Skipped Hearing on Suspended Permit 8 Years Ago -- Now Background Check?

June 3, 2004 4:34 PM

I have a friend (shh) who failed to show up at court for driving on suspended permit. She's never gotten this taken care of because she's stupid, and 8 years have passed. She now lives in a new state, attends college, is really nice (despite being stupid) and is about to get a corporate position that involves drug test + background check. Advice needed. [MI]

1) Would a background check turn that up, and is it a negative enough reflection to consider retracting a job offer? The job is with a super-conservative international corporation.

2) Where on earth could she possibly begin in getting this taken care of once and for all? Would it involve travelling back to the state in question?

posted by precocious to law & government (17 comments total)

Does she have a valid DL now? Did she reapply when she moved? Did she ever receive a notice of her license being revoked?
posted by BlueTrain at 4:40 PM on June 3, 2004

Sorry...I have some relevant experience regarding this so I'm very curious. I had a few speeding tickets that turned into a suspension hearing, where they slapped my wrist and told me to run along. Seeing as how she was already suspended from driving, the judge had a couple of options: fine her heavily or revoke the license. If she was living with someone else at the time (parents), they may have cleared the fine and her record would be fine now (assuming no further infractions). OTOH, if they revoked her license, she would be driving illegally and I don't believe that her record would be clear yet (not enough time elapsed).
posted by BlueTrain at 4:46 PM on June 3, 2004

Call the state's proper authority to see if there is a warrant for her arrest still. She may also want obtain here driving record.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:50 PM on June 3, 2004

Most of the above can be done by the internet net too. If there is a warrant for her arrest and she should inquire in person, they may arrest her on the spot. Notice the state trooper in your DPS offices, what they are there for too.
posted by thomcatspike at 4:52 PM on June 3, 2004

Your friend probably wants to resolve the issue if she can. However, the background company will only look in counties where your friend says she has lived, so if they don't know your friend ever lived in a particular county (much less state), then they are not likely to find out*.

* I may be talking out my butt here, but that's the message I thought I got when I heard a background screening company president give a training session.
posted by willnot at 4:57 PM on June 3, 2004

I'll piggyback on this question (hope you don't mind precocious): back in my uni days I was caught speeding in NY (near the Ontario border). The officer gave me a ticket which I promptly forgot about. That was in 1991. Should I worry about it or just forget it again? Should I have my wife drive whenever we're in New York (not that we go there often)?

thomcatspike: any urls you could pass on to dig up the answer?
posted by smcniven at 4:58 PM on June 3, 2004

Oh, and yeah -- if I found out there's a warrant out for your friend's arrest (as there probably is), then as an employer, I'd be unlikely to extend your friend an offer. And, I'm not even all that conservative
posted by willnot at 5:02 PM on June 3, 2004

A friend of mine went through something very similar about three months ago. She knew she had an outstanding ticket, which she hadn't paid due to financial hardship. It had more than doubled since she originally received it, and she was pretty sure it was on the verge of going to bench warrant if it hadn't already. She had to beg and borrow (but not steal!) to get the money to pay it off, but she did so immediately when she knew she was going into background check. She then called the HR person, told her the story, told her that she could provide a receipt as proof that everything had been paid for and cleared off her record. The HR person really appreciated it, and my friend flew through background and got the job.

If your friend is proactive about it, and takes steps immediately to rectify any damage and then let HR know, she should be fine.
posted by vignettist at 5:15 PM on June 3, 2004

1) No Idea, but in today's connected world...

2) She most likely has an arrest warrant for failure to appear. The fine for driving while suspended is usually around $500 and potentially some jail time. She could either get in contact with the police where she used to live and just ask, or use one of the many background check services to see is it shows up.
posted by Tenuki at 5:17 PM on June 3, 2004

Was your friend a minor at the time?
posted by theora55 at 5:29 PM on June 3, 2004

BT - no, she doesn't have a license in her current state, and she was never notified. Possibly because she moved to a new state.

vignettist - if it was possible to pay off the fine at this point, she would. As it is, it's been a really long time and it's probably too late to do that without some extra stuff involved.

theora - unfortunately, she'd just turned 18.

How many hands for trying to fix it and letting HR know about it? Heh heh. Heh.
posted by precocious at 6:19 PM on June 3, 2004

Belatedly, said friend turned up that 1) she does have a misdemeanor warrant.

So should she basically give up hope and consider this a valuable lesson? What, if anything, could she possibly say to HR about getting this fixed?

Considering that getting this fixed apparently involves appearing in court again in that other state, which certainly wouldn't be taken care of before the position's supposed to begin.
posted by precocious at 6:26 PM on June 3, 2004

Can't a lawyer appear in court for your friend?
posted by reverendX at 7:25 PM on June 3, 2004

Out of indignation I didn't pay a fine for speeding down I-40 in the middle of the Mojave Desert, until a few years later when a cop who stopped me for a minor infraction looked at his in-car computer and told me, "You're gonna want to pay off that outstanding fine real quick because I'm supposed to arrest you. You're gonna pay it, right?" He gave me a little slack, and I dropped my self-pity and paid it off, nearly $500 at that point.

Don't "give up hope." Figure out what it's going to take to clear it up, and find or borrow whatever money you need to do it now. Don't let this ruin a good job prospect.
posted by planetkyoto at 7:52 PM on June 3, 2004

Honesty's always the best policy, but it don't hurt to spin things your way. Most companies are only interested in felonies (are you violent, or been arrested due to your drug habit) and your credit record (and I find most HR departments FAR more interested in the information contained therein ... I've been denied permission to hire an otherwise stellar candidate based on credit rating far more times than by a misdemeanor anything).
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:57 PM on June 3, 2004

Thanks for all of the input. To put a close on it, said friend took into consideration all of the advice presented herein.

She's decided to go ahead and take her drug test, be honest and truthful with HR if the other thing comes up, and as soon as tomorrow call to the general district court of her previous county and a lawyer, to get the matter fixed as soon as possible. Perhaps being able to say, "I'm taking care of it," will help her case.

On behalf of my friend, thanks.
posted by precocious at 9:50 PM on June 3, 2004

Update for those who might check:

Said friend called a lawyer who can "stand in" at court for her, and handle all of the proceedings. With the retainer fee and the estimated court costs and fines, it'll probably come out to about $500.

Needless to say, she's really learned her lesson. Really... really... *really* learned her lesson.
posted by precocious at 1:18 PM on June 4, 2004