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14 Year Old Traffic Ticket Comes Calling

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spangemonkee

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Alabama

I just received a letter in the mail from a DA in Alabama stating "Your traffic ticket has not been paid in full or you have failed to appear in court as originally ordered. It is urgent that you contac the DA's Recovery Team immediately by call us at [phone number] to avoid further action." blah blah blah ".. DA's Recovery Team will request a writ of arrest."

Two days prior to, my wife took a message from someone with the DA that said I owed $435.50 in tickets and fines from 1994 (I was 16) for improper tag and running a stop sign/red light. Since I haven't had a chance to call because of the holidays, I'm not sure about all the details, but I would like to know what kind of options and rights I have.

I know that I have paid EVERY ticket I have ever received. The confusing part is that I have had other tickets since '94. I even had my Alabama license suspended for non-payment on a ticket in Mississippi and I was never notified of the suspension. I didn't find out about the suspension till three years later, when I was pulled over and the officer told me my license was suspended. This was eventually resolved via proof of payment from a canceled check. Since then, I've had my license in good standing in Alabama and Georgia. I haven't lived in Alabama in seven years. So why hasn't this come up before?

This time, I don't have a canceled check though. It has been too long. I don't want to pay this on principle and I don't want to pay this because I know I already paid it. I'd even rather pay the $435.50 to a lawyer than pay twice on a ticket.

Based on what I have already on this forum, I gather that a) dealing with the government will be easier to deal with than a collection agency, b) I'll need to show proof of payment (I don't have nor can I obtain it), c) the government should provide me proof of non-payment and d) statute of limitations does not apply. Any advice on how to procede?
 


Maestro64

Member
You're in a lose lose situation.

Unless you can proved it was paid you lose, if you ignore it you lose when they suspend your license. If it goes to collection and you do not pay, they mess with your credit history, and cost you lots of money in the end.

There is not a whole lot you can do. The statue of limitation is only on the issuance of the ticket after the infraction occurred, there is no limitation of time on collection of the fine or paying your dues. Even if you did pay, the government knows banks are not required to maintain records for more then 7 yrs and most destroy records after 10 yrs. The government knows all this and do not care since they have nothing to lose.

I personally find it interesting that more and more people have been getting letters of so called old tickets that are greater then 10 yrs old.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
I personally find it interesting that more and more people have been getting letters of so called old tickets that are greater then 10 yrs old.
Yep - and they all thought they could get away with it by ignoring the tickets long enough...
 

spangemonkee

Junior Member
Yep - and they all thought they could get away with it by ignoring the tickets long enough...
I wish that was the case here. At least then I would know it is my fault and that I'm not being scammed.

I called the DA today and she said that a receipt of payment or canceled check was the only way for me to prove that I paid. She said that the office was mismanaged before and that is why I haven't heard anything. She wouldn't fax or mail me a copy of the citation either.

I'm thinking the municipality is cash-strapped and just had someone pull boxes of old tickets out just to make a few bucks.
 

BucFan

Junior Member
Wow. This was almost like reading my own story.

I received a letter today from a collection agency acting on the behalf of the State of FL. It informed me that I allegedly have an unpaid ticket from the year 2000 and that my license has been suspended.

Funny enough, my license was just renewed in FL only 2 years ago and obviously it showed as paid even then. Now they want more money and can't offer up any valid reason as to why it no longer shows as paid.
Surely a ploy for a few extra dollars in this downward economy.

I've been wanting to get out of this state for a while now... it's looking like the time to buy a home elsewhere has come. This is the proverbial straw that broke this camel's back!
 

Maestro64

Member
Wow. This was almost like reading my own story.

I received a letter today from a collection agency acting on the behalf of the State of FL. It informed me that I allegedly have an unpaid ticket from the year 2000 and that my license has been suspended.

Funny enough, my license was just renewed in FL only 2 years ago and obviously it showed as paid even then. Now they want more money and can't offer up any valid reason as to why it no longer shows as paid.
Surely a ploy for a few extra dollars in this downward economy.

I've been wanting to get out of this state for a while now... it's looking like the time to buy a home elsewhere has come. This is the proverbial straw that broke this camel's back!

Do not ignore this, this will follow you no matter where you end up, thanks to the patriot act all police/DMV records are now connected so all states have access to your driving records from any state. So if one state suspends your license all the rest will know too. Oh, and they will probably not notify you of suspension.

This is part of the reason these old unresolved issues are now showing up. Even if you paid it, it was not obviously entered into the system correctly and now years later they are going back and cleaning up the messy manual paperwork and since they can not tie the ticket to a payment they automatically assume it was not paid.

I had couple of old ticket which I paid and for whatever the reason they never ended up showing on my DMV records. Someone took the money but never processed the paperwork. In my case I have all those tickets stapled to the cancel check. This a lesson I learn form my mom who use to work for the state and told me their record keeping systems we less then perfect and had to deal with people who paid and the state said they did not.
 

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