davidc1

Don't pay your overdue traffic ticket yet!
California has an amnesty program coming up. Thank you Governor Brown for this!

http://www.courts.ca...fficamnesty.htm

davidc1

Correction on link

http://www.courts.ca.gov/trafficamnesty.htm

Trustd_1

those w/traffic tickets should make sure to be mindful of your specific situations. unpaid traffic citations are subject to additional fines and such citations are forwarded to a collection agency if not paid/addressed w/in a certain amount of time.

additionally, unpaid tickets are often accompanied by suspension of licenses, and if the citation required a court appearance (not just paying the citation), then a FTA (failure to appear) & bench warrant for your arrest is automatically issued if you don't appear in court.

davidc1

Yep, you are correct. Not sure if you read the DMV page or not, but most of those situations are covered under the amnesty.

Here's some scattered quotes from the page:

Under the amnesty program, eligible participants will not have to pay any civil assessments. Once the civil assessment amounts are deducted, the remaining balance owed will be reduced by 50 to 80 percent depending on income or receipt of specified public benefits.


Any infraction may qualify for amnesty. Unpaid tickets and related “failure to appear” violations with an initial payment due date on or before January 1, 2013, are eligible.


...may be eligible to have both their debt reduced by 50 or 80 percent depending on income and their driver's license reinstated,...

Trustd_1

thanks for posting the additional info for everyone. i was not able to read the complete details of the amnesty program, as I'm at work. it's nice that it gives those w/overdue citations the opportunity to clear them and at a discount. if anyone here has tickets, you should definitely take advantage of this, not only to save $$$ but to get your license back.

one thing that people should still research is how delinquent tickets that have been referred to outside collection agencies affect their credit history. i'm not sure if such occurrences are referred to the credit reporting bureaus. i do know that it's getting more common for employers to do more detailed background checks on their employees & potential hires. driving records, criminal history reports, and credit history are all fair game, so it doesn't really look good to have unpaid tickets and/or failures to appear/license suspensions on your record.