Traffic fines are the most common in Spanish homes, so we explain when we can appeal one if it shows errors in it. It is called a defect of form and not everything goes.
How many times have we had to pay a traffic fine while wondering if it would be possible to find a legal loophole not to do so.
Fines, which are basically intended as one more collection tool, have the trap that if we pay them quickly, we access the prompt payment discount that saves us 50% of it.
For this reason, many of us prefer to pay the fine with a 50% reduction than to resort to resorting, no matter how much we believe they are not right.
And in this case is the one we are going to focus on now: poorly formulated fines that can lead to the defect of form, which can free us from paying if we can prove it to the relevant instance.
A defect of form is a legal concept that refers to that procedural defect that consists of the lack of fulfillment of any of the established legal requirements.
In the case of traffic tickets this means errors in: the identification of the vehicle (license plate, class, brand, model), identification of the accused, description of the event (place, date, time), identification of the agent of the authority, detailed description of the action, the corresponding sanction and if it involves loss of points.
The point is that many of these errors can be corrected afterwards, so not all defects of form result in the annulment of the fines.
In general terms, explained on the RACC blog, Issues that can be corrected are not considered a defect of form or are clearly identified as a confusion.
Fortunately, there are failures that would allow us to get rid of the fine. These are the defects so that they do have a future if we resort to them:
- The license plate and the type of vehicle are not specified
- The license plate of the vehicle that appears in the photograph does not correspond to that of the reported vehicle. Or the image quality does not allow the license plate to be clearly identified.
- The facts are not adequately detailed to know the infraction.
- The denounced act does not coincide with the infraction.
So, you know, if your last fine has serious errors like those exposed here if you resort you can be lucky. If not, the best thing is that you do not waste time and make the prompt payment, it is usually worth it.