Court Rejects Driver Appeal to Lower Fine Under New Traffic Law
The Central District Court in Lod rejected a driver's appeal to reduce a 1,200 NIS fine to 100 NIS under a new traffic law. The court ruled that the legislation does not apply retroactively to offenses committed before February 2026.
A driver who agreed to pay a 1,200 NIS fine petitioned to reduce it to 100 NIS, the amount set by a new law for the offense of which he was convicted. The Central District Court in Lod partially accepted his legal argument but dismissed the appeal, ruling that the new law does not apply to offenses committed before it entered into force.
The Incident and Plea Bargain
The case began on April 3, 2024, on Moshe Dayan Street in Rishon LeZion. A police officer spotted a driver holding a phone while driving, without a hands-free device. In April 2025, the parties reached a plea bargain: the indictment was amended to a lighter offense of failing to keep both hands on the steering wheel. The driver confessed, was convicted, and agreed to pay 1,200 NIS.
On February 8, 2026, the Administrative Traffic Offenses Law came into effect, transferring minor traffic offenses to an administrative track. For failing to keep both hands on the steering wheel, the offense for which the driver was convicted, the law set a payment of 100 NIS. This was not the amount set for holding a phone while driving, which was the offense originally attributed to him at the start of the case.
Court Proceedings and Appeal
In March, the driver applied to the Traffic Court and asked to amend the sentence, relying on Section 5(b) of the Penal Law, which stipulates that if a new law imposes a lighter punishment for an offense, the lighter punishment shall apply. Judge Amit Bar rejected the request, and the driver, representing himself, appealed to the District Court.
"The new law sets a ceiling of 100 NIS for the offense of which I was convicted, and therefore a fine of 1,200 NIS should not remain in place," the driver argued, adding that another interpretation creates inequality among offenders based on the date of their sentencing.
The State responded that the new law did not alter the fine agreed upon in the plea bargain. Furthermore, the State argued that sentence reduction under Section 5(b), where possible, is handled administratively and does not justify reopening the case in court.
The Final Ruling
Judge Ahikam Stoler accepted two points of the driver's arguments, ruling that Section 5(b) is not limited only to cases where the original fine for the offense changed, and that the request was not filed too late. However, Section 48(a) of the new law sealed the fate of the appeal. The transitional provision explicitly states that the law does not apply to traffic offenses committed before its entry into force.
Since the offense was committed in April 2024, the driver is not entitled to a reduction of the fine to 100 NIS. Additionally, the judge noted that altering the fine would interfere with a completed plea bargain. The appeal was dismissed, and the fine of 1,200 NIS remained unchanged.
