How do I legally defend myself against a traffic fine?

Speeding ticket: don’t sign anything to the police

If the police stop you while you are driving and want to give you a speeding ticket, do not agree to the penalty and do not sign anything. The police will no doubt persuade you that the administrative procedure will cost you more and indeed, if you are facing a speeding fine of only a few hundred and you are aware that the needle on the speedometer was more to the right than it should have been, it is worth not dragging the matter out and simply paying. But if you’re not sure, ask the officer for a photo from the speed camera. Allow for a +- 3 km/h tolerance, which is what speed cameras are approved for in the Czech Republic. In practice, if you are travelling at 50 km/hr, the officer can only fine you if the speed is 54 km/hr and above. If the deviation was not observed and properly read, and you were still fined in the block procedure, you have violated the law.

Proceedings before the administrative authority

If you know you have been wrongly accused of an offence, administrative proceedings are the way to defend yourself. Proceedings before an administrative authority or even criminal proceedings deserve the advice of a lawyer. Here, the administrative authority is based on the facts of the case and the questioning of the police officers itself serves as evidence. However, such evidence is not always sufficiently convincing. Every detail can play a role. How the police acted, whether they correctly conducted and evaluated all the evidence and whether their actions are not open to challenge.

When someone else was driving

If you find a blue-striped envelope in your mailbox with a notice to pay a fine for speeding or parking, for example, and you know that you were not driving your car at the time, just tell the administrative authority the identity of the driver involved. However, if the police do not find the driver, they will still deal with you. You can then recover the amount from the driver through civil proceedings. The authorities are no longer interested in the excuse that a person close to you was driving. The owner of the vehicle has to ensure that the vehicle is used properly.

Point system and fines for Czech drivers – the most common cases

What are the most common offences and what are the penalties for committing them? The points system and fines are uncompromising and often devastating.

• Driving without a vignette – we have had a relatively short system of electronic vignettes in the Czech Republic. Remember that a police check can fine you up to CZK 5,000 for driving without a vignette and can go up to CZK 20,000 in administrative proceedings.

• Driving under the influence of alcohol – if you have more than 0.3 per millilitres of alcohol, you could face a fine of up to CZK 25,000 in administrative proceedings or a driving ban of up to 18 months. Another critical limit is 1 per mille of alcohol. If you exceed it, you commit a criminal offence, which is dealt with in court. The court can fine you up to 25,000 crowns, ban you from driving for up to 18 months and also deprive you of your liberty for up to 3 years. You will also have 6 penalty points added to your record.

• Fines for running a red light – if you do not brake your car before the traffic light and drive through it when the light turns red, you can be fined up to CZK 5,500 for running a red light, or fined up to CZK 25,000 in administrative proceedings, 6 penalty points and banned from driving for 1 to 12 months. Especially for professional drivers, a fine for running a red light is not really worth it.
• Cycling under the influence of alcohol – having a few beers on a bike is a bit of a Czech hobby. However, a drunk cyclist poses a serious risk in road traffic and is liable to a fine. If he or she has up to 1 per mille, the fine can reach 25,000, and above one per mille, the fine can be up to 50,000 crowns. On the other hand, even if the cyclist has a driving licence, he cannot lose it, nor can he receive penalty points.

• Winter tyre fine – From the beginning of November until the end of March, you must fit your car with winter tyres if the road is covered with a continuous layer of snow, ice or frost. You should also assess the overall condition of your tyres, which should have the required tread depth (greater than four millimetres). Various cracks and excessive wear are also a problem. The fine for flat tyres is CZK 2,000. The fine for summer tyres in winter is the same amount, which can be increased in both cases up to CZK 2,500 in administrative proceedings. In such an offence, you will at least get off without points.
• Cracked windscreen – anyone who fails to ensure that their car is roadworthy and does not endanger traffic safety while driving is liable to a fine for a cracked windscreen. However, a damaged windscreen in the so-called wiping area does not meet this condition and you can be fined up to CZK 10,000 and 6 penalty points for a cracked windscreen. If the damage to the windscreen covers more than 50% of the windscreen area, you could also have your small licence confiscated.
• Speeding fine – if you get carried away on the road with the prospect of the upcoming weekend and go a little bit over the speed limit, expect a speeding fine depending on how much you exceeded the speed limit. If you drive faster than 40 km/h in the village or more than 50 km/h outside the village, this is a serious offence, which is generally dealt with in the administrative procedure. The risk is a speeding fine of CZK 7,000 – 25,000, the award of 6 points or a ban from driving, specifically for 6 to 18 months.
  If you exceed the speed limit in the village by more than 20 km/h or outside the village by 30 km/h or more, you can be fined 3 500 CZK. In administrative proceedings, you can be charged up to CZK 10 000. You can also face 4 points and a ban.
  The lower level is medium speeding, i.e. 10 km/h or more in or outside the village. In this case, you can expect two points and a fine of up to CZK 2,000 on the spot, and up to CZK 5,000 in administrative proceedings.
• Fines for driving without a licence – did you look at your licence the last time you received it and since then it has had a place in your document box where you don’t take it out? You might want to do this occasionally and check its expiry date. An expired driving licence will earn you a fine of up to 75,000 CZK, a ban for 3 years and even a prison sentence of up to one year, you don’t know how. The fine for driving without a licence is one of the most severe.