Ive been living in the state Im in now for almost EIGHT years. No problems, no tickets, no moving violations and I have never been arrested in my entire life--so no criminal history.
I renewed my liscense in fact TWICE with no problems.
So its 2006 and I try to go renew my liscense, guess what I find out some other state has put a HOLD on it.
A STATE I HAVENT LIVED IN SINCE early 1999.
Back in 1995, I was extremely ill--became disabled in 1996 and was living in this other state in a large metro area.
I was extremely impoverished and had gotten what most call a "beater" car, because I was trying to hold on to my last job and had severe worsening mobility problems that made using public transportation very difficult.
That car died, and my money problems worsened to the point I could not afford food. The job I had did not keep the basics paid including my medical expenses. , I was unable to get the car towed and ended up with parking tickets at the time--this city would ticket even legally parked cars every 48 hours, so when I tell you the amount this was not a very long time at all, my memory is fuzzy.. since its been so long. Because the car was not moved, they kept ticketing it and it was towed away. This was probably over less then a 10 day period.
I became bankrupt, severely ill, and lived in squalor in a dangerous neighborhood. To denote the level of my poverty lets just say no guaranteed food, no phone, no decent medical care and an apartment overran with vermin in a neighborhood where one could hear gunshots at night. I was also severely ill and was in the hospital repeatedly for respiratory and other problems.
I was able to escape this place, and move back to my home state, where I lived prior to moving there, and where I have been for eight years.
I did not hear ANYTHING about these parking tickets from 1996-2006. I did not own a car after that car died, while living in that city so did not drive, and later I have not heard anything over the last stretch of 11 years. The last thing I remember is trying going to go pay the tickets thinking they were 150.00 bucks or so, and finding out they were 600.00 and knowing I never would have that money at the time in 1995. However if I had still known this was out there and would be held against me, I would have attempted some payment over all these years.
I suppose I assumed like the rest of my credit problems, time cleared things up. I thought by now a statue of limitations would have taken care of things. I have managed to recover some credit over all these years. It is interesting to note that credit card companies have a lot more mercy then these people do.
I am on limited income and my husband has just become unemployed--we are of very limited means even when he was working. {I was not married during the time I got these tickets} They say there is some other ticket--moving violation, but then told me I had paid it, I can barely remember its been so many years. Seems they lost the paperwork. {I am sure I paid all moving violation tickets--only had a few}. So now I am expected to get some kind of transcript? Im scared of someone else claiming even more money.
Right now it seems we have no rights left in this country, there are people with DUI arrests facing less ramifications and less harsh punishments.
The lady at the DMV said to me, "Oh this is happening to a lot of people now" since they joined the computers together. She told me some person had a 20 year old ticket. This did not make me feel any better.
I said it is totally unfair to let something like this go on for 11 years.
They want over $1200 dollars, I know 30% of that is collection fees.
I am literally petrified they have come up with some other secret amounts I dont know about yet. Especially since I have to still find out about the "paid" ticket.
1. I found out there is no appeals process in this city.
2. These are city parking tickets.
3. There seems to be no recourse. There are no hardship claims that can be made. They put you on payment plan but extract it all. The payment plan is worthless to you unless they have a car they can "boot".
4. I live over 300 miles from this place and have health problems that keep me from traveling there.
I believe that having my liscense suspended after this many years of having a liscense here with no problems, is wrong.
Does this mean they are going to bring back debtors prisons? I am being treated like worse then a criminal for problems of my past.
I would have paid them if I had the money for anyone who wants to yell at me about not taking responsiblity.
Id pay them right now even if I could. Id go do it tommorow, send the check, but I simply dont have it. I and my husband could be even facing WORSE financial difficulties if his employment situation doesnt change.
Is it now a crime to be poor in America?
Is statue of limitations something that no longer exsists?
What are my legal recourses?
Some may say its a small amount, but it would take me a year or more to pay this off, given all my other medical bills and others.
I live 400 miles away from this place and they also seem to have weird rules about paying in person which is impossible for me as well due to health problems.
I asked my DVM here if I could get liscense reinstated if I made a payment arrangement there, and they said NO.
I called even to higher levels here, they said the state I lived in couldnt do anything about it either which gave me the extreme willies.
Any advice from anyone is welcome...
I renewed my liscense in fact TWICE with no problems.
So its 2006 and I try to go renew my liscense, guess what I find out some other state has put a HOLD on it.
A STATE I HAVENT LIVED IN SINCE early 1999.
Back in 1995, I was extremely ill--became disabled in 1996 and was living in this other state in a large metro area.
I was extremely impoverished and had gotten what most call a "beater" car, because I was trying to hold on to my last job and had severe worsening mobility problems that made using public transportation very difficult.
That car died, and my money problems worsened to the point I could not afford food. The job I had did not keep the basics paid including my medical expenses. , I was unable to get the car towed and ended up with parking tickets at the time--this city would ticket even legally parked cars every 48 hours, so when I tell you the amount this was not a very long time at all, my memory is fuzzy.. since its been so long. Because the car was not moved, they kept ticketing it and it was towed away. This was probably over less then a 10 day period.
I became bankrupt, severely ill, and lived in squalor in a dangerous neighborhood. To denote the level of my poverty lets just say no guaranteed food, no phone, no decent medical care and an apartment overran with vermin in a neighborhood where one could hear gunshots at night. I was also severely ill and was in the hospital repeatedly for respiratory and other problems.
I was able to escape this place, and move back to my home state, where I lived prior to moving there, and where I have been for eight years.
I did not hear ANYTHING about these parking tickets from 1996-2006. I did not own a car after that car died, while living in that city so did not drive, and later I have not heard anything over the last stretch of 11 years. The last thing I remember is trying going to go pay the tickets thinking they were 150.00 bucks or so, and finding out they were 600.00 and knowing I never would have that money at the time in 1995. However if I had still known this was out there and would be held against me, I would have attempted some payment over all these years.
I suppose I assumed like the rest of my credit problems, time cleared things up. I thought by now a statue of limitations would have taken care of things. I have managed to recover some credit over all these years. It is interesting to note that credit card companies have a lot more mercy then these people do.
I am on limited income and my husband has just become unemployed--we are of very limited means even when he was working. {I was not married during the time I got these tickets} They say there is some other ticket--moving violation, but then told me I had paid it, I can barely remember its been so many years. Seems they lost the paperwork. {I am sure I paid all moving violation tickets--only had a few}. So now I am expected to get some kind of transcript? Im scared of someone else claiming even more money.
Right now it seems we have no rights left in this country, there are people with DUI arrests facing less ramifications and less harsh punishments.
The lady at the DMV said to me, "Oh this is happening to a lot of people now" since they joined the computers together. She told me some person had a 20 year old ticket. This did not make me feel any better.
I said it is totally unfair to let something like this go on for 11 years.
They want over $1200 dollars, I know 30% of that is collection fees.
I am literally petrified they have come up with some other secret amounts I dont know about yet. Especially since I have to still find out about the "paid" ticket.
1. I found out there is no appeals process in this city.
2. These are city parking tickets.
3. There seems to be no recourse. There are no hardship claims that can be made. They put you on payment plan but extract it all. The payment plan is worthless to you unless they have a car they can "boot".
4. I live over 300 miles from this place and have health problems that keep me from traveling there.
I believe that having my liscense suspended after this many years of having a liscense here with no problems, is wrong.
Does this mean they are going to bring back debtors prisons? I am being treated like worse then a criminal for problems of my past.
I would have paid them if I had the money for anyone who wants to yell at me about not taking responsiblity.
Id pay them right now even if I could. Id go do it tommorow, send the check, but I simply dont have it. I and my husband could be even facing WORSE financial difficulties if his employment situation doesnt change.
Is it now a crime to be poor in America?
Is statue of limitations something that no longer exsists?
What are my legal recourses?
Some may say its a small amount, but it would take me a year or more to pay this off, given all my other medical bills and others.
I live 400 miles away from this place and they also seem to have weird rules about paying in person which is impossible for me as well due to health problems.
I asked my DVM here if I could get liscense reinstated if I made a payment arrangement there, and they said NO.
I called even to higher levels here, they said the state I lived in couldnt do anything about it either which gave me the extreme willies.
Any advice from anyone is welcome...
