New Jersey Window Tint: Front Glass Is Off Limits Without a Medical Certificate

The prohibition itself is old and blunt. R.S. 39:3-74 says that "No person shall drive any motor vehicle with any sign, poster, sticker or other non-transparent material upon the front windshield, wings, deflectors, side shields, corner lights adjoining windshield or front side windows of such vehicle other than a certificate or other article required to be so displayed by statute or by regulations of the commissioner." Because the only carve-out is for something the State itself requires you to display, there is no percentage a New Jersey driver can aim at. Most states answer the tint question with a number; New Jersey answers it with a ban and then a medical file.

The exemption comes from N.J.S.A. 39:3-75.1, enacted as L.1999, c.308. It lets the owner or lessee of a vehicle "that is driven by or is used to regularly transport a person who has a medical condition involving ophthalmic or dermatologic photosensitivity" apply to the Chief Administrator of the Motor Vehicle Commission for permission to treat the windshield and windows with a product that increases light reflectance or reduces light transmittance. The application must carry a written certification from a certified ophthalmologist or a physician holding a plenary license to practice medicine and surgery in New Jersey or a bordering state. The statute names seven qualifying conditions: polymorphous light eruption, persistent light reactivity, actinic reticuloid, porphyrins, solar urticaria, lupus erythematosus, and any other photosensitive disorder the director determines. N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.5(a) adds chronic actinic dermatitis, photosensitive eczema, and skin cancers carrying an associated diagnosis of chronic actinic dermatitis.

Only once a certificate exists do numbers apply, and they are light by national standards. Under N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.2, sun-screening on the windshield may not, together with the factory glazing, drop visible light transmittance below 70 percent, except on the strip above the AS-1 line, where it may. Front side windows may not go below 60 percent. A certificate holder may additionally affix readily removable material to the uppermost six-inch portion of the front side windows between sunrise and sunset, and that strip may go down to 35 percent but no further. N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.3 caps visible light reflectance on the windshield and front side windows at eight percent, and N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.4 requires windshield film to be clear film, with front side windows allowed clear or tinted film.

The paperwork is specific. N.J.S.A. 39:3-75.2(b) requires the certificate or card to be valid for no more than 48 months and to be shown to any law enforcement officer on request and to a designated motor vehicle examiner whenever the vehicle is inspected. N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.6 requires renewal at least 30 days before expiry and blocks renewal where the installed film has developed haze, discoloration or other visual distortion. The certificate is void on sale of the vehicle or termination of the lease, the owner must strip the film before that sale, and a lessee who buys the car out has 14 days from the new registration to apply for a replacement certificate. N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.7 requires the certificate to be in the driver's possession at all times on New Jersey highways. N.J.A.C. 13:20-1.8 requires the registered installation facility to sandwich a one-inch square label between the film and the glass: lower right of the windshield, lower left of the left front window, lower right of the right front window. In practice the MVC runs this on four forms, Sunscreening 1 through 4, with a temporary authorization good for 60 days while you get the film installed by an MVC-registered facility, handled by the Customer Advocacy Office on 609-984-2973.

Enforcement is roadside, not at inspection. N.J.S.A. 39:8-1(a), as amended by L.2010, c.29, provides that passenger automobiles and noncommercial trucks "shall only be inspected for emissions and emission-related items such as emission control equipment and on-board diagnostics," and motorcycles, historic vehicles and designated collector vehicles are outside the inspection requirement altogether. Nobody at a New Jersey inspection station meters your glass. A tint charge in this State comes from a municipal officer or a State Police trooper who saw the front windows on the road.

S. A. 39:3-86, which is not less than $25 and not more than $500, or imprisonment for up to fifteen days, or both, since the section fixes no penalty of its own. A. 3(a) sets a fine not exceeding $100 for failing to carry the medical exemption card, and lets the municipal judge dismiss the charge outright if you produce a card that was valid on the day you were charged, though the judge may still impose court costs. Installers face the real money. A.

A. A. 56:8-117 makes it an unlawful practice under the Consumer Fraud Act for a shop to sell film without the posted warning sign, or to apply film to a windshield or front side window unless the customer produces the medical certificate. S. 39:3-75 lets the director revoke the registration of any vehicle driven with safety glazing that causes "undue or unsafe distortion of visibility" or that is unduly fractured, discolored or deteriorated. C. 6(c) a hazed or discolored medical film also blocks renewal of the certificate.