How do i prove I paid a speeding ticket 3 years ago?

August 16, 2009 5:39 PM

How do i prove I paid a speeding ticket 3 years ago?

Guess we'll start with the violation, driving through upstate NY, got a ticket (for no reason, of course), speeding, in a "work zone" (there was a sign somewhere).

Fine, the cop wants to give me a 2nd ticket when I tell him that the address on my VT license isn't my home address (he asked me if it was, but I'd moved about a year before). Apparently in NY it's illegal not to get a new license with the new address, but in VT if you notify the DMV they don't give you a new license till yours expires (which could be several years). Anyway he refused to take my actual mailing address so it made this whole process a lot more difficult

IIRC, I ended up on the phone with a woman at the clerk's office in the small town this ended up in. I got it paid after mailing a certified letter w/ a cashier's check. It was really difficult to get in touch with this office too, a lot of running around with other phone centers, and since I wasn't getting letters from the court, I didn't know even which court had the case, or how much they had wanted me to pay.

I got a letter today, after the violation in Februrary of '07, and conviction in May, saying I owe $300. The letter was addressed to the address I had on my license at that time (which I haven't lived in in 4+years)

I know I paid it. But I don't have the receipts anymore. How can I contest, dispute, or prove that I don't owe this money? Especially since their refusal to take a new mailing address made this get drawn out and add $100 per year since the conviction, which is now the bulk of the cost.

posted by anonymous to Law & Government (5 answers total)

If you got a cashier's check, your bank may have a record of it. Chances are they'll charge you a fat fee for researching the matter, though.
posted by deadmessenger at 5:42 PM on August 16, 2009

I can tell you that I do research at a bank, and I could probably track this down if you were my customer and had withdrawn the money from your account to pay for the cashier's check, even if you didn't know the exact amount or check number. But that's me, I tend to like the difficult cases. And I don't think we'd charge more than a few bucks for our trouble.

Whether your bank is as accommodating, I suppose you'll find out on Monday. If you went to a bank and paid cash though, I'm not sure what your chances are.
posted by saffry at 5:47 PM on August 16, 2009

I had to spend a week bouncing between the police precinct that wrote the ticket and the courthouse where it was filed and the central office of the Highway Patrol in the state the ticket was written to: a) find a copy of the ticket, b) find a copy of the judgment, c) pay the fine, d) get a copy of my driving record, and e) have my license transferred to my new home state. No faxed copies allowed. No mailings. No two ways about it. Did I mention that some of these offices were 1300 miles apart?

Oh, and V. S. A., Title 23, Chapter 9, Section 601 Paragraph (a) gives drivers sixty (60) days to obtain a valid VT license upon moving to the state. Fairly typical under the Driver License Compact. I didn't find any statute that superseded or repealed this, but IANAL.

Go to the DMV and request a current copy of your MVR. That should give you a starting point for determining which office screwed up the paper trail on your having paid the fine. If you're VERY lucky you will find clerks willing to help you via telephone. I wish you luck.
posted by EnsignLunchmeat at 6:47 PM on August 16, 2009

Not an answer to your question. But, make sure you don't have a warrant out. It would suck to get stopped and end up in jail for something you have already paid. I know, I had to bail out someone. He didn't know about the warrant because he moved. He paid with a money order. Who keeps a receipt for 3 years?
posted by nimsey lou at 7:43 PM on August 16, 2009

Apparently in NY it's illegal not to get a new license with the new address, but in VT if you notify the DMV they don't give you a new license till yours expires (which could be several years).

Interestingly, this is not true. My NY state license has my address from five years ago, and I definitely don't live there anymore. I changed it with the DMV and did not have to get a new license.

I don't know how that directly relates to your situation, but I thought it might be handy to know. If you can't find proof through your bank that you paid, I think this might be worth half an hour of a lawyer's time.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 7:04 AM on August 17, 2009