Delaware General Assembly

Lieu/Substituted 6/13/06

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

HS 1 for HB 312

6/30/05

Valihura

Sen. Vaughn

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 10, 11, 21 AND 30 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF CERTAIN MINOR OFFENSES AS CIVIL INFRACTIONS.

This Act is a companion to those recent statutory enactments creating certain traffic offenses that call for civil penalties. It will redesignate most of the motor vehicle offenses currently promulgated by the Delaware Code as “civil infractions”, excepting those which involve driving that causes physical injury, driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, reckless driving, aggressive driving, driving while suspended or driving without insurance. Those traffic offenses that will be designated as civil infractions by this Act will carry no possible jail time, be punished by limited fines and, unless expressly permitted by statute, will not be included in a person’s accessible criminal or motor vehicle record. This Act also provides that civil infractions will generally be tried as civil proceedings in the Justice of the Peace Court. This will permit the judiciary and the Attorney General to concentrate the valuable resources currently used to litigate traffic offenses as criminal matters on more serious or complex criminal and motor vehicle matters. Similar legislation was first recommended in the final report of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Committee on Speedy Trial Guidelines which was issued on November 1, 2000.

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Takes effect upon being signed into law

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