Jurisprudence

The Ribérac court acquits a driver who forgot his pink card

Everyone gets dizzy sometimes. It has therefore certainly already happened to you, - like me, - to forget your pink card (that is to say in layman's language: your driving license) at home, and, when you realize it, to feel a little shiver passes through your skin at the idea that it is precisely today that Pandora is going to ask you for your papers.

Well! in the future, you will be able to eliminate the little thrill. Indeed, the simple police court of Ribérac (Dordogne) has just rendered a particularly interesting judgment on this subject, intended to set a precedent in the matter. One of our friends, Mr. R..., was fined in this town by a constabulary with untimely zeal, and this infraction brought him before the courts. Mr. R... energetically presented his defense, arguing, without much hope of being listened to, that the essential thing was, in short, to possess the holy pink card and not to always have it in one's pocket. Now, oh miracle! the Ribérac judge considered that Mr. R... reasoned very well, and he acquitted him. This is certainly a stop to remember.

It is interesting to compare this case with a similar judgment rendered by the Lyon Court of Appeal last December. This court not only acquitted a Lyon company, whose driver had forgotten to bring his driving license, but also awarded it damages to compensate it for the hassle and costs incurred by the first instance.

Come on, there are still judges in our sweet land of France!