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Decision in São Luís Declares Invalid Infringement Notices Classifying Expired Licensing as Extremely Serious, Requiring Immediate Adjustment to Brazilian Traffic Code (CTB).
The municipality of São Luís (MA) had all of its infringement notices based on Article 230, Section V, of the Brazilian Traffic Code (CTB) declared null by the Courts. The decision, rendered by Judge Douglas de Melo Martins, of the Court of Diffuse and Collective Interests, invalidates the traffic fines imposed by the municipality that categorized the operation of registered vehicles but with expired annual licensing as “operating a vehicle that is not registered and properly licensed.” The focus of the annulment lies on the disproportionate interpretation and application of the legal provision.
The ruling is a result of a Popular Action and requires the municipality to immediately adopt the most appropriate and proportional classification, prohibiting the use of the annulled rationale. The Courts argued that the conduct of having only pending annual licensing is distinct and does not fit the extremely serious characterization of Article 230, V, of the CTB. As a result, citizens who were improperly fined may have their penalties reassessed, in addition to impacting directly how enforcement is carried out in the capital of Maranhão. The original information was reported by Legal Consultant.
Judicial Decision Corrects Disproportionate Use of Article 230, V
The central controversy revolved around the classification of regularly registered vehicles but with expired annual licensing, which had been fined based on Article 230, V, of the CTB. This article classifies the infraction as extremely serious, which, in practice, equated the administrative/fiscal pendency to operating a completely unregistered vehicle. Four citizens filed the Popular Action arguing that the correct classification for pending licensing should be that of Article 232 of the CTB, which is of a light nature.
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Judge Douglas de Melo Martins noted, in his analysis, that Article 230, V, requires the simultaneous occurrence of two conditions for characterizing the extremely serious infraction: that the vehicle is not registered and is not licensed. According to the magistrate, the conduct of the fined individuals, operating a registered vehicle but with pending annual licensing, is different and, by reasonableness, fits the light infraction of Article 232 of the CTB, rejecting the disproportionate equivalence made by the municipality.
Resolution of Contran Innovated Illegally the Legal Order
Another fundamental point of the decision, according to the Legal Consultant, was the challenge to the legal basis used by the municipality. The city hall based its actions on a code created by the Brazilian Manual for Traffic Enforcement (MBFT), approved by Contran Resolution No. 985/2022, which established the Classification Code 659-92 for the conduct of “Operating the registered vehicle that is not properly licensed.”
The magistrate was emphatic in observing that the National Traffic Council (Contran), by issuing this resolution, illegally innovated the legal order. In practice, the secondary normative act created a new hypothesis of extremely serious infraction not directly provided for in the Brazilian Traffic Code. This action, according to the judge, violates the principle of strict legality, stipulated in the Federal Constitution, which prevents a normative act from exceeding the limits of the law it seeks to regulate.
New Rules for Monitoring by Video
The ruling did not limit itself to the annulment of traffic fines due to incorrect classification. The decision also addressed a question from the authors of the Popular Action regarding fines imposed by video monitoring, a common practice in large cities. The citizens claimed absence of signage on the roads and lack of record in the infringement notices regarding how the irregularity was observed, which contravenes Contran resolutions.
In response, the judge determined that the municipality of São Luís has the obligation to signal all public roads where traffic monitoring by video surveillance is carried out. Furthermore, the city hall must provide in the “observations” field of the infringement notices the exact manner in which the infraction was verified. These measures aim to ensure transparency and legality in enforcement, protecting the driver’s right to information and due process, as investigated by the Legal Consultant.
The decision corrects a classification that elevated a fiscal pendency to the category of extremely serious infraction. Do you agree that this differentiation between ‘unregistered vehicle’ and ‘pending licensing’ is crucial for justice in traffic? Do you think this ruling can set a precedent for the review of traffic fines of a similar nature in other cities in Brazil? Leave your opinion and share your experience in the comments, we want to hear from those who live this in practice.
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