Traffic violation procedures

I have a question regarding the process after a traffic violation.
I was handed a citation personally; if I don't pay the fine, what happens next?
Will I receive a court order from the local magistrate, and will I still have the right to appeal?

Richard Scott12 said:I have a question regarding the process after a traffic violation.
I was handed a citation personally; if I don't pay the fine, what happens next?
Will I receive a court order from the local magistrate, and will I still have the right to appeal?

If you were handed the ticket in person, there should be instructions on it regarding your legal options...
just read through them..
you could even type them out here..🙂

rowdyseal2 Asks:
Since this thread is about traffic violations, I have one simple question for the lawyers on this forum: I actually got pulled over the other day. 19 milesSpeeding. Fine's inevitable. $167I've decided to skip paying the fine. I'm planning to pick up my passport, though, so I'm wondering: will they let me get it without settling the debt first? Or is the police going to block the whole thing until I pay up?

Thanks in advance, everyone!

You walk up to the desk at the precinct, they type your name into the system, and suddenly everything starts flashing red because you've got some unfinished business on your record...
That shouldn't be an issue when you're applying for your passport. It really shouldn't stand in your way.🙂
But then again, who really knows?😁

Got a quick question for you geniuses... 😉

A few months back—more like over half a year, actually—I drifted off the road in my car. Nothing major, just ended up taking out a chunk of some elderly lady's fence. The cops showed up, scribbled some stuff down, and left... (they didn't give me anything, no paperwork, nothing at all)

I settled everything directly with the lady so she wouldn't sue me... (don't even ask how I handled things with her) 🤣

Negooooo, so now the mailman shows up... carrying a blue envelope specifically for me...

I wasn't home, so my old man picked it up for me—well, he tried to, anyway. Now I’ve got this notice saying I need to pick up the shipment at the post office within ten days, otherwise, it goes back to the sender...

I'm wondering if there's any way to force someone to pick that up, or can you basically drag your feet forever? (I mean, can they actually make you go grab your mail?)

Thanks a million. I promise I won't be drifting into grandmas' yards ever again. 🙏

brightwalker4 said:Got a quick question for you geniuses... 😉

A few months back—more like over half a year, actually—I drifted off the road in my car. Nothing major, just ended up taking out a chunk of some elderly lady's fence. The cops showed up, scribbled some stuff down, and left... (they didn't give me anything, no paperwork, nothing at all)

I settled everything directly with the lady so she wouldn't sue me... (don't even ask how I handled things with her) 🤣

Negooooo, so now the mailman shows up... carrying a blue envelope specifically for me...

I wasn't home, so my old man picked it up for me—well, he tried to, anyway. Now I’ve got this notice saying I need to pick up the shipment at the post office within ten days, otherwise, it goes back to the sender...

I'm wondering if there's any way to force someone to pick that up, or can you basically drag your feet forever? (I mean, can they actually make you go grab your mail?)

Thanks a million. I promise I won't be drifting into grandmas' yards ever again. 🙏

Nope. But hey, instead of the mail carrier showing up, you might get the cops knocking on your door after the second or third attempt.😁
doduše, you don't even have to open the door for them, blah blah blah...
Check how much time is left before it expires and play it smart—drag it out a bit, file a complaint, stall for time...😉

The IRS just snatched a third of my retirement savings because of some massive tax bill from a decade ago. It's $50,000.
How can they just swoop in and seize funds like that without any warning or heads-up?
And why won't they give my wife the details—what this is actually for, how long the statute of limitations was, or who signed off on it? Was it some judge? Or an IRS board?

boldhound8 said:Nope. But hey, instead of the mail carrier showing up, you might get the cops knocking on your door after the second or third attempt.😁
doduše, you don't even have to open the door for them, blah blah blah...
Check how much time is left before it expires and play it smart—drag it out a bit, file a complaint, stall for time...😉

Thanks a ton!

I've heard those stories about the police knocking... not exactly something I'm looking forward to.😁

Maybe I'll just take delivery... then file an appeal... since it's already been 11 months, we're getting pretty close to the expiration date. Given how slow the US court system moves, I might actually be able to pull this off...

thx again🙏

hollowtinker18 said:The IRS just snatched a third of my retirement savings because of some massive tax bill from a decade ago. It's $50,000.
How can they just swoop in and seize funds like that without any warning or heads-up?
And why won't they give my wife the details—what this is actually for, how long the statute of limitations was, or who signed off on it? Was it some judge? Or an IRS board?

You probably dodged the process server, so they just posted it on the courthouse bulletin board. It's a garnishment.

A few days ago, I received another garnishment notice regarding my $233. No explanation provided this time—just a straight demand for payment. I could file an appeal and pay the $17, but since an appeal doesn't actually stay the execution, I fail to see the point of even bothering.
What I want to know is how many of these notices can actually show up at my door. The mailman dropped something off today, but I was too exhausted to deal with it and just left it unopened. How is it legal for them to send these out without any supporting documentation? I’ve racked up a few traffic tickets recently and I always submit my appeals, yet I haven't seen a single court ruling on them. It makes no sense how these garnishments arrive so abruptly. Any advice would be appreciated.

Your question is pretty vague; there’s a lot here that doesn't quite click.

Basically, people should just be more responsible with their obligations. If they're looking for a way out, they should go about it the right way. Just dodging the mail carrier isn't going to solve much of anything.

Look, I work for the USPS. In my experience, nobody actually gets a court order saying they’re liable for some debt or owe someone money. What I see are fines piling up, and my bank statements clearly show the collections are going straight to the Department of Justice. So, they're definitely working on some kind of penalties. I just had two hit me within three days. Paid one, ignored the other. I’ve got an eight-day window on it. My question is: can they just start docking my paycheck for every single garnishment? Is that even legal? If another one shows up, can they suddenly snatch two or three amounts out of my pay at once? I’ll end up with nothing left if more of these pop up. Besides, I'm pretty sure some of these fines should have expired by now.

I’m assuming those are legitimate citations. If you don't settle them, they'll just swap the fines for jail time.

No. This is an official notice from the IRS—a levy order. They even sent a sample via USPS stating they’ll start garnishing my wages if I don't settle up. It's a forced collection of fines and legal fees handled by the Treasury. But nowhere does it actually explain why their records show I owe them a dime. These thieves are unbelievable.

brightwalker4 said:Thanks a ton!

I've heard those stories about the police knocking... not exactly something I'm looking forward to.😁

Maybe I'll just take delivery... then file an appeal... since it's already been 11 months, we're getting pretty close to the expiration date. Given how slow the US court system moves, I might actually be able to pull this off...

thx again🙏

I wouldn't be celebrating an early expiration of the statute if I were you..
if the offense happened six months ago, the new laws kick in—meaning those windows are way, way longer than they used to be..😉

stormygull22 said:No. This is an official notice from the IRS—a levy order. They even sent a sample via USPS stating they’ll start garnishing my wages if I don't settle up. It's a forced collection of fines and legal fees handled by the Treasury. But nowhere does it actually explain why their records show I owe them a dime. These thieves are unbelievable.

The IRS handles forced collections (assuming that's what this is; you're mostly guessing here) based on someone else's authorization... and that specific warrant or request attached should include the actual ruling that triggered it...
Based on that, you could head down to the local field office and demand to see the original decision they're using to justify this.😉

Can I get some advice here? So, I just got subpoenaed to testify in a misdemeanor case against the company I used to work for—back when I was working under someone else's student contract. They’re being accused of violating Section 101, subsection 1, clause 2 of the Social Security Act, which basically says:

Section 101.

(1) Employers must submit data for maintaining master records within the following timeframes:

2) Data regarding the start of coverage, termination of coverage, changes during coverage, as well as any data updates—within 15 days of the employment or insurance start date, the effective date of the insured status and base coverage, or from the date employment or coverage ends, or from the date of any changes during the coverage period,

My question is: is there even a remote chance they could file a similar misdemeanor charge against me or the person whose student contract I was using later on?

So, back on October 7, 2007, the cops pulled me over because a camera a few miles outside of Dužica (on the road from Chicago to Sisak) caught me doing 97 mph in a residential zone. After I refused to accept that the device was wrong at 6.2 miles/h, I got slapped with a ticket for going 54 miles/h over the limit in a residential area, which was $250 plus fees. Anyway, I filed an appeal with the Democratic Party in Sisak since they handle that jurisdiction for the higher misdemeanor court in Sisak. It wasn't until late July this year that I finally got a notice in the mail. I missed the first one because I was away on vacation, and the mailman didn't even leave a yellow slip! He tried again three days later, but still nothing—not surprising, considering he’s just a part-timer who wanders around the outskirts and half the mail goes missing anyway. Since he never left a notice, I wasn't even sure who the notice was from, though my neighbors said he mentioned it was a court summons. So far, I think they were just trying to mail me a summons for the misdemeanor judge. But then today, during a different shift (the first one was Friday morning when nobody's ever home), I got a call telling me to show up at the Democratic Party in Chicago this Wednesday at 12:45 PM. Apparently, I need to go to some specific room to be notified about a violation under Section 53, Paragraph 1 of the US traffic code.
I mean, this makes zero sense, right? Shouldn't I be reporting to a misdemeanor judge, especially since this is an old law violation? And if I have to report to a police station, shouldn't it be the Sisak station since they actually have jurisdiction over this?
Basically, does anyone have any clue what's going on here?

Jesse James5 said:Unbelievable. There's actually a right to appeal when a judge swaps a fine for jail time—or adds extra time on top of it.

I honestly have no clue how they even phrased it that way—it explicitly said there was zero right to appeal, which sounded sketchy as hell to me too😲😲, but man, if we actually had appealed back then (assuming we could have), would the whole thing have just hit the statute of limitations by now? 😕

Basically, I’m just trying to figure out how much the fine actually is for driving without headlights at night.

So, I got pulled over—my bad, totally slipped my mind, life happens, right? I’d only driven a few yards before I realized, and since they were parked right outside my place, they were already on me. They seemed pretty worked up about it too, and one officer told me the ticket was $100, dr $167, and then wrote down $500. But now I’m looking online and seeing people mention fines closer to $100, so now I’m just sitting here feeling super confused... 🤷

Hey everyone!

At the end of May, while driving near San Francisco, I overtook a van that was crawling along at about 20 mph. The stretch where I made the pass was a flat area roughly 700-800 meters long, slightly uphill, with a left turn right in the middle—so I assume that’s why there was a solid double yellow line. I had been trailing this van at about 5-3.7 miles through the curves and hadn't even thought about passing him, but once we hit the straightaway and he flashed his right turn signal, I stepped on it... A few minutes later, a cop on a motorcycle overtakes me (crossing the double yellow, of course) and signals for me to pull over. He asks for my documents and, after jotting down some info in his ticket book, starts lecturing me about how I crossed the double yellow line, blah blah blah... I tried to play it off by acting like a local who doesn't know the area too well (I'm actually from Des Moines), claiming I saw the straightaway and his turn signal, but he wouldn't hear a word of it. He just handed back my ID and told me I could explain myself to the traffic court judge... A couple of miles down the road, I see the van I passed pulled over on a shoulder, and the driver is standing outside waving me down. I pull over, and the guy starts absolutely tearing into the cop, yelling about how he flew out of a bush and crossed the double yellow twice just to get to me... Honestly, the guy was crazier than I was. He told me to grab his contact info because he’d show up to court to testify in my favor, explaining that he was heavily loaded, which is why he was moving so slow... so, I took his details...
Now, after all that rambling, I have a few questions:

1. Since the officer wrote everything down in his report but I didn't sign anything, do you think I'll actually receive a summons from the court?
2. Which court handles this? Would it be in San Francisco or Des Moines, since my permanent residence is in Des Moines?
3. If I decide to contest this, will it trigger a full-blown hearing and a confrontation with the officer? And would that happen in San Francisco or Des Moines? I highly doubt the cop is going to travel to Des Moines, and frankly, I don't want to drive all the way to San Francisco either; it might end up costing me more in travel than the actual fine...
4. Does anyone know what the fine is for this violation? I searched the San Francisco legal database and couldn't find any specific mention of "double yellow line" violations.
5. Any other advice is more than welcome!

Thanks!