Civil Citation

My father-in-law recently received what appears to be a ticket for running a red light from the fine folks at the Southlake Police Department. A few things are wrong with this statement:

1. The pickup is still in my father's-in-law name, but it's my son's pickup. We haven't had the title transferred yet.
2. I was driving.
3. It's not actually a ticket.

Did number 3 get your attention? It should. The "ticket" was sent from out of state. The evidence was a picture taken from one of those lovely red light cameras. I though those were no longer admissible in court, and I was right.

Upon careful reading, the "ticket" is actually a civil penalty. It cannot be reported to your insurance. It cannot be reported to TxDOT. It cannot result in a warrant for your arrest if it's ignored. It can, however, be reported to a credit agency if it's not paid in full.

Moral of the story: come to a complete stop if you're going right-on-red, or it could become very difficult to buy that next house.