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.

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

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 a lot of requirements and formalities so that they can be legally charged.

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

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.

The main requirements are, in our opinion, those contained in the Article 16 of our Federal Constitution, which are: consisting of Written, which is issued by competent authority And that it is properly founded and motivated.

• On the basis of we must understand the citation of all the legal precepts applicable to the specific 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 case of exceeding the speed limit in that area, a fine must be imposed. And something very important, besides, the authority must always duly substantiate their competence, that is, the legal precepts that empower her to fine you.
• 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 act; 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.

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 you can understand where it's going 😉.

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

Other reasons why a fine is illegal is if it is determined in a fixed amount; for example, if for exceeding the speed limit 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.

So now you know, not all fines will be legal, you'll always have to analyze it thoroughly to determine if it meets all the elements and requirements set out in the law.