The most stressful and expensive seat belt violation ever.

[draggar]

Last year my wife got stopped on Alligator Alley in Collier county and was issued a citation for not wearing a seat belt. The officer wrote on the ticket the fine was $90. When she came one (a few days later) she mailed a check for $90.

September comes around she gets a letter from the Collier county clerk of the courts stating that she did not pay the total fine, she only paid $90 and the fine was $113 and she still owed $46 ($23 difference plus $23 late fee). She fought it and even though they admitted the officer wrote the wrong amount on the ticket she still had to pay it but they did waive the late fee. On Sept 21 she mailed a check for $23.

In October she received a letter that since she did not pay it on time her silence was suspended. The post mark on the envelope (which they kindly included a photo copy of) showed Sept 22 yet they processed it on Sept 28 - the payment was due on Sept 27. (She mailed it on a Monday, it was stamped on a Tuesday, why did it take that long to get there and for them to process it? - they also ignored the fact that she was communicating with them over this.

She fought with them some more and they finally admitted their fault and said that her license was reinstated. We even get a form for this.

Come January she goes to renew her handicap decal only to find out her license is still suspended. They could not accept the form so she had to pay $60 to get her license reinstated (again). We also get letters from the DMV and our insurance both stating that they cannot renew because her license was suspended - we faxed them the paperwork and thought everything was OK. My wife kept the receipt for 2 months - she was told to keep it on hand for 6 weeks. Sadly the receipt was destroyed when a water bottle leaked. She also paid cash so there's no proof that she paid it.

Fast forward to this past Thursday, she gets stopped (driving 10 MpH over the speed limit (keeping up with the traffic) and the officer tells her (anyone want to take a guess?) her license was suspended. He also had to confiscate her license. Luckily she wasn't far so I could walk to where she was and drive her and the van home.

We spent from 8:15am to 4:30PM Friday at the DMV trying to get this cleared up (well, from 8:15am to 3:30pm standing in lines). We had all the paperwork but we still had to pay another $60 reinstatement fee plus $25 to get a new license. (Yes, she paid with a check this time).

You think this is done? I call my insurance company to find out why we haven't received a bill yet. Turns out they canceled our policy back in March because they didn't receive the paperwork. My wife faxed in several sheets but they're only admitting one sheet (I'm assuming the first sheet) which had one of the letters, not the reinstatement form.

I've spent the past several hours getting quotes since Geico wants over $3600 for 6 months plus a $1500 down payment (before it was only about $180 a month for 6 months). The cheapest I've found with the lowest coverage is $250 a month.

So now we've spent $145 getting her license reinstated TWICE as well as a replacement because of this officer's mistake. We're also now looking to spent at least an additional $840 a year in car insurance because of his mistake and the SNAFU that followed along with the mistakes made at the DMV. We've also unknowingly gone 2 months without car insurance because of this.

I wonder how hard it will be to get the suspension (which she never should have been suspended in the first place for) off of her record?

[Melly]

Wow that is crazy.

[thinkingsmall]

This kind of thing never happens in India. There is a reason 'Freedom' is constantly advertised in America. In truly free countries 1) Freedom does not need to be constantly advertised 2) Police dont have unreasonable, God-like powers over citizens. Come live in India for a year, you will see what I mean !! Unbelievable ? Well lot of people for a lot of centuries thought that it was unbelievable that the earth is not flat. I have been living in America for 20 years, it is a great country, it is the land of opportunity, good decent hardworking people, but not a free country by any stretch of imagination, at least not when compared to India.

[DomainsInc]

This kind of thing never happens in India. There is a reason 'Freedom' is constantly advertised in America. In truly free countries 1) Freedom does not need to be constantly advertised 2) Police dont have unreasonable, God-like powers over citizens. Come live in India for a year, you will see what I mean !! Unbelievable ? Well lot of people for a lot of centuries thought that it was unbelievable that the earth is not flat. I have been living in America for 20 years, it is a great country, it is the land of opportunity, good decent hardworking people, but not a free country by any stretch of imagination, at least not when compared to India.

there is a big difference betwen lack of enforcement/lawless vs a free society with rules. Obviously draggar's situation isn't the norm but it does happen.

[500,000]

...

[tekz999]

It is declared that she needs to pay $23+$23 on sept 11. But she paid only $23. So there is $23 missing whatsoever. This is reality. It is their base. If it is their base, then you have to follow their rules. Make sure you know who are you fighting with always. She should have paid $46, then she should additionally file a complaint to that specific officer AFTER everything is settled, and request a refund of the $23 late fee. This is for full protection for you and her, and is the proper way to handle this.

[Banned: theinvestor]

So the moral of the story is ?

wear your seatbelt and don't speed and you won't face the trouble after

[CureCancer]

My license was suspended 10 years ago, I send the ticket to court and next thing I receive a suspension notice for not paying the fine. I called and they told me they never received the ticket and I have to pay the fine, and $100 fee for suspension and 4 points on my license!

Don't trust the court system, always double check and photocopy your receipts, etc...

[Banned: theinvestor]

who mails a check these days? you can pay in person or online

[Tia Wood]

Wow. Crazy story. What is the total damage amount?

[Acro]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Ed. I don't use US mail to pay for such bills anymore, e.g. I renew my license online even though they want a sub-$1 fee to process it. Takes care of these headaches. Best of luck resolving it.

[Raider]

A large percentage of these fines go directly to the State.... I'll bet your Wife was cited by a Motorcycle officer too, Cities across the Country are putting more Motorcycle cops out on the street with the primary objective of RAISING State Revenue. It's to make up for their own Budget shortfalls, a fancy term for Irresponsible spending that includes paying out BILLIONS in Pensions to able bodied public employees sitting on their fat asses.

Somebody has to feed the pig.... Pardon the pun.

---------- Post added at 02:21 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 AM ----------

My license was suspended 10 years ago, I send the ticket to court and next thing I receive a suspension notice for not paying the fine. I called and they told me they never received the ticket and I have to pay the fine, and $100 fee for suspension and 4 points on my license!

Don't trust the court system, always double check and photocopy your receipts, etc...

I had a similar incident; I sent my Fine of $170 into the Court and made one mistake, I used a money order and forgot to remove the carbon copy.... But I thought, no big deal, Government is honest and they will do the right thing and mark it paid. wrong! Wrong! WRONG!.. One year later I was pulled over and the cop told me I had a warrant for my arrest, then I had to go to the police station and post bail.

Those crooked bastards took my payment and claimed they never received it. I had no way to trace the money order, no number, no proof to show the Judge, Basically it was my word against the system, Naturally the Judge told me I had to pay the fine AGAIN... Lesson learned, NEVER trust these bastards, If they have the opportunity to screw you, THEY WILL.

[draggar]

there is a big difference betwen lack of enforcement/lawless vs a free society with rules. Obviously draggar's situation isn't the norm but it does happen.

I'd like to think that but it also happened to her friend (who knows a good attorney for things like this).

It is declared that she needs to pay $23+$23 on sept 11. But she paid only $23. So there is $23 missing whatsoever. This is reality. It is their base. If it is their base, then you have to follow their rules. Make sure you know who are you fighting with always. She should have paid $46, then she should additionally file a complaint to that specific officer AFTER everything is settled, and request a refund of the $23 late fee. This is for full protection for you and her, and is the proper way to handle this.

She had no problem paying it but the county did waive the late fee and she paid the difference but it took them almost a week to process it (we can mail things to her parents in Port Charlotte US mail and they're there next day so I am sure it didn't take more than a day or two to get to Naples).

So the moral of the story is ?

wear your seatbelt and don't speed and you won't face the trouble after

I'm sure she was wearing her seat belt and was stopped for something else.

It was Alligator Alley - everyone speeds on there. It's a 65MpH zone and if you're doing 75-80MpH you have cars flying past you. It's worse than the airstrip (I-95 past Orono) in northern Maine.

My license was suspended 10 years ago, I send the ticket to court and next thing I receive a suspension notice for not paying the fine. I called and they told me they never received the ticket and I have to pay the fine, and $100 fee for suspension and 4 points on my license!

Don't trust the court system, always double check and photocopy your receipts, etc...

We're doing that now. She's even keeping a copy of the receipt from the DMV and the letters stating her license was reinstated.

Wow. Crazy story. What is the total damage amount?

So far $120 for two reinstatement fees, $25 for a new license, and since Geico dropped us and wanted over $500 a month for insurance we had to switch to AllState which still wanted almost $700 down and $320 a month (as opposed to about $180 a month with Geico before).

She's going to go to court with all the documents and demand that the revocation be taken off her record since it was all based on an officer's error and then bookkeeping errors.