paying a traffic ticket issues. advice?

NotYou

Hey I was hoping someone could help me decide how to deal with this issue.

Basically, I got a ticket a little while back. My court date and the date I'm supposed to pay by is the 14th. This tuesday. 9 days ago I mailed in my payment along with my traffic school certificate, however the charges still haven't been added to my credit card.

I've tried calling but I've never gotten off hold before. I've waited hours and hours trying to get through without luck. The court house is 3 hours away and I'd have to miss work, so I'd rather not drive out there. I could pay online, but then I suspect they'd be double charging me and I have no idea if I could get that money back. It's 415 bucks, so no small fee.

Any advice? Not really sure how to proceed from here. I sincerely have tried to get through on phone multiple times without luck. I'll be trying again tomorrow morning...

Tox

Call the court house tomorrow, ask for a continuance.

You really should have just hired a lawyer, though. You probably could have paid him half that and gotten the charges reduces (this depends heavily on what country you live in, naturally)

NotYou

ah yes, I can do the continuance thing online, however I can't put a continuance on the traffic school side of things. I need them to accept the certificate a sent them so I don't get screwed on insurance.

Tox

I don't understand, the ticket is the only thing that will go against your insurance, I assume the traffic school is something you did to mitigate or fulfill the ticket, so if the court date is continued, then the ticket's deadline is continued by default. The ticket's deadline is determined by the court date. You don't get in trouble until you miss your court date and haven't paid your ticket, which is considered a guilty plea.

This all assumes you're in the US

NotYou

Well on the online form where I can request a continuance, it says I can request one for my court date, but not for the date I need to complete my traffic school by. The traffic school makes sure that the ticket doesn't go on my permanent record, and thereby affect my insurance rates.

I suppose I should request a continuance regardless just in case though since there's nothing I can do to make sure they get my traffic school certificate any faster.

(and yes in the US. In California.)

Tox

Well, if you've already completed the traffic school, and sent in the cert for that, then the date for it should be official (and that assumes it's not updated electronically in a file somewhere).

You should be good to go, request a continuance to be safe, and just keep hammering the phones every day you can. Try earlier in the morning, you should get better results then, not quite as many people calling them, I'd imagine (though Monday morning may be a different story)

Tox

Oh, yeah, IANAL