiff Tim Vawter, pro se DateExhibits;
Exhibit A; True copy of the receipt for payment of plaintiff’s drivers license restoration fee, issued by the State of NJ’s “Official Payments Corporation” to Tim Vawter on 1/13/2009.
Exhibit B, True copy of municipal summons instructing the plaintiff Tim Vawter to appear in Freehold Twp municipal court on 9/30/2009
Exhibit C, True copy of two traffic tickets given to the Plaintiff.
Exhibit D; True copy of Facts on Socialist Sweden published by the plaintiff Tim Vawter (used here for comparative purposes with Exhibits B & C).
Exhibit E; True copy of the incorrect receipt saying “EDK 12X “ that Motor Vehicles handed the plaintiff Tim Vawter on 1/13/2009 when he returned his old license plate which was plate # WDK 12X.
Exhibit F; True copy of the correct receipt that Motor Vehicles handed the plaintiff Tim Vawter on 1/15/2009 showing the correct plate # WDK 12X.
Exhibit G; Affidavit supporting these exhibits by the plaintiff Tim Vawter dated Sept 11, 2009.
These lawsuit papers may be used by people in other countries as an aid in filing their own similar lawsuits. When a person submits a lawsuit in federal court, the court papers are not copyright, which means anyone can copy them and use them in their own lawsuits, without violating copyright law.
Of course, study the laws in your own country first. You may be able to hire a law firm. If you cannot, you should be able to file your own lawsuit acting as your own attorney. If you are low income, you should be able to file everything for free. Hopefully this "copy & paste" format may help people around the world file similar lawsuits in their countries.
If you want, remove what you don't need from this lawsuit, and add in what is appropriate for your country's court system. The more good lawsuits that activists file around the world, the better. Even if they aren't successful, these sensible lawsuits bring much needed attention to the problems needing to be solved. :)
.More legal papers by Tim Vawter will be posted soon :)
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