Maryland Driving Without Registration Lawyer

In the State of Maryland, a registration signifies that the taxes on your vehicle have been paid and that the motor vehicles’ office knows where the vehicle is housed. This enables the Motor Vehicle Administration to be able to send notices of unpaid fines, license suspension, or any other notice that is deemed necessary. When a person is pulled over and they do not have their license, this could lead to a more severe traffic violation. Depending on the severity of the charge, a person may want to contact a Maryland driving without registration lawyer to review their case and help determine the potential options that are available.

Request During a Traffic Stop

When a law enforcement officer pulls a person over, they request a person’s license and registration because they want to make sure that you are properly licensed to operate a vehicle and the vehicle itself is properly licensed. Law enforcement officers are trained to ask, and in the event that you do not have them they can issue you a citation for driving without a license, driving an unregistered vehicle, or driving without insurance, as the case may be.

Maryland’s Registration Requirement

The State of Maryland requires that all drivers register their car to ensure that the taxes are paid on vehicles and that the vehicles meet safety and emission standards. If the vehicle is not properly registered, then the State of Maryland has no way of knowing whether that vehicle is actually safe to be on the roads.

Penalties for Driving Without Proper Registration

The maximum penalty for driving without registration is a $500 fine. It is unusual to see driving an unregistered car charged separately from driving uninsured because frequently people whose vehicles are unregistered also do not have insurance. Driving without insurance is a more serious charge in Maryland than driving an unregistered vehicle, thus depending on the charges you are facing, it may be beneficial to contact a Maryland driving without registration lawyer to help review the charges against you.

Defenses for Driving Without Registration

Typically, there are several defenses for an individual who has been charged with driving without registration. One may be that the vehicle was properly registered and it was just a bureaucratic mistake that caused registration not to appear for the officer when he did a search. Other issues can be related to driving, such as the individual was not actually operating the vehicle at the time, in which case there will be a notice issue, as well. Registration tends to be more difficult to prove because you are under an obligation to check to make sure that the vehicle you are driving is registered.

If MVA suspended a registration, it could be an issue to receive notice that the registration was suspended. It will be very similar to driving on a suspended license case where it is from an unpaid citation. The MVA may have sent a notice of the suspension of the registration, but you may have not received it, and then you can show that there was no knowledge of the suspension of the registration. A Maryland driving without registration lawyer can help a person determine which defense will be the most effective in their case.