Civil Citations under F.S. 320.131
Driver's license points · R = revocation · S = suspension§320.131(3)TEMPORARY TAG - Unlawful use of - Changed to Non-Criminal3 pts
§320.131(3)TEMPORARY TAG - Expired 7 days or less—
§320.131(4)(a)TEMP TAG -Improper display (license plate bracket on the exterior) Changed to Non-Criminal3 pts
§320.131(5)TEMPORARY TAG - Unlawful use - knowingly—
Arrestable Offenses under F.S. 320.131
M = misdemeanor · F = felony · degree: F=1st S=2nd T=3rd§320.131(3)FRAUDREPEALED 2010-162M · 2nd
§320.131(5)FRAUDMISUSE OF TEMP TAG TO AVOID REGISTR VEHM · 1st
§320.131(6)FRAUDISSUE TEMP TAG TO AVOID DISCLOSURE TRUE OWNERF · 3rd
§320.131(7)TRAFFIC OFFENSEFAIL TO KEEP RECORD OF TEMPORARY TAGSM · 2nd
CopyCited 33 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 2003 WL 21087992
...The Florida statute regulating temporary license tags provided: "Temporary tags shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle." § 320.131(4), Fla....
...(2000), the Legislature has failed to mandate a distance at which temporary tags must be fully legible. Notably, the temporary tag statute does not specifically require that the expiration date be legible, and it is the State itself which creates and issues the temporary license tag. See § 320.131(1), (4), Fla....
...temporary tag. The officer's inability to read the handwritten expiration date on a properly issued, properly displayed and otherwise legible temporary tag did not establish a valid basis for a suspected violation of the temporary tag requirements. Section 320.131(4), Florida Statutes, which governs temporary tags, requires only that the tag "shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle." (Emphasis supplied.) This statute does not contain a requirement that the date of expiration, which is written on the tag at the time it is issued, be legible from any specific distance. [1] To construe section 320.131(4) as requiring that a law enforcement officer be able to read the handwritten expiration date as well as the larger, preprinted identification numbers and letters on a temporary tag would mean that almost every motorist *441 driving a vehicle with a temporary tag would be subject to police detention....
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CopyCited 7 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2000 WL 217529
...See, e.g., Scott v. State,
436 U.S. 128, 138,
98 S.Ct. 1717,
56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978). We conclude that a reasonable officer would have been justified in stopping Sands for failing to display a temporary tag in a clearly visible manner in violation of subsection
320.131(4), Florida Statutes (1997). The law governing the display of temporary "tags" and permanent license "plates" has, in recent years, been uncertain. In 1997, the legislature modified Florida Statute section
320.131, by including a new subsection (4), which reads as follows: Temporary tags shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle.......
...ement, mutilation, grease and other obscuring matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front. Between the March 4, 1996 repeal of the administrative rule and the enactment of the modification of section
320.131, effective October 1, 1997, one interpretation of section
316.605, was that a temporary tag had to be displayed in the same manner as a permanent license plate, to wit: illuminated at night, securely fastened in the spot for a permanent license plate, and visible from 100 feet. Holmes v. State,
710 So.2d 651 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). The stop of Sand's van took place in May of 1998, over six months after subsection
320.131(4) became effective....
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Cited as authorityBaptiste (2015)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authorityMaldonado (2008)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authoritySanchez (2003)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 1999 WL 218411
...w was based on law that was no longer controlling at the time the officers stopped Parrish's truck on June 12, 1997. See Holmes v. State,
710 So.2d 651 (Fla. 4th DCA), review denied, No. 93,078,
725 So.2d 1108 (Fla. Sept. 22, 1998). Holmes explains: Section
320.131, Florida Statutes (1995), authorized temporary tags, but did not describe how they were to be displayed....
...See Fla. Admin. Code R. 15C-1.005 (April, 1996). . . . At that time, a reasonable reading of the law was that a temporary tag had to be displayed in the same manner as a regular license plate. See §§
316.221(2),
316.605(1), Fla. Stat. (1995). . . . Section
320.131(4), Florida Statutes (1997), now allows temporary tags to be displayed in the rear window of a vehicle....
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Cited as authorityWatson (2008)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authorityCQ (2001)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authorityC.Q. (2001)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyCited 4 times | Published | District Court, S.D. Florida | 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23737, 2015 WL 758283
...display the license plate ... assigned to it by the state.... No license plates other than those furnished by the state shall be used.” Fla. Stat. §
316.605 (1) (alterations added). Florida law also strictly regulates use of temporary license plates, see Fla. Stat. §
320.131 , has specific instructions for replacement license plates, see id....
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Cited as authorityGriffith (2026)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authorityHagans (2025)phrase: "rule_authority"
Cited as authorityMiles (2025)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyCited 3 times | Published | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 1998 WL 171456
...35(1)(b)1.b, Florida Statutes (1995). We note that the initial stop of appellant on the Florida Turnpike was for improper display of a temporary vehicle tag. When the officers first saw appellant's car, no tag was visible on the rear of the vehicle. Section 320.131, Florida Statutes (1995), authorized temporary tags, but did not describe how they were to be displayed....
...o was within his authority to make a stop for a traffic infraction. See Sims v. State,
425 So.2d 563, 568 (Fla. 4th DCA 1982); Gillis v. State,
634 So.2d 725, 726 (Fla. 3d DCA 1994). AFFIRMED. STONE, C.J., and KLEIN and GROSS, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] Section
320.131(4), Florida Statutes (1997), now allows temporary tags to be displayed in the rear window of a vehicle....
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Review deniedParrish (1999)phrase: "review denied"
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 15812, 2014 WL 5039681
...It appears that the trial court inadvertently relied on State v. Diaz,
850 So.2d 435 (Fla. *530 2003) to support its ruling. However, Diaz involved a stop based on the officer's inability to read the expiration date on a temporary tag. Id..', see also §
320.131(4), Fla....
...lating temporary license tags provided: "Temporary tags shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be-clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle." § 320.131(4), Fla....
...(2000), the Legislature has failed to mandate a distance at which temporary tags must be fully legible. Notably, the temporary tag statute does not specifically require that the expiration date be legible, and it is the State itself which creates and issues the temporary license tag. See § 320.131(1), (4), Fla....
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Cited as authorityMunroe (2015)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2010 Fla. App. LEXIS 17177, 2010 WL 4484629
...Rig-gins argues that because this evidence was improperly admitted and was the only evidence offered to support the charge of unlawful use of a temporary tag, his conviction for this offense should be reversed. For reasons similar to those discussed above, Riggins is correct on this issue as well. Section 320.131(2) provides for the issuance of temporary license tags for motor vehicles in certain instances. Such tags are valid for thirty days. Section 320.131(3) makes it a noncriminal traffic infraction to display a temporary tag that has been expired for less than seven days....
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Cited as authorityJones (2013)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal
...s provided:
“Temporary tags shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license
plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright
position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle.”
§ 320.131(4), Fla....
...(2000), the Legislature has failed to
mandate a distance at which temporary tags must be fully legible.
Notably, the temporary tag statute does not specifically require that
the expiration date be legible, and it is the State itself which creates
and issues the temporary license tag. See § 320.131(1), (4), Fla....
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Cited as authorityMunroe (2015)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyPublished | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2002 Fla. App. LEXIS 9698, 2002 WL 1466290
...occurred after the officer had discovered that the tag was valid, the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress. 1 The trial court attempted to distinguish Palmer by finding that Borys’ temporary tag was not displayed in accordance with section 320.131(4), Florida Statutes (2000), and therefore, the justification for the stop did not end when the officer determined that the tag had not expired. The trial court concluded that section 320.131(4), which provides that temporary tags be “conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle,” re...
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Cited as authoritySalcedo (2017)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 1994 Fla. App. LEXIS 319, 1994 WL 22579
...hat it would be used on the highway while helping the Stewarts to apply for a non-use registration. There would be a question concerning the lawfulness of this transaction if it occurred in the manner that our record suggests. See §§
319.33(l)(e),
320.131, Fla.Stat....
...ting dealership plates is estopped to deny responsibility for vehicles illegally using those plates). A dealership issues a temporary tag under chapter 320. The language in section
319.22(2) does not seem to eliminate any duty that may be created by section
320.131 for a dealership that issues temporary tags....
...On the other hand, the Stewarts did not need to purchase bodily injury liability insurance to obtain a registration. It may not be appropriate to use the dangerous instrumentality doctrine to transform Auto Plan into a liability insurer for this van when the statutory violation did not affect liability insurance. See § 320.131(3), Fla.Stat....
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Cited as authoritySligh (1999)phrase: "rule_authority"
CopyPublished | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal | 2005 Fla. App. LEXIS 9714, 2005 WL 1458751
...SunTrust heavily relies on its factual contention that AutoSmart issued the temporary dealer tag, arguing, “[t]his is highly relevant and material because only the licensed dealer who is selling the vehicle can issue a temporary tag” (emphasis added). According to § 320.131(l)(k), Fla....
...6 When this court views the facts in the light most favorable to Maroone, it was Maroone rather than AutoSmart who issued the temporary dealer tag, indicating that it was Maroone who was the licensed dealer selling the vehicle. to the Ladries. See § 320.131(l)(k), Fla....
CopyPublished | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2007 WL 4547385
...I could not distinguish the numbers and letters. As soon as the officer walked up to the driver's side window, he smelled the odor of burnt cannabis coming from the vehicle. Cocaine, cannabis, and drug paraphernalia were subsequently found on Tullis. Tullis contended that section
320.131(4), Florida Statutes (2006), [1] does not require a temporary tag to be legible, only that it be "clearly visible." Thus, Tullis argued, the arresting officer had no basis to detain him because the tag was "clearly visible" to the officer prior to the stop. The trial court agreed with Tullis. Section
320.131(4), Florida Statutes (2006), provides that temporary tags shall be "clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle." We find that where the preprinted identification numbers and letters on a temporary tag are illegible from five feet away, because of a tinted license plate cover, the tag is not "clearly visible." Sands v. State,
753 So.2d 630 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000). Because the officer had probable cause to believe that Tullis had violated section
320.131(4), the officer was authorized to stop Tullis' vehicle. Whren v. United States,
517 U.S. 806,
116 S.Ct. 1769,
135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996). Tullis argues that because section
320.131(4) does not expressly state that a temporary tag has to be legible, it is irrelevant whether the officer could read the tag from five feet away....
...The officer's inability to read the handwritten expiration date on a properly issued, properly displayed and otherwise legible temporary tag did not establish a valid basis for a suspected violation of the temporary tag requirements. . . . To construe section 320.131(4) as requiring that a law enforcement officer be able to read the handwritten expiration date as well as the larger, preprinted identification numbers and letters on a temporary tag would mean that almost every motorist driving a vehicle with a temporary tag would be subject to police detention....
...See Blake v. State,
939 So.2d 192, 197 (Fla. 5th DCA 2006); State v. T.P.,
835 So.2d 1277, 1279 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). *915 The trial court erred in granting Tullis' motion to suppress. REVERSED and REMANDED. PLEUS and MONACO, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] Section
320.131(4) provides: Temporary tags shall be conspicuously displayed in the rear license plate bracket or attached to the inside of the rear window in an upright position so as to be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle....
