“Expired License Sticker”

I got pulled over today and was handed a $110 fine for expired sticker. I was driving my wife's car and she did not renew it on her birthday in December 2011. So it's been over a month and we did not notice. My wife got laid off in the summer after our second child was born and she doesn't drive the car anymore since she's a stay at home mom ..for now.

Point is she did not even remember about the renewal and I was completely clueless about it. What are my options? Could I fight this in court and use this excuse that I'm not guilty since "it's my wife's responsibility" excuse and show the insurance or registration with her name on it?

What if I show up in court with and new sticker and use this excuse?

Thanks in advance!

I've heard of people getting dinged for this, then taking the new sticker to court and getting off the charge (or possibly reduced in some way, I honestly can't remember). I'm not sure if blaming it on your wife would do you any favours (in court or at home, lol), as your supposed to make sure that the vehicle you're driving is legal in all aspects, regardless of who owns it.

I've been in a similar situation - I was driving my company's delivery vehicle, when I got nailed in a speed trap. Speeding ticket aside, the cop also gave me a ticket for no ownership, because our headoffice forgot to photocopy part of the vehicles ownership (they had a copy of the vehicle portion of the ownership in the car, but forgot to copy the plate portion of the permit, which also includes a copy of the sticker your put on your plate). As the driver of that vehicle I should of made sure the paper work was in order, but thankfully my company paid for the ticket (they deemed that the $110 fine was cheaper to pay than sending me to court for half a day to show the proper paperwork to get the charge dismissed).

does not matter "who" owns the vehicle, who is driving is responsible as manwithaplan stated when stopped.

and simply for a conviction the plate is expired on date stopped or not

We recently got dinged with a similar expiry fine, we let my husbands drivers licence expire, just gapped it. It was a 325.00 fine. We renewed the licence right away, (within 24 hours) and then took option 2, which is pleading guilty to the prosecuter but requesting a little relief on the penalty. They were very understanding, and dropped the fine from 325.00 to 50 + some fees totalling about 65.00. Actually we feel we got off lucky, If we had got in an accident and hurt somebody while driving unknowingly without a licence, we'd have lost everything because insurance wouldn't cover it. I've heard you can do a similar thing for the expired sticker.

Good luck.