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Going to Court for Traffic Violations [SOLVED]
melting_doll
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
First off: I live in Maine (US). In our state, if you receive any ticket or citation for traffic violations, you must pay it off or your license is suspended. The state does not send you a letter, phone call or any sort of notification if this happens. It also costs money to find out if your license is suspended.
Last fall, one of my best friends was pulled over while driving and found out his license had been suspended. It was because he had a ticket that never got paid off. He was given another ticket but was told it could be waived if he could prove he paid the previous one and that his license should have never been suspended. He sent them a payment and tried to get in contact with the state but saw that his check was cashed so he didn't think anything of it again.
Last night he was pulled over for a "failure to signal" turning into his driveway and found out his license was still suspended. He now has a court date and will most likely have to pay at least $500 in fines, and may lose his license for 60 days.
He's a really good guy and works really hard and now he's beating himself up about it. Obviously he can't do anything to change what already happened, so it would be great if no one started turning this into an attack on his intelligence because of a mistake he made.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I want to know if going to court for something like this is really as scary as it sounds. I've done my best to encourage him but I'd love to hear some feedback so I can feel like my optimism for the situation holds merit.
What can he expect or do to make things go as smoothly as possible?
Last fall, one of my best friends was pulled over while driving and found out his license had been suspended. It was because he had a ticket that never got paid off. He was given another ticket but was told it could be waived if he could prove he paid the previous one and that his license should have never been suspended. He sent them a payment and tried to get in contact with the state but saw that his check was cashed so he didn't think anything of it again.
Last night he was pulled over for a "failure to signal" turning into his driveway and found out his license was still suspended. He now has a court date and will most likely have to pay at least $500 in fines, and may lose his license for 60 days.
He's a really good guy and works really hard and now he's beating himself up about it. Obviously he can't do anything to change what already happened, so it would be great if no one started turning this into an attack on his intelligence because of a mistake he made.
The reason I'm posting about this is because I want to know if going to court for something like this is really as scary as it sounds. I've done my best to encourage him but I'd love to hear some feedback so I can feel like my optimism for the situation holds merit.
What can he expect or do to make things go as smoothly as possible?
melting_doll on
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I'm not familiar with your state's specific laws, but I recommend that your friend learns about them. Not even for any kind of loophole or anything, but if he has an idea about how it is going to play out, there should be a lot less stress. (Though, he may also be able to gain some ground with regards to the check being cashed.) Really, though, it's not like he did anything crazy so even if he has to pay some fines and lose his license for a bit, in my experience it will get processed like a transaction, not a criminal drama. This kind of stuff probably happens often so it's in the state's best interest to speed up the process.
This will put you above 80% of the people they would see that day and at least put you in better shape to get things waived.
That said, it might be worth hunting up specific information for your state, particularly people who've actually done the court thing and can tell you the best way to go about it. Things could be as easy as things are in my province, where getting reductions/changes to traffic charges is as simple as showing up early on your court day, dressing well, and talking to the crown prosecutor beforehand. I used to get speeding tickets regularly, and would just dress nicely, be contrite, and request that my tickets were reclassified as photo-radar tickets (no demerits on those and no insurance hikes.)
Tell him to dress nice and bring his copy of the cashed check for the original offense. He'll be asked to plead guilty or innocent. Tell him to plead innocent and he'll be asked to wait for all the other cases to be finished. Once the 'plead guilty' cases are taken care of, he and the issuing officer (if the officer shows up) will go to the front of the courtroom and talk to the judge. The officer will go first and then your friend will get his chance to speak to the judge. Your friend should then show the cashed check for the original offense to the judge and the case should be thrown out.
If this person paid off the original ticket and can produce documentation (figure it out with the bank), it should be a pretty easy trip to court and it is unlikely the muni judge will throw the book at you unless there is substantial information not presented in this thread.
ianal etc.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
He ended up having to get a new Driver's License because it was confiscated and then "lost" so the state couldn't send it to him.
He finally had a chance to get through and talk to the state about paying off previous tickets and now he may not even need to go to court. Thanks again to everyone for the advice!