How Much Window Tint is Legal? Ep. 7.364

welcome once again to latos law here's steve lato frank sent me a note steve what's the deal window tint on cars what's legal with respect to window tint now i'm going to tell you right now this will vary wildly from state to state in the u.s and likewise in other countries so i'm still going to explain to you how it works in michigan and if you want to look this up in your own state it's fairly easy to do in fact if you type in your state and window tint law you'll find it i double checked a couple other states and stuff popped up almost instantly but this is a hot topic depends on where you are in the country but in some places in the country you'll actually see people who've got all their windows tinted you can't even see into the vehicle from any angle and so the question is is that legal are there laws that govern that and so on and yes there are laws that govern it so for instance in michigan the law that covers it is called mcl 257 709 i talked about the blue books behind me which is the michigan laws the michigan compiled laws and michigan's mcl 227 is the motor vehicle code mcl 257 so elsewhere in the code you'll find the motor vehicle service repair act at 1301 the lemon lot 1401 and so on so this is a statute that addresses wind shields and windows prohibitions rear view mirrors exceptions windshield wipers exemption hot air windshield defroster or electrically heated windshield or other device windshield device and definitions so the statute itself is quite lengthy and it looks like that so i'm going to get a better summary for you first from the column called ask a trooper m live is a news source in michigan and john agar often put up a column called ask a trooper and so people would send in questions to the column and say what's the answer on this legally and say go to the michigan state police and get a trooper to answer the question and so in this case uh which was published a little over a year ago a trooper named evan mize says as you may expect we receive a lot of questions from motorists on a daily basis and many of them involve the use of window tint on a motor vehicle and so we refer you to mcl 257 709 so uh the section as he says can be quite confusing there are exceptions and conditions and how much window tint you can use and which windows you can put it on okay so here's the deal first of all people say it's just cosmetic well it's not just cosmetic in other words it's not just how it makes your car look it does two things one is it might it might hinder your ability to see out through the car windows and likewise it might hinder someone's ability to see in and you might say steve why are people peering into my car well if your car was involved in an accident or a crime and the police said did you get a good look at the driver no i couldn't his windows were blacked out so there is a concern about that as well he says while window tint is cosmetic it does affect the driver's visibility may not be an issue during the day but it becomes apparent during low light situations such as inside structures like unlit parking garages and so adding a layer of semi-transparent film to your car's window might diminish your visibility this may result in a driver not being able to recognize a pedestrian bicyclist even another vehicle the first question is what if my doctor a physician or an optometrist recommends window tints for a pre-existing medical condition and he says yes if that's true you're allowed to get more window tint on your vehicle but he does point out that if you go into the secretary of state's office and say look i need window 10 to drive because my eyes i've got a note from my doctor they might restrict your license the same way they restrict your license if you come in and say yes i need glasses okay so if they put a restriction on your license similar to corrective lenses saying you need to drive with window tint you better not get caught driving a car without window tint so there you go you could be cited for a violation of a restricted license which is 257-312 and you have to understand that that's not a civil infraction it's actually a misdemeanor so take this very very seriously so here's the way the window tint works motorists in michigan are allowed to tint on every window except the windshield driver's side and passenger windows if the window's behind the driver you can tint it so the window tint must be transparent and allow 35 percent or more light through window tint can be applied to the windshield driver's side and passenger side windows however it cannot extend more than four inches down from the top edge of the window so if it's behind you okay knock yourself out but if it's in front of you it can only be the top four inches now that is a little complicated so troopers often receive a few common explanations as to why the vehicle is window tint and the first one is that the window was tinted at the factory and well that might be true the factories do know what the laws are around the country and they generally don't violate the law with how they deliver the vehicles troopers also encounter motorists who had window tint applied by a business but unfortunately business didn't follow the law and so if they've installed window tint on your vehicle that's illegal that doesn't exonerate you still your responsibility you're driving the vehicle so most traffic stops for violent window tint law often end in a conversation between the trooper and motorist and the trooper normally provides a verbal warning and explains to motorists on the correct application of window tint they can give you a fix-it ticket which basically says look there's a problem with your car go get it fixed bring it back show it to us that's fixed and we'll wave that and it won't go on your driving record so uh the important thing though is that the windows behind you side back or rear window can be tinted they can't be blacked out but they can be tinted but the ones that are uh you know your door right here passenger over there and the front windshield can only be tinted within four inches of the top of the glass beyond that you're running a foul of the law so the statute as i've noted is mcl 257 709 and it's got a big list that starts with a person shall not operate a motor vehicle with any of the following assign poster non-transparent material window application reflective film or non-reflective film upon or in the front windshield the side windows immediately adjacent to driver or front passenger or the side wings adjacent to and forward the driver or front passenger except that a tinted film may be used along the top edge of the windshield and the side windows we just talked about so long as does not extend more than four inches from the top of the windshield so if you want to get window tint measure up to four inches and tell yourself it can only come down that far now there are other rules that kick in here so for instance you cannot operate a motor vehicle with an object that obstructs the vision of the driver of the vehicle except is authorized by law so a rear view mirror is not going to obstruct your vision because that's authorized by law i've heard people tell stories about being pulled over for having things hanging from the rear view mirror and that's a police officer's in a bad mood looking for a reason to pull somebody over and pulls you over and says you know i pulled you over and you said of course i don't what he says those fuzzy dice you've got right there are obstructing your vision okay now like i said we know why he pulled you over it's not because of the fuzzy dice it's some other reason likewise a person shall not drive a motor vehicle if a driver visibility through the rear window is obstructed unless the vehicle is equipped with two rear view mirrors one on each side so if you rent a van for instance and it's got no rear windows that's legal as long as it has two rear view mirrors and likewise if you've got stuff piled up in the back your vehicle uh i've moved before where i've piled up stuff in one of my vehicles right to the ceiling like a game of tetris stuff in the edges all the way around cannot see out the back i don't like driving like that but i've done it before where i was moving something and as long as both rearview mirrors worked okay i'm illegal it's still not the safest thing to do but you know you can do that legally and then it does say this section does not apply to any of the following and this is where it gets funny the use of draperies louvers or other special window treatments except those specifically designated in the section on the rear window or a side window or the rear of the driver if the vehicle is equipped with two outside rear view mirrors one on each side blah blah blah blah blah so you can put up drapes you want a nice set of drapes in your car you can put up drapes i always wondered when when they're sitting around saying hey we should pass a law okay and you know these laws get updated from time to time but somebody sat down at one point in time said we've got to draft a law that explains driver visibility everything the windows uh whether they can see through them what kind of mirrors they've got their lines of sight now we got we got we had to come up with a whole thing on this so somebody starts throwing out the obvious stuff right you know you can't have the windows blacked out somebody goes um what about drapes what about drapes a nice set of venetian blinds maybe what you know and it turns out that they go okay okay the section does not apply to the use of draperies um so but the other thing i get asked a lot is people say steve if a car is legal in my state my state allows something and i drive into your state and can your state say hey look we don't care that's legal in your state it ain't legal in ours well they did address that so it says specifically the section does not apply to a vehicle registered in another state territory or commonwealth united states or another country or province so if you are in another state planning on traveling to michigan and you've got your windows tinted as long as they comply with your state that's on you and your state bring it to michigan they're not going to do much about it um i suppose they could pull you over to hasselia you know they do that from time to time but that's the one i get asked about a lot and i've heard stories and news recently of some states saying we're going to start out long these things or people bring these vehicles into our state we'll start looking at this stuff but with respect to window tints um michigan's got the weird rule and i know that in southern states and western states where if you park your car outdoors it can get really really hot in your car and so for instance when i went to law school in california i got one of those cardboard things that you when you parked your car you put the cardboard thing across your dashboard and it blocked your windshield and that would save so much heat so when you came out in the afternoon got in the car you pull that thing off the windshield you start driving the car is you know 20 degrees cooler than it would be without that blinder right there and it was it was an amazing thing so i know people who say well if you tint your windows it does the same thing kind of okay um you can't obviously block all visibility through the windshield but if you tint the windows heavily uh if you're allowed to do that and then that will make it so that when the car is parked outside it won't get so hot inside the vehicle when you get in it and so there are some places where people like to get a heavier window tint than others so in michigan you can use the window tint that um does not block more than 35 percent in the visible light range um i'm not sure how they measure that i'm sure there's some tool they've got for that as long as that's behind you and then from here forward the side windows and the windshield you can use the same amount of reflective material but it's got to be within four inches of the top of the windshield four inches within the top of the side windows and then like i said if you need more than that and you have a doctor who'll sign a note saying you need more than that you can get a better window tint but there's a chance that somehow someone might say you know something if you legitimately need this to drive we should put a restriction on your license saying that and then once you've got the restriction on your license if you're driving a vehicle that is not so equipped you would then be committing a misdemeanor so they have that hanging out there i'll tell you right now people are going to ask in 30 years of handling legal issues and talking to many people who've gotten traffic tickets i've never spoken to anybody who got a ticket that was not a fix a ticket for window tint or for anything involving the note saying i need window tint so there you go that's the story with window tint michigan whatever it is in your state you can find very quickly by looking up window tint law and then your state google should find it for you frank thanks it's a great question questions or comments put them below let's talk to you later bye-bye thank you for watching latos law those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 37,351

Keywords: lemon law, michigan lemon law, lemon law attorney, lemon law lawyer, http://www.lehtoslaw.com, steve lehto

Id: ZhiXSdO1g0s

Length: 13min 25sec (805 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021