Traffic ticket was never received by court, but I have to check on it forever I received a traffic ticket. It's been a month and the court has still not received the ticket. I have been calling every few days, and they tell me to call again in a few days everytime. The court date is approaching and they tell me if it's not received by the court date, I will not be in trouble, but to just keep calling every few days. I've told them I don't want to call for the rest of my life, but they have made it clear that if they ever receive the ticket I am liable, and they insist that I call until they receive the ticket, which may be never. I am on probation which makes this even more important to resolve. I have asked that they send an email or some proof that I am attempting to pay the ticket, but they refuse. The ticket did not include an amount to pay. This is Houston Texas, Harris County Constable, court of David Patronella. I live in Florida, so appearing in person is rather impractical. Ticket was running a red light. Ticket was before I started probation. Ticket does not break terms of probation. How can I resolve a ticket that was never received.
Original answer: I am on probation which makes this even more important to resolve. Because you are on probation, you really should consult a lawyer because you might be violating the terms or conditions of probation when you received your ticket. For example, some people's probation require them to tell their probation officer every time they have police contact. See page 2 condition 2 of Colorado's Standard Terms and Conditions of Adult Probation as an example of probation conditions that require you to report all police contact. I received a traffic ticket. It's been a month and the court has still not received the ticket. The normal procedure with traffic tickets in most parts of the country is: The officer writes you the ticket. If it is a violation where you must appear in court, it will include a court date and time. This is so that if you don't show up for court, they will have proof that knew of the Court date and can issue a warrant. This is also why you must sign a traffic ticket in most jurisdictions. If it is not a violation where you are required to appear in court, the ticket it will usually have instructions on how to resolve the ticket by paying a fine, OR request a court date to contest the hearing. The officer files a copy of the ticket with his department and the court (the police department usually files them with the Court to ensure chain of custody). The court clerks receives the ticket and open a court file. The court file almost always has a copy of the ticket. What you should do: If you don't want to get an attorney, show up to court at the date and time on your ticket and bring a copy of the ticket with you. When the court has no record of the ticket, it is safe to assume that the police officer or his department never filed it with the court. But talk to an attorney before deciding to plead guilty. You don't want this to be an issue with your probation and this site is not for legal advice. Are you completely off the hook for running the red light? No. Assuming this ticket for running a red light was a red light under Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 544.007, there is a 2 year statute of limitations here is a 2 year statute of limitation for class C misdemeanors under Tex. Crim. Proc. Code Ann. § art. 12.02. What a 2 year statute of limitations means is that they (the police) have 2 years to start the prosecution from when an offense occurred. In the case of a traffic ticket, they would start the prosecution by filing the ticket/complaint with the court. This means that if your ticket wasn't filed with the Court, the police will have up to 2 years to track you down and re-serve you the traffic ticket. Is this likely? No, not for running a red light. But that is me speculating. Why is a misdemeanor traffic offense treated as a class C misdemeanor under Texas Law? It's a little bit confusing, but here are the cross references. Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 542.301 states that A person commits an offense if the person performs an act prohibited or fails to perform an act required by this subtitle" and "Except as otherwise provided, an offense under this subtitle is a misdemeanor. The "subtitle" that a red light ticket falls under is "Subtitle C. Rules of the Road." Next, Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 12.03(b) state that: "An offense designated a misdemeanor in this code without specification as to punishment or category is a Class C misdemeanor." Therefore, running a red light (assuming you were charged with it under Texas' state statutes and not a local statute) has a 2 year statute of limitations. Updated Answer You edited your question after I posted my original answer . . . . however, I left the original post above because it may be helpful to others. To answer your new question, you cannot resolve a ticket that was never received because there is no ticket in the eyes of the Court until it is received. By not showing up, you take the risk that the cop will file the ticket with the court the day before your hearing and you will get a bench warrant for failing to appear. Your best bet is to write a letter to the Judge David Patronella and explain your situation. It is probably wise to leave out the fact you are on probation in a different state. Explain the repeated phone calls and attempts and ask him to have his clerk: notify you if the ticket shows up, or reschedule your court date. While you already know what the answer is your goal is to make a paper trail that you could show a judge if this ticket somehow does get filed and you miss court. So, be sure to keep a copy for your records and consider having it sent some method where you can confirm it was received by the Court. Being able to show this letter to a judge if the ticket ultimately gets filed makes you look responsible and responsive. The reality is that you are probably catching a break and don't need to worry about this--especially since it doesn't violate your probation. You could just sit and do nothing, but based on your comments, I think you are looking for "advice" on what to do; however, there isn't a "right" answer for this type of situation.
Law enforcement sometimes use "pacing" as a speed enforcement tool. The basic idea is that they consistently drive a certain speed - which is at or above the speed limit and notice that the "alleged speeder" is either keeping pace or exceeding the pace. The details are complicated and a police officer would know them much better than me. But basically They have to calibrate their speedometer - because if their speedometer is broken pacing is obviously worthless. They need to bring the calibration results to court. Not having those calibration records for your speedometer means that many police departments will be reluctant to issue a speeding ticket to the other motorists. They rely on the fact that most state laws allow law enforcement leeway to exceed the posted limit. Not being a lawyer or a police officer, I do not know the exact circumstances, but if they were not allowed to slightly exceed the limit for pacing then logically every pacing enforcement should result in 2 tickets - one being for the officer. If you can swear that your speedometer is good then they can use that evidence to write you a speeding ticket, because whatever allowances the law allows law enforcement for pacing are not granted to you. I am sure they can overcome the calibration issue with regard to a ticket issued to you by your certification that the speedometer is correct. If they issued a ticket to me based on your certification that your speedometer was correct, I would call bullshit. Talking to the police can only hurt you.
You are not obliged to say anything to a police officer during a traffic stop, in fact you are generally better off staying silent. This is your Fifth Amendment right to silence. The only exception to this is that the officer could ask for your name and you are obliged to give it under Arizona Laws 13-2412, but the answer to that is language-independent and is usually already answered with your driver's license in a traffic stop. If you did choose to communicate only in German, this may have the effect of frustrating the officer's investigation but if you only make truthful statements in German it is unlikely to be obstruction of their investigation. Arizona Laws 13-2409 is I believe the relevant section (emphasis mine): A person who knowingly attempts by means of bribery, misrepresentation, intimidation or force or threats of force to obstruct, delay or prevent the communication of information or testimony relating to a violation of any criminal statute to a peace officer, magistrate, prosecutor or grand jury or who knowingly injures another in his person or property on account of the giving by the latter or by any other person of any such information or testimony to a peace officer, magistrate, prosecutor or grand jury is guilty of a class 5 felony, except that it is a class 3 felony if the person commits the offense with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal street gang. In general, a law that required you to give answers to a police officer during an investigation in English if you understand English and have waived your right to silence would violate your First Amendment right to free speech (as it is in effect "forced speech"). However, you would need to be careful not to tell the police officer that you do not understand English if that is not true, as it could be misrepresentation. Police officer training likely includes instructions for detaining someone that cannot understand them and the police can detain you and wait for an interpreter to continue their investigation if they determine that is necessary. You may actually be shooting yourself in the foot by doing this, because the time it takes for them to get an interpreter likely extends the amount of time the detainment can last while remaining "reasonable," so you may be waiting by the side of the road longer than you would have if you had simply told the officer that you were invoking your right to silence and followed the officer's instructions without speaking. As an aside, as more people are educated on their rights via the Internet and understand why they should always invoke their right to silence when detained, police officers will get more used to people they pull over immediately and politely telling them that they are going to invoke their right to silence. I doubt most police officers will hold it against you as long as you are otherwise cooperative and don't yell at them or berate them.
Your rights notwithstanding, the government has the power to do such things under appropriate circumstances. First, you would have to be in violation of some ordinance, for instance in Columbus OH you are a violator if the grass is over 12". This should generate a notice informing you what the issue is and giving a deadline for remedy. If you don't comply by the deadline, they are then empowered to send out guys with tools, and the city will bill you for the work. You could call them and ask what the deal is. They might say "We put the notice on your gate", or "we mailed it to you". From a legal POV, the onus is on them to be sure that you're notified. It would be a good idea to verify that this isn't a scam. [Addendum] Bryan TX kindly provides a video about code enforcement, and gives a link where you can go directly to the section of interest (starting 0:43). Your description of the situation is at variance with what they say is the law (12"; 7 day advance notice whereafter they will correct the violation. They also say no notice is required for second violation within a year; $100 administration fee added to costs; lien will be placed on property if unpaid). I assume that your back yard is publicly visible: they recognize that "when the area observed is plainly visible, from a vantage point where the Code Officer has the right to be there, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy". That could include visible from a neighbor's property if the inspector has permission from the neighbor to be there. Otherwise, there's a simmering 4th Amendment problem (assuming that they didn't get a search warrant).
The language that you're referring to, where it states that if they do not provide responses to legitimately served discovery requests in a timely manner, that they would be responsible for attorney fees, this does not refer to your attorneys fees that you incurred in defending the suit. It refers to attorneys fees that would (actually could) arise out of a hearing on a motion to compel, in the event they never answered. If that occurred, the law allows you to ask the court to award you reasonable attorney's fees as well as sanctions, but only those having to do with getting the court to make them answer. Importantly, despite the rule that states this is a potential repercussion for continually failing to answer, they rarely get awarded. This usually only occurs when the court has already warned them, after you (i.e., your attorney) has willingly given them extensions, the court has given them further extensions, and they still failed to produce/respond. Typically an attorney will allow the other side substantial extensions of time, and this is something you may not even know about. When you say they completely ignored the deadline, I'm assuming you mean the deadline on the discovery notice that gets served with the papers. Interrogatories and Requests for production of documents rarely get done anywhere near the deadline in the rules, which is a mere 3 weeks. Many times, it takes much more than this to track down everything that was requested. This is why extensions happen all the time and unless you're asking, this isn't something your lawyer will even discuss with you. When you say they "didn't offer a remotely reasonable settlement until after the deadline and didn't finally dismiss the case until months after the deadline," I'm assuming you mean they didn't make a reasonable demand (it sounds like you were the defendant). This is actually very common, and in fact, it is very early on to make (or reduce the original) demand low enough that the Defendant will accept it prior to the discovery deadline and all the depositions have passed. (When I say deadline, I don't mean the one you're talking about, I mean the actual discovery deadline, which is set forth in the scheduling order; this can easily be 9 months from the time an Answer to the Complaint is filed.) If you're referring to the token deadline put in the first set of interrogatories served, this not a "real" deadline anyone of the attorneys expects to be adhered to. Further, this a very quick settlement and you should be happy your attorney disposed of your case so quickly. As you pointed out, you are paying a lot of money every day the case lives on. In fact, the money you saved by settling early is substantial. If your attorney had gotten the documents and responses and had to wade through all of them, organize them, send follow up requests, take depositions, etc., you would be out easily another $10,000. Your lawyer did you a favor, because a less honest attorney would tell you to wait, to see if there is a defense, just so they could pad their bill. Many times when it is clear that the case is going to settle, the lawyers will serve pro forma discovery, and will say to each other not to bother answering while they attempt to settle. They are timely served if you cannot settle, but it's clear that settlement is the ultimate goal. This is very typical when the defendant almost certainly has exposure, but when the plaintiff's case also has some holes. Because of issues on both sides, they agree a modest settlement to dispose of the matter, quickly, is the best course. When you say the settlement explicitly involved each party paying their own attorney's fees, all settlements contain this clause. I have never seen a settlement agreement where a party agreed to pay the other's attorneys fees. It's just not done. In the rare case it is, it's part of the structure of the settlement and it flows to the Plaintiff, not the Defendant. This may occur in a civil rights case where there are no real damages, but the statute allows for attorneys fees to be awarded if even one-dollar is awarded. So, in a case like this, sometimes the plaintiff will accept their attorney's fees being satisfied as the settlement, (usually along with some sort of consent decree), so as to curtail the abhorrent behavior. If you want to discuss these issues with your attorney, they are not billable: they are administrative pertaining to your bill; hence, you can do so without fear of being charged. If you're nervous, tell him ahead of time you'd like to discuss your bill. He won't try to bill you for this, as he can't, and furthermore your case is settled so your file is closed. To answer your question explicitly: No - your fees are not recoverable. This is not only because you've already settled, but you were never entitled to them anyway. To answer your question about the point of sending discovery at all if you are not going to expect answers and the goal is to settle, (1) is to preserve the right during the discovery period, in the event settlement negotiations break down; (2) to give the other side a picture of how sharp your attorney is, and that he/she will be asking the right questions and they will be invasive; and (3) this is just how it is done. What you've described is how almost all low level cases proceed. Lastly, just to address what you said about it taking a few months from reaching a verbal or "handshake" agreement and having the settlement actually be recorded by the judge and a dismissal issuing, this is just something that takes a little while. Depending on the type of case it is, the court may need to approve the settlement. Even when it's not necessary for the court to approve the settlement, it takes a while to go back and forth on the language, draft the stipulations of dismissal and so on. A few months is right on target. It sounds to me like you had a pretty effective and honest lawyer who could've dragged this out for much longer. Advice for the future, in case you ever find yourself needing the services of an attorney again: If you have these types of questions, you should ask them as they come up. Again, it's not something that you can be billed for, and your lawyer should be happy to answer. Some lawyers are better than others in remembering to explain what the technical stuff means, and what the game plan is. However, the client has a responsibility too, which is to ask if you don't understand.
First off, the fact that they stopped you on private property is irrelevant. The traffic offense - you driving the vehicle with a suspended license - occurred on public property en route to the station. That offense does not simply disappear because you are now on private property, nor do the police need to wait for you to leave private property in order to stop or arrest you. So... forget the gas station even exists in this scenario. The real issue at hand here is whether or not the officer needs to actually see you driving the vehicle in order to make an arrest. The answer is no. There isn't any other valid reason your car would be where it is now other than it was driven there. If you are the only person with the car, then it's reasonable to assume that you were the one that drove it there. Plenty of people get arrested for this "connect the dots" way of proving they drove, especially in DUI cases. But the officer doesn't even need to assume that second part either. It all comes down to the actual definition of "driving" in the law books. Most citizens would interpret the word as meaning actually moving in a vehicle. That's wrong. Defining a driver and what constitutes driving is actually way, way broader in the eyes of the law. In Kansas, a driver is defined in such a way: 8-1416. "Driver" defined. "Driver" means every person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle. Essentially, having physical control over the vehicle is generally enough to label you as the driver or that you are driving the vehicle. In a lot of states, having possession of the keys to the vehicle is enough for a court to say you had physical control of the vehicle, because "physical control" is more broadly defined as "capable of making it move and within close proximity" to the vehicle. Thus, you can be arrested for traffic-related offenses. It does not matter if the car is parked, if you're filling it with fluids, or just taking a nap in the front seat.
You are right, the entry and exit photos are only evidence that you were there. This is something they need to prove so the photos may only be for that. Their statement that you didn’t display a valid ticket/permit is, at present an unevidenced assertion. If you contest this, they will provide evidence that you didn’t (e.g. the actual records they refer to) and you would provide evidence that you did and, if it goes to court, the judge will decide what evidence they prefer. As this is not a criminal matter, they need to prove the offence on the balance of probabilities. However, there are almost certainly administrative remedies which will allow you to contest the fine without going to court. This would involve you sending them a copy of the permit and them assessing whether their belief that you didn’t display it is justified or not.
If he is still pressuring you for the money even after filing insurance, talk to your city or county prosecutor's office. If you call the police, they may say they're too busy to deal with it and that it's a "he said-she said" situation anyway. But if you go to the local prosecutor, they should be more interested, as this could be a felony, considering the amount of money demanded, and they can instruct the police to help investigate.