California Speeding Ticket

I live in Ohio, but this question is regarding California

Back in June while visiting California with my family, my car along with the car in front of me were stopped on the highway outside of Santa Clara for apparently traveling 80 in a 65 mile zone. The officer asked for my license and vehicle registration. Since I was driving a rental car, I provided him with my rental agreement and license. He returned several minutes later to return those items and stated that if I did not want to contest the ticket to just sign the citation and give it back to him and that I would be receiving a notification in the mail in 6-8 weeks indicating how much to pay and where to send the money. When I inquired as to how much the ticket would be, he said probably around $70-75. Note that I did not receive anything from him at the time I was stopped.

As it turns out I did not receive any notification until the beginning of September. At that time, another citation was added to the first for a total amount of $387.50. When I accessed their web-site I could not find out anything specific to my citation only that the additional citation was tacked on because of failure to pay the first.

I tried telephoning the number on the back of the letter sent to me, but the number was disconnected. I tried for several days to contact the California DMV, but repeatedly got only a busy signal.

Lastly I sent them a letter by priority mail explaining the situation. A few days ago I received a form letter (from their legal process clerk) stating that I have no choice but to pay or appear there in court. It also states that I was responsible in the first place to contact them if I did not hear anything by the contact date. I never got this information from the officer!

I talked to a couple of attorneys I know here in town, but no one had a solution other than to contact an attorney out in California.


I am currently out of work and $387 is a steep price to pay. (It's almost as if I am being scammed by the State of California.) Up to this point my driving record is completely clean. I was more than willing to pay without contest the original $70-75! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For obvious reasons, I cannot appear in court out there...

[TYRIS]

Originally posted by razman
I live in Ohio, but this question is regarding California

Back in June while visiting California with my family, my car along with the car in front of me were stopped on the highway outside of Santa Clara for apparently traveling 80 in a 65 mile zone. The officer asked for my license and registration. Since I was driving a rental car I provided him with my rental agreement and license. He returned several minutes later and stated that if I did not want to contest the ticket that I would be receiving a notification in the mail in 6-8 weeks indicating how much to pay and where to send the money. When I inquired as to how much the ticket would be, he said probably around $70-75.

As it turns out I did not receive any notification until the beginning of September. At that time, another citation was added to the first for a total amount of $387.50. When I accessed their web-site I could not find out anything specific to my citation only that the additional citation was tacked on because of failure to pay the first.

I tried telephoning the number on the back of the letter sent to me, but the number was disconnected. I tried for several days to contact the California DMV, but repeatedly got only a busy signal.

Lastly I sent them a letter by priority mail explaining the situation. A few days ago I received a form letter (from their legal process clerk) stating that I have no choice but to pay or appear there in court. It also states that I was responsible in the first place to contact them if I did not hear anything by the contact date. I never got this information from the officer!

I talked to a couple of attorneys I know here in town, but no one had a solution other than to contact an attorney out in California.



I am currently out of work and $387 is a steep price to pay. (It's almost as if I am being scammed by the State of California.) Up to this point my driving record is completely clean. I was more than willing to pay without contest the original $70-75! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For obvious reasons, I cannot appear in court out there...

-your best option is to contact the county clerk and see if it is possible to set up a payment plan for the ticket.

the courts are not responsible for making sure that you appear or that you receive the proper notification in the mail. this is your job. if you look on the back of the ticket, most of this is explained. Also on the bottom of the ticket is usually the address and telephone number to the courthouse.

on the bottom of the citation was a court date. regardless of whether or not the Officer told you that you would receive something in the mail, you signed the citation promising to appear in court on that court. if you failed to do so, you have no recourse.

Tyris

As they said, you were responsible for contacting them if you didn't hear anything.