Passing Stopped School Bus FACTS

---

---

Mandatory Conviction

A ticket for passing a stopped school bus is a mandatory conviction offense on a guilty finding.

Supervision Not Allowed

A sentence of court supervision, which keeps a conviction off your record, is not allowed.

Court Appearance Required

Your passing a stopped school bus ticket requires that you appear in court before a judge.

Mandatory License Suspension

If you are convicted of passing a stopped school bus your Illinois driver's license will be suspended.

Minimum 3 Month Suspension

Depending on your driving record, upon conviction your license suspension will be 3 months or 1 year.

Minimum Fines Apply

A passing a stopped school bus ticket carries a minimum fine of $300 or $1000 based on your driving record.

HoffmanLaw

Your Defense Starts Here: How the HoffmanLaw Office Works to Protect You Against a Passing a Stopped School Bus Charge

Your Defense Starts Here: How the HoffmanLaw Office Defends a Passing a Stopped School Bus Charge

Our Defense of You Begins with the Presumption of Innocence

Our Defense of You Begins with the Presumption of Innocence

Understanding the penalties you can face for the traffic violation of passing a stopped a school bus, when the HoffmanLaw Office defends you against this charge, we never lose sight of the presumption of innocence.

If you're charged with passing a stopped school bus, you're presumed innocent of the charge.

You have the right to a trial, a right to see and hear the prosecution's evidence against you, a right to cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses, and the right to present your own evidence and testify in your defense if you wish.

Do you have to prove your innocence?

If your case proceeds all the way to trial, the prosecution has the burden of proof. The prosecution will be required to prove all the various elements of the offense as it's alleged. These elements are described below.

The burden of proof never shifts to you and you never have to prove your innocence.

If, at trial, the prosecution fails to prove any one of the elements of the offense, then you should be found not-guilty of the charge and the charge would be dismissed.

HoffmanLaw Has a Seriously Strong Record of Success in School Bus Cases

HoffmanLaw Has a Seriously Strong Record of Success in School Bus Cases

The HoffmanLaw Office has almost two decades of experience handling Lake County passing a stopped school bus charges. Over the years, we've defended many clients just like you against passing a stopped school bus tickets in the Lake County traffic courts of Mundelein, Park City, and Round Lake Beach.

In a great many cases we've been able to avoid convictions and therefore driver's license suspensions for our clients. We've achieved these exemplary results by fully analyzing the facts and evidence in our clients' cases and by working as a committed advocate for our clients' goals.

If Negotiating Doesn't Work, We'll Try Your Case

If Negotiating Doesn't Work, We'll Try Your Case

Not every passing a stopped school bus ticket has to proceed to trial to be resolved. Sometimes it's possible to resolve your case by negotiating for a different or lesser charge.

Would my HoffmanLaw attorney have prior success in negotiating for lesser outcomes?

The HoffmanLaw Office has a long and highly successful track record in Lake County traffic court in negotiating for creative and protective outcomes for our clients in passing a stopped school bus cases.

If we defend you against a passing a stopped school bus charge, we will devise a global strategy for the defense of your case.

During our defense, we keep your options open. We can seek to convince the prosecution to "amend" and reduce your charge in an effort to avoid both a driver's license suspension and a conviction on any charge.

Or, together we can find or reach the conclusion that the prosecution is unwilling to make a palatable offer in your case. In this situation, it might become clear the best way to resolve your case is by battling it through a trial.

If need be, will my HoffmanLaw lawyer fight for me through trial?

What this dynamic highlights is that, if you work with the HoffmanLaw Office to defend your Lake County passing a stopped school bus ticket, you'll be aligning yourself with a Lake County traffic court trial law firm.

If we seek to negotiate on your behalf with the prosecution, we'll maintain a constant awareness that, if negotiating doesn't work, we'll need to be ready to try your case.

We have the proven ability to challenge the prosecution's evidence against you, to powerfully cross-examine prosecution witnesses, and to raise doubt around the allegations. With your Illinois driver's license or driving privileges on the line, if we take your case to trial, we seek to win.

Working to Defeat the Prosecution's Ability to Prove its Case

Working to Defeat the Prosecution's Ability to Prove its Case

If the time is taken to analyze what the prosecution must prove against you in a passing a stopped school bus trial, it becomes apparent, quickly, that it must prove many different things in order for you to properly be found guilty of this charge.

The HoffmanLaw Office believes it's your attorney's job to know what must be proven, and to have a firm grasp on whether or not the prosecution can prove the offense at all.

Factors Describing Driver Actions in Relation to the School Bus

Factors Describing Driver Actions in Relation to the School Bus

The passing a stopped school bus statute states that a driver must stop before meeting or overtaking a school bus stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging students. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-1414(a). Breaking apart this statement, then, in your passing a stopped school bus case the prosecution must be able to prove that:

• As a driver of a vehicle, you failed to stop
• Before you met or overtook
• A school bus
• That was stopped
• For the purpose of receiving or discharging students.

Factors Describing Lights & Signs on the Bus

Factors Describing Lights & Signs on the Bus

In addition to requiring proof of the foregoing five elements, the passing a stopped school bus statute also requires you to stop before reaching the school bus when it is displaying the visual signals described in Sections 12-803 and 12-805 of the Illinois Vehicle Code. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-1414(a).

With this additional sentence, the passing a stopped school bus statute mandates that certain visual signals were "in operation" on the school bus when you allegedly failed to stop.

Two different statutes, entirely outside the passing a stopped school bus statute, describe these "visual signals." This "visual signal" component of the passing a stopped school bus law adds two more elements that must be proven at trial:

• Visual signals as specified in Section 12-803 were in operation on the school bus, and
• Visual signals as specified in Section 12-805 were in operation on the school bus.

Section 12-803 of the Illinois Vehicle Code describes the "stop signal arm on the driver's side of the school bus." See, 625 ILCS 5/12-803.

Section 12-805 describes the "8-lamp flashing signal system" on a school bus. See, 625 ILCS 5/12-805.

The passing a stopped school bus statute proceeds to state that the stop signal arm required by Section 12-803 has to be extended after the school bus has reached a complete stop for the purpose of loading or discharging school students and then must be closed before the school bus proceeds. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-1414(b).

This sentence adds yet another element to the offense of passing a stopped school bus that must be proven at trial. Specifically, the prosecution must prove that:

• After the school bus came to a complete stop to load or discharge students, the stop signal arm was extended.

Drivers ticketed for passing a stopped school bus report frequently that the stop signal arm was not extended and that the bus was still in motion at the moment they are alleged to have broken the law.

If the prosecution fails to prove that the stop signal arm was extended and that the bus was at a complete stop, then this element would be missing from the alleged offense.

The passing a stopped school bus statute also states that alternately flashing red signal lamps required by Section 12-805 must be activated after the school bus reached a complete stop for the purpose of loading or discharging students and must be turned off before the school bus moves forward. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-1414(c).

This part of the passing a stopped school bus statute requires the prosecution to prove that:

• Alternately flashing red signal lamps were activated after the school bus came to a complete stop for the purpose of loading or discharging students.

If the prosecution fails to prove that the "alternately flashing red signal lamps" were activated and that the school bus was at a complete stop, then this element would be missing from the offense.

The passing a stopped school bus law even describes what the school bus must do to warn drivers that it is coming to a stop.

Specifically, the school bus must activate the amber colored lights of an 8-lamp flashing signal system continuously during the last 100 feet before stopping to load or discharge students in an urban area and for at least 200 feet outside an urban area. See, 625 ILCS 5/11-1414(d).

How Long Does it Take to Get a Ticket for Passing a Stopped School Bus in the Mail?

How Long Does it Take to Get a Ticket for Passing a Stopped School Bus in the Mail?

Occasionally, people contact us with the question, "I think I might be getting a ticket for passing a stopped school bus. How long does it normally take to get a ticket in the mail?"

Although we've seen circumstances where a client received traffic tickets in the mail, in most cases this is not how police in Lake County issue traffic tickets and notices to appear in court.

If the police didn't witness the alleged offense, how can they still charge me?

In the case where you might be accused of passing a stopped school bus, but where you were not ticketed for the alleged offense at the scene, it's possible the school bus driver or another witness could make a complaint about your driving to the local police department.

In this sitaution, the school bus driver could provide the license plate number of the vehicle you were allegedly driving to the police, and give the police a specific description of how you allegedly violated the passing a stopped school bus law.

Wouldn't someone have to identify me as the driver in open court?

A witness claiming you violated the law would be required to identify you as the person who did so in court.

How do the police investigate this type of case?

In investigating this type of case, the police would be tasked with determining whether there's credible evidence you violated the passing a stopped school bus law.

It's possible the police would contact you to give you an "opportunity" to provide "your version" of what happened before they charged you with an offense.

You should keep in mind that anything you say to the police could be used to incriminate you in a court of law.

Most attorneys would recommend that you make no statement to the police in this situation without an attorney being present.

What if the police tell me to come pick up my ticket or mail it to me?

In other scenarios, the police might simply decide, upon receiving the complaint of a school bus driver or of some other witness, that they have probable cause to charge you with an offense.

The police could contact you and invite you to the police department to "pick up" a copy of your ticket. Or, they might mail the citation to your home.

An attorney would be able to review your case and determine if the method by which the police charged you and served you notice complies with Illinois law. Rules and procedures govern how traffic tickets may be issued in Illinois.

HoffmanLaw: We're Ready to Defend Your School Bus Ticket

HoffmanLaw: We're Ready to Defend Your School Bus Ticket

When considering everything a school bus must be doing in order to place a driver, like you, in the position of potentially violating the passing a stopped school bus law, it's clear the requirements are many.

The HoffmanLaw Office, led by a former Lake County, Illinois traffic court prosecutor, believes that if it defends your passing a stopped school bus case all the way through trial, the prosecution must be required to prove not just some, but all of the elements of the offense alleged.

Additionally, we believe if we can show one or more of the necessary elements is missing from the prosecution's case, then you should be found not-guilty of the offense.

In this way, the fairly high degree of complexity intrinsic to the charge of passing a stopped school bus actually can work in your favor in Lake County traffic court.

Your version of what happened out on the street is incredibly important to us. We'll use your version of what really happened in crafting an overall defense of your case.