Renaissance Realty Group’s Blog: Georgia's new ban on texting while driving goes into effect July 1. Here's what you need to know.

Statewide ban on texting while driving goes into effect July 1.
The Georgia State Patrol will observe a 30-to-60 day grace period in which any violations encountered will usually result in a warning. If cited for violating the new law, a driver may pay a $150 fine and will incur a penalty of one point on his/her license.

 The newly minted law faces an uncertain legal future on several fronts. How enforceable will it be? Both safety advocates and law enforcement sources say making the law stick will be tough. Some questions remain to be answered by the courts, including: What constitutes probable cause to stop a driver suspected of texting? How far can police go in questioning a suspected texter? Do the cops have the right to examine a cell phone found on the floorboard at a crash scene to see if texting was underway, or do they need a search warrant? How can witnesses be sure an accused texter wasn't simply looking at the number of an incoming call?

       It's that last legal point that concerns the governor, who noted that when a phone buzzes, the driver won't know if it's an incoming phone call or a text.

        "The governor said that he thought that the manipulation of the keys should be the illegal act," says Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley, "not the receipt of a text message, where if you don't respond back generally that conversation ends."

       The governor thinks that making the act of looking at a phone screen criminal could lead to a rise in lawsuits and prosecutions, as well. "A lot of trial lawyers might want to subpoena phone records and assign blame for every accident that happens," is how Brantley puts it.

     Gov. Perdue urged lawmakers to come back and take a hard look at the law in the 2011 legislative session, with a view to revising the part about reading texts.

      Texting bans, now in effect in various forms in 28 states, have drawn wide support from law enforcement, highway safety advocates and even the cell phone industry. But there are questions about how they work in practice. Enforcement may not be as straightforward as making a traffic stop because a cop saw a head intently bent over something in a weaving car. There's a feeling that Georgia's law will migrate up the legal food chain as attorneys defend against local cases, with some questions ultimately decided by the Georgia Supreme Court.

      For a case to stand up in court, says Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety, "the manner of driving would in all probability be the most telling probable cause for a traffic stop. When texting, you're distracted from watching the road and you tend to mimic the habits of an impaired driver, jerking the wheel, leaving the roadway, crossing the center line and so forth.

      "If you pull a driver over and find out that they are not an impaired driver, under the influence," he continues, "and you start asking questions, someone might admit to texting. And admitting would be one of the factors that would support a citation. The gray area is going to be a person having a phone in their hand. Were they dialing a phone number or were they texting?"