Just got a red light camera ticket from over 3 yrs ago

[Jeff_in_CO]

My jurisdiction is: City of Riverdale, Georgia

I live in Colorado and was on a business trip to Georgia way back in April of 2006. I just received the initial letter/citation that I supposedly had a red light camera violation in April, 2006. Yes, this was over 3 years and 4 months ago. It says I entered the intersection 0.28 seconds late. Of course the citation doesn't say anything about why they had a delay or why they are just now sending this.

I had a rental car during that trip and the rental car company charges a $10 admin fee anytime they have to lookup who had the rental during the time of an automated citation. When I recently received this $10 invoice, I called the rental car company and asked them if they could verify that this was the initial contact from that police department to the rental car company to learn the driver's contact info for the time of the violation. They said yes, this was the initial contact from the police department to them about this citation. They said no other inquiries were made by any police department about this car rental contract at any prior date. (I'll work tomorrow to get that from them in writing since that info was just given over the phone). I also agree with that and believe that I never previously received any notice about this citation.

I have found information via the web that says the Georgia red light cameras operate under state law OCGA 40-6-20, which includes a section that says:

The law enforcement agency for which such device is permitted shall send by first-class mail addressed to the owner of the motor vehicle postmarked not later than ten days after the date of the alleged violation...

and then it lists the items that are to be included in a citation.

So I should have received this within 10 days. But the first class mail postmark was this past week in August of 2009.

Even if that 10 day rule wasn't the case, wouldn't this still fall under Georgia's statute of limitation of 2 years to bring a traffic case to court? But then I don't understand the scope of that limitation or how that gets applied within the GA legal system.

The fee for the citation is $70. But even if I would go that direction and just pay it, I'm actually concerned that if I send a check along with the "detach here" portion of the citation, the person who processes the fee may not properly clear the citation since it says "Unless you appeal the citation, a civil penalty of $70 must be paid by the due date on the reverse side of this citation". Of course they now claim the payment due date was May of 2006. So it wouldn't LOOK like I'd be paying this within a reasonable time. But it does say "payment of this citation will close the case and the City will take no further actions."

They don't say anything about late fees or a missed court date. It does list a "contest date" in May of 2006, whatever that means. They say this is an official notice of a "rescheduled court date" of a few weeks from now. Below the court date it also says "Please be advised that a Bench Warrant may be issued and your license suspended by the state of Georgia if you fail to appear". Since I'm several states away, I have no intention of going to GA for this.

I have a "clean" driving record and am not familiar with fighting citations, especially in other states. Do I need to hire a traffic lawyer in GA to fight this absurdity? That would obviously cost more than $70. Do I give in to their blatant disregard for their state law and just pay the fine to be done with it? Are there any options besides paying $70 now or hiring a lawyer to fight this thing and/or go to court for me -- such as resolving it via a letter before the court date? If it's not resolved before the court date, would a lawyer be allowed to stand in for me in court to fight it without me being there? I don't know what's involved to do an appeal or if it's possible to send a letter within the next few weeks and get this thing resolved without the added expenses to do what's right.

Thank you for any info -- even if you only answer a portion of my many questions. Have a great day.

Jeff

 

[tpajet]

You need to call the court that it's being paid too, and explain what has happened. Also, before you wend anything in (if you decide to do so) you need to make a photocopy of the letter first, so you still have a copy of what you sent.

 

[Jeff_in_CO]

Just WOW. Here's an update...
I called my rental car company's citations department. They again agreed verbally that there have never been any previous $10 administration fees prior to this month that were charged against that rental car contract for processing requests from any police department for my contact info. But they did not want to put even the most simplest statement about that in writing because they want to stay out of any legal ramifications related to it.

Most interesting about that phone call to the rental car company was they said this is NOT an isolated incident. They have recently been processing quite a few citations with similar stories to mine where the original violation occured back as far as 2006. He said he had another one very similar right in front of him at that time. He said the city of Riverdale in Georgia, other places in Georgia, and also some place in Illinois have been doing this quite a bit lately.

So next I called the City of Riverdale Municipal Court and just discussed this with them. I mentioned the Georgia state law for the 10 day limitation where the police department is required to send the citation within that time. They said they cannot dismiss a citation outside of the court. There's really nothing she could do about any of it. She sees the dates and doesn't know what would have caused a delay. She said I either need to pay the fine or go to court to fight it.

I'm posting plenty of info about this on the web so others that fall in a similar situation can see what to expect.