Recent Feedback
Do photo radar tickets count against your insurance in the state of Arizona? The photo radar ticket was for "failure to stop at a stop sign." The server watched me drive into my house but did not serve me personally. I did not speak to the server and the server left the summons in my mail slot. Does this count as "being served?"
The Arizona Court of Appeals has held that any photo radar ticket that is not personally served is invalid. http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/00/68.aspArizona law requires that all complaints, including traffic tickets, be personally served. Courts have no power to assess fines or sanctions unless the complaint was served or service was waived. In other words, a ticket is just like a lawsuit. It has to be served the same as if it were a personal injury suit, breach of contract suit, or any other lawsuit. So, to go forward, the court must have proof the driver signed and returned the waiver form or that you were personally served by a process server. However, the common advice to ignore mailed photo tickets, while technically legal, is at the reason for many suspended licenses when courts enter default judgment anyway. So, I suggest you ignore the summons for now but request your driving record in a couple of months to see if you were convicted anyway. If so, you can petition to vacate the judgment based on improper service; you’d have a strong case.Whether to raise your rates for this is up to your insurer and their policy. Most would not raise rates premiums just for one stop sign ticket. A good strategy would be to call anonymously and pretend you're just shopping for insurance and ask their policy for raising premiums.
Experience: Attorney