Don’t old traffic tickets go away eventually?

Hi, my name is Heather Ford and I am a traffic attorney in the city of New Orleans- also known as the Traffic Ticket Lady. Today I want to talk about old traffic tickets. 

Before I get started, if you ever have any questions about a suspended license, a violation for driving with a suspended license, a traffic ticket, or anything of that nature, you can always shoot me a text or call me at 504-233-8529. You can also schedule a free strategy session at  traffictickettalks.com.

Sometimes people call me and they have these expectations that tickets just disappear and they’re just gone. The status of old tickets depend on the jurisdiction. Tickets are subject to prescription, meaning the state or the jurisdiction does have a certain amount of time in which to bring up the cases. However, if you missed your court date, technically you have interrupted prescription. And so these old tickets out there can linger, still be valid, and need to be dealt with. 

Sometimes people call and say they have old tickets from 4 to 5 years ago. Sometimes when they say they have old tickets, they’re talking 15 to 20 years ago. And, you know, the question might be how good are the court’s records? Well today I went to court because I was calling in and they couldn’t give me information about a ticket and it was still on a client’s driving record. In that case, either we have to see if they can find the ticket and issue us a new court date, or the court issues a letter basically saying “hey, we have no record of this ticket.”

Sure enough, despite calling in and the court saying they have no records, I went into the clerk’s office, talked to someone, she looked it up in the system, and under 5 minutes was able to produce tickets from 1996. These are 23 year old tickets that are in great shape that were just ready to be pulled. Now we need to file to get a court date and actually go adjudicate those tickets. 

If you have a ticket out there and you think “well, it’s from a long time ago, not something I think I have to deal with,” know it can still be in the system! It could still be an attachment, it could be a suspension on your license, and be something that you may have to be dealt with. Always check with the court. Sometimes you have a ticket that maybe doesn’t show up on your license, and you’ve been able to renew it without issue. But if you have an attachment and one day you get pulled over, a police officer could, at their discretion, arrest you on this warrant for this ticket from 20 years ago. So if you think you have something that is out there, it’s always better to deal with it than to find out the hard way.

If you have an old traffic tickets and want to know how to resolve them, text me and get a free consultation with the Traffic Ticket Lady. She can help you understand your situation, your options, and work to protect your wallet and your time.

If you ever have any questions about DMV fees, traffic tickets, or a suspended license, I’d be happy to speak with you. You can always shoot me a quick text at 504-233-8529 or visit my website trafficticketlady.com.