i am probably going to physically have to down there, again this is out of town, about 70 miles. though mr. shultz told me several times that the fines were paid when i asked him to fax me something, he would go on to something else
Since these are traffic citations I would contact the court where they came from and speak to them only! They will ultimately be the one's filing the arrest warrant if they are really going to do that. If you paid the fines then they should have some type of proof to offer you and it was just a mistake. If however, you did not pay these you would be a fool not to take care of them. They can and will turn into warrants for your arrest. This is not to say they will make you public enemy #1 and come out and get you. What that means is the next time you get pulled over the cop will run your name and DL# on NCIC which 99.9% of police cruisers are equipped to do. He will see outstanding warrants for whatever court in whatever state. He will then contact that court to see if they want him to pick you up on the warrant. If they do he will then place you in custody and book you into the county jail with no bail since it would then be a matter of extradition and the courts where the summons came from to come and pick you up. I am not basing what I'm saying on just here say. I am a Correctional Officer in PA. I also know full well how the justice system works and how, why and what people get booked into jail on and how they get out. I see this all the time over anything. Mostly unpaid parking tickets but alot of unpaid traffic tickets too. We just recently got a guy in from Maryland for a traffic citation that MD wanted to pick him up on for not paying. The ticket was 6 years old and he had moved to PA and set up a life here. No bail on matters of Extraditition. They were and are actually going to pick him up for this measily citation!! He would have to wait a minimum 15 days by law for them to come pick him up. Which is exactly what they do. They wait the 15 and either pick him up or not. Most likely they always let the man sit for the 15 and then just considered the matter closed and drop the citation. Now you see how this works?? If you drive the 70 miles to the court make sure you have cash to pay when you get there! They aren't going to want to let you go and lose their money. Please do not let this go, the matter of arrest is much more important then any lawsuit over a CA. Tac
Butch Dude, Babe, Dad, You're not being a pooper, good point! I don't think fines are considered a debt and believe there are FTC opinion letters stating the same. Sassy
OK, I read about this somewhere, but I can't remember where it was. Municipalities were suing CA's to collect parking and other minor fines. There is a law somewhere that says the CA's cannot impersonate a police officer or government official. It will come to me, really. I know I read it.
tac if you had read everything you would have seen that i did pay these tickets, they suspended my license over it and to get my license reinstated i had to pay the tickets. please keep in mind that i am not one of these criminals you deal w/ everyday. though they did suspend my license it was merely a slip, though i am sure you here this everyday. as soon as i realized that i had let these slip, i paid them. also if you had read what i said, i spoke w the courts and they stated that the fine was paid i had nothing to worry about. now if you would be so kind as to realize that this is a scumbag collection agency that we are talking about. and not belittle me over two traffic tickets. thank you
uh oh, SOMEONE obviously thinks you didn't pay, tnobles, otherwise your citations wouldn't have left the court, they wouldn't be with a collection agency, and your mom wouldn't have received a letter. Be rude to tac now if you want, his advice is still stellar. You don't have anything showing that you paid, you'd not be the first person that went to jail for a mistake. His advice wasn't because he hadn't read your posts, it was because he had. Get proof this is clear and that you paid -- otherwise, you'll be needing it from a jail cell. Sassy
Most of them aren't, Breeze, nodding. Some of them however are and no matter the underlying citation once a warrant has been issued for non-appearance, or failure to pay, or failure to keep your agreement, or whatever, the issue changes. Even magistrates (city courts) can issue warrants and bench warrants -- for your dogs having been at large! It then becomes something altogether different because you are disobeying an order of the court in addition to whatever the citation was. Sassy
sassy i am not trying to be rude but are ya'll not reading these threads? justice court said 'that is a joke they are a collection agency they do not have the power or authority to arrest you' 'we show record of the tickets but we also show them paid' that SOMEONE that you are referring to is a collection agency. not the court that the collection agency is SUPPOSEDLY representing. and again i am not trying to be rude but it has been stated more that once that these tickets have been paid. alot of what this site talks about is ca breaking the law. and that is what this thread is about. not a lecture on traffic tickets. and when someone tells me that i need to pay these tickets after i have already stated that they have been paid, to me that is no better than this ca. i realize that this post is snippy and i do apolagize but after dealing w/ it yesterday and then coming here for help and hearing the same stuff: well how would you feel?
proof is (and i am NOT trying to be a smart a**) the highway patrol in the capitol. called and verified w/ them since i had to bring these reciepts w/ them and pay a reinstatement fee to get my license back. so obviously this is some pi** poor ca agency on their own agenda. when the court that they are representing says i don't owe, and the state captiol says i dont owe why would i listen to what ca agency says. and from what i can tell that is what tac was suggesting i do.
Tnoble, regardless of what you know to be true, you should get something in writing from the courts, if you haven't already. Then you go straight to a big-shot FDCPA lawyer and see if they want to go after that scumbag CA...
i know what you are saying and i agree 100% i appreciate your input. like i was saying i guess i am going to have to physically go down there. again i am not sue crazy, but the more i think about this the madder i get. i mean the letter actually stated that there was a court date. called the clerks office, they said there was no such docket, and that they would not waste the courts time w/ something so old UNLESS i was already incarcerated, then they would summons me. otherwise they are not going to track down a seven year old fine. (that is if there was a fine owed. but again they are showing the fine paid) it infuriates me to even write about it. but like i said thanx for the input
Well, sure, you aren't thrilled about sueing, but there is money to be had in this one. The lawyer will definately be thrilled. If the money isn't enough for you, just think of all the other people this CA has lied to. If someone had known to stand up to them, and actually did, then perhaps you wouldn't have ever had to be bothered by this in the first place...
I wasn't trying to be mean in my post, I'm sorry if anyone took it the wrong way. I'm just sick and tired of seeing good everyday people locked up over stipid sh*t! These people are not criminals in the least but when they are thrown in the jail with the rest its hard to tell them apart. I just booked 4 people tonight into the jail for stupid parking tickets. They failed to appear on numerous occasions and let the amounts swell to astronomical figures. They were crying and putting on a comotion and I was trying to calm them down but, it's not easy if you've never been arrested let alone put in jail. These people are just like you and I, with wifes, husbands, kids and jobs they have to report to. One guy said he'll most likely lose his job for not being at work tomorrow or if the boss finds out. I am not saying you didn't pay your tickets, I believe you! The judge on the other hand if you don't have proof will not. He's heard it all before I can tell you from being in court and listening to it all the time. Get the proof you need to take care of this matter and keep the receipts with you at all times!!! Please do not go to that court without the proof or some money to bail yourself out if they don't believe you. Have them fax you copies of the receipts and deal with them on the phone only!! I hope this helps! Good Luck! Tac
well i appreciate you responding back and again i apologize for snapping at anyone on this site. but i am outraged. i mean come on the judge's clerk was called today and said there was no such docket for which this 'CA' claims that there was an actual court date. and i had to pay these tickets to get my license back. i mean how can a CA claim i have a court date and claim that it was a 'PRE-ARREST LETTER AND A WARRANT WILL BE ISSUED' when the court that they are saying is providing the information says that they know nothing of the sort. they actually put the court clerks name on the letter, when he was called he said 'the fine is paid and i have no knowledge of any court date. no you do not need to go to court.' i mean really. what's got me so upset is i really freaked when my mother called me about this. anyways enough yapping from me. ya'll already know that i am p.o.'ed so no need to elaborate
ok, I will try to state my concern concisely one more time while ignoring your rude remarks. The court SAID this is a joke, they are a collection agency and don't have the authority... I KNOW collection agencies don't have the authority to issue warrants or have you arrested. However, that collection has YOUR information and had to have gotten it from the court -- the court acknowledges the same by knowing of the collection agency and their collection tactics. It is a felony to represent yourself as a law enforcement or police officer. You say it is paid, I don't doubt that it is paid. That doesn't explain how the collection agency got your information. So, you are driving along one day, on your way to get bread and milk no doubt, you don't know that your blinker isn't working while you are turning left. An officer pulls you over, tells you about your blinker, asks for license and insurance, runs a check on your license -- the dispatcher, who only knows what is on the computer screen says there is a warrant for you for non-payment or for disobeying an order of the court, whatever -- no bond. You tell the police officer it is paid, just like the last 50 people he pulled over did. All he knows is what the dispatcher told him, who only knows what the computer told the dispatcher. You go to jail. You wait until it is a good time for the police from the city 70 miles away to come and pick you up, which isn't always one or two days. You are flapping the whole time that this is paid, the correction officials and all the officers in between all tell you to tell it to the judge. You tell the judge, but but but, the court SAID it was taken care of, and there you sit in custody all the while waiting for someone to find your records. Courts make mistakes. The fact remains, by your posting, whether a collection agency or not, SOMEONE has your personal information from some citation that you were previously issued and you don't have anything to show that it was paid. For instance, if you received a speeding ticket and went to the court and signed up to go to traffic school. You never go to traffic school, eventually the court figures out that you didn't go to traffic school, or that you did go but didn't turn in your required paperwork to prove that you did. The court issues a warrant for your failure to complete traffic school or provide the documentation that you did. My concern is that the information was given to someone by the court -- it doesn't just walk out of the court by itself and you are depending on what was SAID as proof that you paid. Expecting the court to prove that you didn't. Well with a collection agency this would be true, that is their burden of proof. You keep saying the CA is supposedly representing the court -- they must have some connection with the court to have received your information. It is not uncommon for courts to use collection agencies. With a court however, the burden of proof is yours, not theirs. Sassy
