tennessee ticket - NC resident

My daughter received an improper turn ticket in tennessee about 2 weeks ago. She resides with us in north carolina. The ticket is clearly marked that she may pay the fine by mail, but everyone we've called in tennessee, says that they can't tell us the amount to mail because the judge has to see her in person and set the fine according to his will. Can a state require an out-of-state person to actually drive back to the state the ticket was issued in to attend court? We are 4 1/2 hours away! What if we were residents of alaska or hawaii? It seems like if the ticket said the fine could be paid through the mail then there ought to be a way to do this.

on the front is there a box that says must appear in court?
Is it checked?
On the back is there a statement saying all other fines??

This is a Campbell County Sheriff's Dept citation. On the back the box that says you must appear in court is UNCHECKED. The box that says you may pay by mail is CHECKED. In addition, the officer plainly told her that she could pay by mail. He told if that if she wanted to appeal it then she would have to appear in court and then he wrote down a date and time. He also circled the address of the court where she would mail the fine to, but never wrote in the amount. She probably should have asked the amount, but was flustered as she's young, out-of-state, and has never been pulled over.
So far we've called the court clerk 3 times, another number they gave me which is some sort of judges office once, and also the sheriff's dept once. No one knows the amount of the fine, and no one seems interested in helping. They all say that since there is no amount listed she has to show up and the judge will just decide at the time what she owes! But the ticket clearly states (as did the officer) that she can pay by mail. It's ridiculous. I don't know who to call anymore.

If there is no statement on the ticket as to all other fines are
$$$ and the officer didnt write any amount in and as youve said
about the box then the ticket is invalid. Do nothing. Save that ticket for any possible future defense. Always go by what the ticket says not what the officer tells you.

Thank you Vincent, I really appreciate your responses. There most certainly is no place on the ticket - front or back- that lists any other fines or amounts. If this is an important part of a valid citation I wonder how they can be using such a form? Anyway, the boxes are checked (and unchecked) in exactly the manner that I've already described. So it appears the ticket would be invalid. Hopefully in this particular county of Tenn. the rules aren't different. I'd sure be more comfortable if I could file some sort of official report somewhere, citing the inability to obtain the fine amount and the likely invalid status of the citation, before I just forget it. With my luck, this thing would re-appear in like 10 years and we wouldn't remember most of the details or facts. Maybe I'll see if the Tenn State Insurance Commissioner's Office has any suggestions? Thanks again!

you could write a letter explaining and send it in to the address
stated on the ticket.

Yep, I'll probably do that. Where did I get the Insurance Commissioner idea? You can most likely tell that I'm grappling with several different problems, one being an insurance issue, at once. My feeble mind got them mixed up last night. Whew!

what response you get if any. And if they make any threats because if I give you advice that causes you any problems then I would personally appear in court to fight it and will pay any fines myself if I am wrong. My E-mail is [email]vincentcosentino@hotmail.com[/email]

Wow, that's certainly a generous offer. I certainly hope this doesn't go anywhere near that point. Hopefully they will understand that we aren't trying to shirk the ticket and will come to their senses. Will let you know what happens.

so you should know that when I say that the ticket is void thats my opinion but from a legal standpoint only the judge can void the ticket. Hopefully he would see that the ticket is incorrect and void it but if he dosent there is nothing stopping him from issueing
an arrest warrant for failure to appear. You would then have to go to court on that. To avoid future possible problems with the court it probably is the safe thing to do by showing up for court
now even if its a big inconvience to you.