Red Light Camera Ticket in The Mail
After a careful review of the red light camera ticket you have received, you will notice that there is an area titled “Certificate of Mailing” and listed here will be the date the ticket was mailed to you.
You will want to compare this date to the date when the alleged violation occurred (usually listed in the upper left corner). Should the date the ticket was mailed to you fall past 15 days after the date of the alleged violation, then you’ll be glad to hear the California Vehicle Code section 40518 (a) requires a written notice to appear based on an alleged violation of California Vehicle Code section 21453 must be delivered to the registered owner within 15-days of the violation.
This California Law gives police only a limited amount of time to deliver genuine notice to appear to the registered owner. Logically this makes sense because most people have no recollection of even going through a red light, so they should be given ample notice if they did so they can remember where they were, what they were doing, or if someone else was driving their car at the time.
So if you are the registered owner of the vehicle pictured on the ticket and the ticket you received was mailed to you 16 days or more past the date of the violation, then there is a good chance you can get this dismissed on a technicality, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.