PA
This is going to be long. Let me give some background on this issue, which is probably related to my current problem.
In June of 2005 I received a citation for driving with an outdated inspection sticker. I understand that it was totally my fault. I then confused the deadline to respond with another deadline, and so I ended up sending in the payment one day late. That led to me receiving a letter from the State of PA that my license was suspended for failing to respond to the citation. I appealed that decision, and subsequently went through the extremely confusing and costly process. In retrospect, I should have just sent in my driver’s license for 30 days. Anyway, I eventually ended up having the suspension lifted and was fine. All the above was my fault and I have am not complaining about how it worked out.
However, a couple of months back I asked a company for a car insurance quote, and it was higher than I expected. They told me that there was a citation on my driving record for Driving with a Suspended License.
I ordered my driver’s record from the state’s website, and sure enough, this citation, which I had never received, was on there. The problems here are
1. I never received said citation
2. The date of the citation is before I received the original citation and subsequent suspension mentioned above.
I talked to the PennDOT customer support desk, and the only additional info they had for the ticket was that it came from Allegheny County, and that I had to ask the county for the magisterial district of the citation. The county didn’t have record of the citation, so they didn’t have that info and insisted that the state should have it. I talked to the state again and they admitted that it was strange that they didn’t have that info, but said I still had to have a letter from the magisterial district written to them to have the citation removed. Problem is, I can’t contact a magisterial district (that I don’t know) to have them write the letter about a citation that I never received in the first place. The state wouldn’t budge and I was in the infinite loop between the state and county.
I then contacted my local state representative’s office, and the friendly people there tried to help by going through their PennDOT “contact.” The contact told them that he pulled the microfilm and that it was my citation, but could not give them any other info. Personally, I don’t believe that it was pulled, but that is just a hunch. The people helping me suggested that I request a copy of the microfilm, and I am now waiting for that to be sent to me.
The state is telling me that I have to prove something that I can’t really prove. I feel like I am guilty until proven innocent, and that bothers me. As I am awaiting for a copy of my requested citation on microfilm, I am worrying about what the result of the record will be.
1. They can say that it doesn’t exist but that I still need to have the local magisterial district send them a letter. A district that neither the state nor county can tell me about.
2. The record will show that it had erroneous information of some type, which is how it got into my record. In which case I may still have to contact the magisterial district and ask them to write a letter about it not being for me, which is probably a whole new can or worms itself.
What I think happened is someone accidentally put this stuff on my record as a data entry error, and now I am jumping through hoops to prove that I am innocent when they should be proving that I am guilty. I don’t know what to do and who to contact if the state is NOT able to prove that this is my citation, and they won’t be able to because it isn’t.
This is going to be long. Let me give some background on this issue, which is probably related to my current problem.
In June of 2005 I received a citation for driving with an outdated inspection sticker. I understand that it was totally my fault. I then confused the deadline to respond with another deadline, and so I ended up sending in the payment one day late. That led to me receiving a letter from the State of PA that my license was suspended for failing to respond to the citation. I appealed that decision, and subsequently went through the extremely confusing and costly process. In retrospect, I should have just sent in my driver’s license for 30 days. Anyway, I eventually ended up having the suspension lifted and was fine. All the above was my fault and I have am not complaining about how it worked out.
However, a couple of months back I asked a company for a car insurance quote, and it was higher than I expected. They told me that there was a citation on my driving record for Driving with a Suspended License.
I ordered my driver’s record from the state’s website, and sure enough, this citation, which I had never received, was on there. The problems here are
1. I never received said citation
2. The date of the citation is before I received the original citation and subsequent suspension mentioned above.
I talked to the PennDOT customer support desk, and the only additional info they had for the ticket was that it came from Allegheny County, and that I had to ask the county for the magisterial district of the citation. The county didn’t have record of the citation, so they didn’t have that info and insisted that the state should have it. I talked to the state again and they admitted that it was strange that they didn’t have that info, but said I still had to have a letter from the magisterial district written to them to have the citation removed. Problem is, I can’t contact a magisterial district (that I don’t know) to have them write the letter about a citation that I never received in the first place. The state wouldn’t budge and I was in the infinite loop between the state and county.
I then contacted my local state representative’s office, and the friendly people there tried to help by going through their PennDOT “contact.” The contact told them that he pulled the microfilm and that it was my citation, but could not give them any other info. Personally, I don’t believe that it was pulled, but that is just a hunch. The people helping me suggested that I request a copy of the microfilm, and I am now waiting for that to be sent to me.
The state is telling me that I have to prove something that I can’t really prove. I feel like I am guilty until proven innocent, and that bothers me. As I am awaiting for a copy of my requested citation on microfilm, I am worrying about what the result of the record will be.
1. They can say that it doesn’t exist but that I still need to have the local magisterial district send them a letter. A district that neither the state nor county can tell me about.
2. The record will show that it had erroneous information of some type, which is how it got into my record. In which case I may still have to contact the magisterial district and ask them to write a letter about it not being for me, which is probably a whole new can or worms itself.
What I think happened is someone accidentally put this stuff on my record as a data entry error, and now I am jumping through hoops to prove that I am innocent when they should be proving that I am guilty. I don’t know what to do and who to contact if the state is NOT able to prove that this is my citation, and they won’t be able to because it isn’t.