a friend of mine recently just got his license suspended for a ticket he got 4 years ago. back then they said the case was closed and everything was all good until just recently when he got called into court and they took his license. he didn't even get to appeal it. how can they do this? he's in georgia btw.

 

What was his original charge? They can open and close cases as need be depending on the violation, but that's past the statue of limitations (unless it's manslaughter or vehicular homicide). Has he recently gotten another violation that when coupled with the previous one would cause this situation? If it's not manslaughter/vehicular homicide, then I have no idea why...

 

i think it was a speeding ticket before. and i dont think he got one recently. i didn't really ask him about that. but that's still crazy.

 

I get the feeling there's more to this than your friend is telling you. Did he go to court? Was it REALLY closed? Or was there something he was supposed to do, like community service, and he skipped it and they're just now catching up with him?

Given what your friend told you and you relayed, it doesn't sound like they "should be able to do that" but I think we're (you and us) are missing a piece of the story.

 

maybe...i'll have to ask him about the whole story... but he was pretty confused at how this could happen. and it sounded kinda absurd.

 

here's how it might have happened... This all happened about 8 years ago but it applies.

I was at a volleyball tournament in Rhode Island (I live in NH) and got a ticket for illegal parking. I thought it was funny and threw it away. I got another one a few months later for illegal parking near a friend's college in RI... never gave it a second thought... trash!

About 18 months after the second ticket I got a thing in the mail... can't remember exactly what it said but it did have the words "or potential issuance of a bench warrant" on it. I called and paid immediately. Turns out one of the tickets wasn't for illegal parking but was for something more serious (can't remember, exactly; might have been something about a fire lane) and RI wanted my money or me in their jail.

Ask your friend, because he should get the reason this is happening spelled out EXACTLY before he does anything...

 

I'm in GA and know the laws pretty well I've asked for a full sitrep from skandalouz and his friend, and as long as his friend is honest, then I "should" be able to point them in the right direction.

 

Yeah, your friend is either full of BS or he isn't telling you everything. They don't take your liscense away for a 4 year old speeding ticket. Unless it was twice the posted limit and he never went to court for it. Then it could come back and bite him in the ***. Heck, if that's the case, he's lucky he's not in jail.

 

i think it's a conspiracy to get Maxima's off the streets....

-vq

 

haha he doesn't have a maxima. he has a 2k2 honda prelude.

 

Actually his friend could be telling the truth. I got a ticket for running a stop sign in D.C., and four years later my license came up suspended when I moved to Chicago, and my job did a background check.
Certain states are in with other states to make sure people don't skip town owing money. IL and D.C. are one of them. I had to fly to D.C. and either prove I paid the ticket, or cough up the dough, plus late payment fees. Basically D.C. was hard up for cash, and they opened all closed files relating to non-payments to try and make some more money.

It's legal, there's no statute of limitations on fines and tickets,
just criminal matters.

Tell your friend that if his case was dropped 'free & clear' he needs to provide the court with his copy of the documentation. yeah right, on a 4 yr old ticket That's the only thing to get him out of this, otherwise he's going to have to pay the fines.

 

Well I'm sorry to report this, but there is a 2 year statue of limitations on (as long as a bench warrant wasn't issued) here in Georgia on almost all moving violations including DUI's. Stupid as the DUI part is...

Manslaughter and vehicular homicide are exceptions, of course, like I stated earlier, and so are other small felonies.

 

I got a ticket in NY for missing side markers (after they were stolen - where the F were the cops then???). Anyway, I had them replaced on this POS car and the judge let me off by not paying the fine but told me I had to hold onto the info for like 4 years or something crazy like that. Almost as if they were going to intentially lose the record of ever having paid this!

You never know, it could be that they are hard up for cash and just hit you a 2nd time with fines...very few people will be able to produce paperwork after that period of time.