Fines, when they are and when they are not legal

Fines, that mechanism used, mainly, as a sanction when the law is broken; often annoying, but mostly very necessary.

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Thus, fines are a very effective means of preventing people from committing acts contrary to the law that could harm others, from a simple citizen to the same authority.

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But beware, the fact that they are so common or that it is an authority that imposes them, does not mean that they are automatically legal, since they must meet many requirements and formalities in order to be legally charged.

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Something very important that we must bear in mind is that by themselves, fines enjoy something called a “presumption of legality”, that is, they are presumed to be legal simply because they come from an authority, because the authorities are supposed to always act for society and the State, right?

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But well, as I explained, fines must be imposed in a certain way to be fully valid, otherwise, you can achieve their absolute elimination through a special process, either before the same authority that fined you or some court.

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The main requirements are, in our opinion, those contained in Article 16 of our Federal Constitution, which are: to be in writing, to be issued by a competent authority and to be duly substantiated and motivated.

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By substantiation, we must understand the citation of all the legal precepts applicable to the particular case, for example, a photoinfraction; at the time of issuing it, the authority must cite in the document all the articles that provide that, in the event of speeding in that area, you must be fined. And something very important, besides, the authority must always duly substantiate its competence, that is, the legal precepts that empower it to fine you.

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And as for the motivation, this is, in simple terms, the citation of all the circumstances and particular facts that led to the issuance of the event; for example, that on December 24, 2023, the vehicle with license plates JAL1234, when driving on Avenue A, exceeded the allowed speed limit by 20 km/h, as can be seen from the reading taken by the radar number 123456789.

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Of course, the authorities need to be much more specific when it comes to motivating their fines, but explaining it would take a lot of paragraphs and I think they already understand where it's going 😉.

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Therefore, if a fine is unduly founded and motivated, this means that it can be canceled and thus you lose the obligation to pay it.

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Other reasons why a fine is illegal is if it is determined at a fixed amount; for example, if for speeding you always have to pay $3,000.00 three thousand pesos, when the reality is that there are minimums and maximums, in addition to the fact that a competent official, usually a Qualifying Judge, must evaluate the particular circumstances of the case to determine the amount to be paid; circumstances that are: economic capacity, gravity, recidivism, etc., this as long as the minimum amount is not imposed.

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So you know, not all fines will be legal, you will always have to analyze it thoroughly to determine if it meets all the elements and requirements provided by law.