Los Angeles, California
Its been a while since the first incident occurred, but I believe it all happened around 2 years ago. After high school, I ended up using my girlfriend's car a lot to get to and from work. I pride myself on being an excellent driver, and have no other traffic tickets/infractions etc, besides this little bureaucratic nightmare. Anyway, I always mentioned to her that she should try to get her tail light fixed because it was a pain, and might cause her problems at some point. One night, I was pulled over a few blocks from my house, and the officer ended up giving me a ticket for it. I explained that it wasn't my car, and that I had begged her to get it fixed before. He said it would be no problem- just have her fix it, and bring the ticket to a sheriff's station to get it signed, and pay a ten dollar administrative fee. I reluctantly took the ticket and went on my way. A week or so later, I was pulled over again. We began the same song and dance. I tried to explain that I had already gotten a ticket for the exact same issue, and that it WASN'T EVEN MY CAR. He essentially said the same thing as the first cop, except that If I had kept the ticket with me, he wouldn't have to give me another one. However- since it was at home- he's have to write me another one. He said to keep it in the car in case I got stopped again. The next day or so, I was stopped a THIRD TIME. I quickly started explaining the situation and handed him the ticket. He quickly tossed it back into the car and angrily said that I shouldn't have been driving the car in that state anyway, and that he should have taken me into custody for ignoring (!?) the previous tickets. In the end, I got another ticket. A couple of months later, my then girlfriend got the same ticket, and she got it fixed for herself. I think my first ticket had already gone into collections, but I assumed that her fixing it would clear up all the tickets.
Long story short, my license is now suspended for these damn fix-it tickets which were supposed to cause me no trouble. Its basically ruining every aspect of my life. I need to get this dealt with. I called the DMV, and they say they have nothing to do with it. I tried referencing the tickets (which Ive certainly lost by now) numbers through the court house's automated system, but they said they can't reference it or do anything about it since its gone to collections. The collections agency doesn;t want to have anything to do with it except take my money. So...WHAT DO I DO?! I just don;t see how legally I can be expected to take posession of and make repairs to car that neither belongs to me, or is registered in my name. Do they want me to steal it? Should I have it towed? What? It just makes no sense. Its a complete nightmare, and I need someone's professional opinion on how to go about rectifying this. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
T What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Its been a while since the first incident occurred, but I believe it all happened around 2 years ago. After high school, I ended up using my girlfriend's car a lot to get to and from work. I pride myself on being an excellent driver, and have no other traffic tickets/infractions etc, besides this little bureaucratic nightmare. Anyway, I always mentioned to her that she should try to get her tail light fixed because it was a pain, and might cause her problems at some point. One night, I was pulled over a few blocks from my house, and the officer ended up giving me a ticket for it. I explained that it wasn't my car, and that I had begged her to get it fixed before. He said it would be no problem- just have her fix it, and bring the ticket to a sheriff's station to get it signed, and pay a ten dollar administrative fee. I reluctantly took the ticket and went on my way. A week or so later, I was pulled over again. We began the same song and dance. I tried to explain that I had already gotten a ticket for the exact same issue, and that it WASN'T EVEN MY CAR. He essentially said the same thing as the first cop, except that If I had kept the ticket with me, he wouldn't have to give me another one. However- since it was at home- he's have to write me another one. He said to keep it in the car in case I got stopped again. The next day or so, I was stopped a THIRD TIME. I quickly started explaining the situation and handed him the ticket. He quickly tossed it back into the car and angrily said that I shouldn't have been driving the car in that state anyway, and that he should have taken me into custody for ignoring (!?) the previous tickets. In the end, I got another ticket. A couple of months later, my then girlfriend got the same ticket, and she got it fixed for herself. I think my first ticket had already gone into collections, but I assumed that her fixing it would clear up all the tickets.
Long story short, my license is now suspended for these damn fix-it tickets which were supposed to cause me no trouble. Its basically ruining every aspect of my life. I need to get this dealt with. I called the DMV, and they say they have nothing to do with it. I tried referencing the tickets (which Ive certainly lost by now) numbers through the court house's automated system, but they said they can't reference it or do anything about it since its gone to collections. The collections agency doesn;t want to have anything to do with it except take my money. So...WHAT DO I DO?! I just don;t see how legally I can be expected to take posession of and make repairs to car that neither belongs to me, or is registered in my name. Do they want me to steal it? Should I have it towed? What? It just makes no sense. Its a complete nightmare, and I need someone's professional opinion on how to go about rectifying this. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
T What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?