The west Valley city of Surprise will begin mailing photo-enforcement tickets to scofflaw motorists starting Monday -- and we expect many of them to be in the trash by next Friday.
As most Arizonans -- and many out-of-state visitors -- should be aware by now, mailed traffic citations aren't valid under state law.
In order for the ticket to have teeth, it either must be delivered personally or the motorist must sign a waiver of proper service.
Now, if you choose to find out if a process server will deliver the ticket, and the process server finds you, it may cost up to $40 extra on top of your ticket penalty.
But we can tell you from experience that the servers don't always come out. And if they don't, the ticket gets dismissed 120 days after it enters the court system. Court officials tell us that when that happens, it's as if you never got the ticket at all.
If you want to learn more about how the system works, we encourage you to read our past articles:
Arizona Photo Enforcement: How to Beat It and Keep Your Conscience Clear
and our comprehensive feature article from 2006, Gotcha!
Good luck! (And by the way, drive safely)!
