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NFT: Traffic stop/summons help. Confusing.

nyg9298 : 9/8/2019 7:58 pm
So in NJ I got pulled over for bad brake light by a state trooper at the end of April. The cop said I didn't have to show up for a court date because there wasn't one and I could pay the ticket online. We paid the ticket 2 weeks later at the police station. In July or so i get a thing in the mail ... summons, says I didn't show up in court and my license could be suspended?

Of course we called the court right away to straighten this out to say the ticket was paid. They said dont worry about it, they'd see it was paid and they probably mailed the summons before they received the payment.

Of course I get a threatening letter from the MVC saying my license will be suspended by a certain date if I dont prove this failure to show was taken care of. I dont get this. The MVC sends out the notice at the end of August. The ticket was paid in May. Why do they still think I no showed?

There was no ticket court date on the ticket. Was the state trooper lying about not having to show up for court? I know NJSP is not the most trustworthy group of people on this planet.

Why do I have to keep sorting this nonsense out? Why can't these people get on the same page? Anyone hear of a sort of thing like this or is the per usual in our great state of NJ? Anything to seriously worry about or should I better Call Saul?
You’re caught in a administrative nightmare  
BillT : 9/8/2019 8:02 pm : link
Get the proof of payment from the town and get it to the DMV.
Your ticket  
GruningsOnTheHill : 9/8/2019 8:08 pm : link
must have a checked box specifying if it's a mandatory court appearance--technically an arrest--or merely a citation, with no mandatory appearance. I can't imagine a bad brake light is a mandatory appearance before the judge up there in NJ. (I work at a PD in Florida.)
You don't have to  
TrueBlue56 : 9/8/2019 8:13 pm : link
Appear in court for a brake light. If you paid in person at the police station you should have gotten a receipt so you have proof you paid. Seems to me like they didn't put your payment in the system. It's not just a failure to show up. Its failure to pay, because motor vehicle records show the ticket open.

If you have a receipt, make a copy and go to motor vehicle with the letter along with your receipt. If you don't have one, then go to the police station and see if they will give you one.

I know it's a pain in the ass. But it will save you from a lot more issues down the road. Don't take their word for it, have proof and show it to motor vehicle, so they can put it in their system.
You probably would have been better off paying online  
Jim in Fairfax : 9/8/2019 9:58 pm : link
Your payment probably ly got misapplied.
Of course, we had issues looking it up online.  
nyg9298 : 9/9/2019 12:49 am : link
Yeah but on the back of the letter from the DMV it says the description for the potential suspension was failure to appear. that's a different code or whatever, than the violation for the brake light being out. Isnt the DMV going to want to see proof I paid the failure to appear and not the brake light ticket? Or could they possibly, just maybe ...comprehend I paid my ticket in time?

This sounds like it is one big jerk-off to me.
RE: Of course, we had issues looking it up online.  
Gatorade Dunk : 9/9/2019 6:19 am : link
In comment 14567088 nyg9298 said:
Quote:
Yeah but on the back of the letter from the DMV it says the description for the potential suspension was failure to appear. that's a different code or whatever, than the violation for the brake light being out. Isnt the DMV going to want to see proof I paid the failure to appear and not the brake light ticket? Or could they possibly, just maybe ...comprehend I paid my ticket in time?

This sounds like it is one big jerk-off to me.

IIRC, failure to appear is the same violation as failure to pay your ticket, because it is implied that you'll be disputing the ticket in court (and you probably had an optional court date that was considered a no-show because your ticket was showing up as unpaid).

Sounds like you're going to have to stop expecting the payment to show up in the system and actually go provide the receipt of payment as proof.
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