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nurturinghome · Mar 19, 2007, 10:33 PM

We live in New Jersey, Garden State.
My husband had a small driving violation. I think he moved to other lane by mistake without flashing. The policeman stopped him and fined him for 500 dollars. My husband preferred going to the court in an attempt to pardon the fine.
He got court date. He forgot, then he got 2nd notice. He forgot the 2nd notice, which he was warned that if he forgets the 3rd notice he will lost his 500 dollars, and if he shows up in the 3rd appointment he will get back his 500 dollars.
Guess what, he found out he forgot going to the court in the 3rd time which was 1 week ago.
What can he do?
Will he be arrested, his license provoked?
We are in a very bad financial situation and are barely making living. If he will have to get a lawyer, we can't afford 1000 dollars! If his license will be provoked it will be a death blow to our financial security as he uses his car for his handyman business. With no car, with no job we will not be able to stand with the payments for the house.
What can my husband do to get pardoned and save his license, and hopefully get back the 500 dollars fined.. is there any hope? Please help quickly!:confused:

excon · Mar 20, 2007, 05:12 AM

Hello n:

If he never went to court, then he never paid the $500. He probably has a warrant out for his arrest. He needs to go to the courthouse TODAY.

excon

tinsign · Mar 20, 2007, 05:19 AM

Contact the courts before they contact him with a warrant... hun you start marking things down on calender for him that way you know he goes

Fr_Chuck · Mar 20, 2007, 06:33 AM

Yes they did not even have to give the 2nd and 3nd warning to come to court, They will have issued a warrant for him.

In some areas I know you pay the fine amount upfront as a promise to appear in court ( sort of like bail but on a different level for traffic ticket) Yes he may well lose the 500 dollars and still end up in court for failure to appear and cost him 3 or 4 times as much.

He needs to contact the court TODAY.

ScottGem · Mar 20, 2007, 06:43 AM

They probably issued a warrant. Reality is they are not going to take up police time to come and get him. However, if he is stopped for another violation they may take him in. Also he will not be able to renew his license or registration until the matter is taken care of.

What I don't understand is how he can "forget" such important things as a court date.

ballengerb1 · Mar 20, 2007, 08:08 AM

The fine of $500 for a lane change sounds pretty stiff, are you sure of your facts? His license is probably fine but you can kiss that money good bye.

nurturinghome · Mar 20, 2007, 08:47 AM

The 500 dollars were a bail to keep him out of the jail. We are going through a lot in the last days. He wrote it on the calendar but somehow forgot looking into it. If the fine and the late fees will cost too much and him unable to pay them then what? If he goes to the court house now will he be arrested there?

Lowtax4eva · Mar 20, 2007, 08:54 AM

I would say, as above his licence is fine but after missing 3 court dates they probably won't re-schedule and the case is probably closed, they have the money for the fine and your husband missed 3 chances to explain his case.

Also agreeing that maybe he did something more than an illegal lane change for a fine that high.

nurturinghome · Mar 20, 2007, 08:56 AM

I found out what he really done. There was a bad traffic so he attempted to go on the 'shoulder' lane (that is for the police and emeergency vehincles) to speed over the traffic as he was in a rush. The police stopped and fined him for 400 dollars. The 500 dollars he paid were a bail to keep out of the jail. Sounds messed up eh?

excon · Mar 20, 2007, 09:02 AM

Hello again, n:

Exactly who did he give $500 to, and what kind of a receipt did he get? Something is funny here. It's true, that when a person is not from the area, to assure his appearance, he can be taken to court immediately for a driving infraction and made to post bail on the spot (but only in court). However, I've never heard of any cop trying to put a local person in jail for an illegal lane change.

It would help if you would spell out exactly what happened from the time your husband was pulled over. There's some important stuff left out.

excon

ScottGem · Mar 20, 2007, 09:04 AM

Ok, this gets even worse. He paid bail to get out of jail and then didn't show up for court? You claim to be financially strapped yet you literally threw away $500!! Most likely the bail has been revoked and forfeited. If he shows up he may very well be jailed. But you have no choice in the matter now! If he doesn't show up it will just make it worse.

Edited:
Excon also makes a good point. There shouldn't be any bail required for a traffic violation. And you only pay bail after being arraigned in a court.

J_9 · Mar 20, 2007, 09:07 AM

Folks, Nurturinghome has posted this question twice and received different answers in both posts. I have merged both posts, so it may be necessary to re-read the entire thread as there is now different info.

excon · Mar 20, 2007, 09:53 AM

Hello again:

$400 fine?? $500 bail?? So, it's $900?? Curiouser and curiouser. Like I said, you need to explain everything or we can't do squat.

excon

nurturinghome · Mar 20, 2007, 10:53 AM

The policeman fined him for 400 dollars. As he didn't pay them he got notice from the court that since he didn't pay the fine a arrest warrant was issued, unless he goes to the court to set up date for the court and pay bail fee of 500 dollars. My husband rushed to the court house to find out what was wrong. Then the date of the court was set up. He paid 500 dollars bail fee. Then he forgot 3 times...

ScottGem · Mar 20, 2007, 11:05 AM

I have a feeling your husband isn't telling you the whole story or the correct one.

1) You don't pay the anything to the officer issuing the ticket.
2) If you don't pay the fine for a traffic violation they don't issue an arrest warrant. At most they issue an outstanding traffic warrant.
3) You aren't jailed for a single traffic violation so there would be no need for bail.
4) If the fine was $400, then just pay the $400 fine instead of paying $500 allegedly for bail.
5) If, for some reason, they were going to jail him and he did pay bail, then why throw away that money by missing not ONE but THREE court dates?

I'm sorry, but this story reeks. There's just too many holes in it to be believable. I'm not saying you are lying, but someone is not telling the whole, complete story here. And for us to help we need the true facts.

nurturinghome · Mar 20, 2007, 11:09 AM

I will ask my husband to post here his story from his point of view so the story will be accurate! So far as I know he went to the shoulder lane to see ahead what is causing the traffic. As it wasn't premissable to go there, an hiding police officer stopped him. Hope my husband will post here soon.

Lowtax4eva · Mar 20, 2007, 11:11 AM

The sequence of events now makes sense, but how old was this $400.00 fine? I haven't heard of anyone being taken to court for a traffic ticket, was this a year or more ago?

So he didn't have $400.00 to pay the fine within a few weeks but he does have the $500.00 to stay out of jail? He needs to take care of this before it gets worse and I don't see how he can stay out of jail at this point

ScottGem · Mar 20, 2007, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by nurturinghome

I will ask my husband to post here his story from his point of view so the story will be accurate! So far as I know he went to the shoulder lane to see ahead what is causing the traffic. As it wasn't premissable to go there, an hiding police officer stopped him. Hope my husband will post here soon.

I got caught several years ago doing the same thing. I was going to a concert in the Meadowlands and followed a bunch of other cars onto the shoulder to get into the arena parking lot. Several of us were caught and ticketed. We were let go with the ticket in hand. Since I was guilty and since I lived in NY, going to court in NJ to fight it just wasn't worth it, so I marked the ticket Guilty and sent it in with the fine.

There was no question of my paying the ticketing officer anything.

Have you husband read through the thread before posting his story so he makes sure he deals with all the questions we have raised.