[JoeRedskin]

Actually, I am pretty sure you can contest it. I think I had a witness do so in one of my cases sometime ago. It was either tags or lack of insurance fine. Call the DMV and see if they will let you submit an affidavit of non-driving. Be sure your insurance is cancelled and you may want to try and cancel it back to the date you stopped driving. Unlikely they will allow that, but they may if you submit an affidavit of stating you have had no accidents and waive any liability from the date forward.

Fines like this are tough. When it comes to this stuff (tags, licenses, insurance) you need to handle things pronto. Otherwise, it will come back to bite you because a lot of these types of fines are statutorily mandatory and the gov. cannot modify them. (The double edged sword of preventing favoritism/abuse v. creating draconian penalties).