I need some help from somone familiar with the Broward County court system as it related to traffic citations.

On April 9 I received a citation for 1) Improper change of lane, and 2) Following too closely. On the bottom of the citation is states that I "Must Comply by 05-11-09". I have checked with the clerk of courts for Broward County and have been checking online every week or two and continue to receive the message, "There are no records matching your citation number. Your citation number may be valid but not in the system". It has now been nearly 3 months since receiving the citation. Do I need to keep checking every week, or is there some type of "statute of limitations" for this? One other detail that the clerk pointed out to me is that the Section and Subsection numbers for the State Statute Violation are not filled in.

In case you're interested in what happened (my side of the story :
I was driving eastbound on I595 in the right hand lane travelling at the speed limit (65mph). It was 11:30 AM and traffic was flowing well. As I was passing a van in the exit lane for Davie Road, the driver decided to merge back onto the highway. In order to avoid a collision, I quickly changed lanes to the left without signaling. I then changed lanes twice (with a signal) to the left-most lane (the highway is 4 lanes wide here) to pass some slow moving traffic. As I approached the car in the left-center lane, it moved to the left lane without a signal (there was no traffic in front of that vehicle, so I have no idea why the driver changed lanes). I slowed to avoid another collision and moved to the right to complete my pass (without signaling). As I was passing the car, I noticed a Florida State Trooper in the median, checked my speed and noted that I was traveling at 68mph (speed limit is still 65 in that area). About a mile later, I noticed a Ft. Lauderdale police car following me. I signalled, and moved to the right-center lane. The officer followed me. I checked my speed again, slowed just a hair to maintain an indicated 65mph. After about 2 miles, the officer put on their lights and I pulled over (with signals) to the breakdown lane on the right. At this point we were adjacent to the airport. I waited in my car with my hands on the steering wheel. The top was down, so the officer had a clear view of me. After a few minutes the officer approached my car and asked "Why did I stop you"? I replied that I did not know. She responded, "You were driving like a jerk"! I then asked what that meant, and she stated, "Are you giving me a hard time"?, and I said, no, but that I thought that I had just avoided two accidents. She then stated that we were close enough to the city of Fort Lauderdale, and she could write tickets on an interstate highway. I said that I didn't know anything about that. She then asked for my licence and registration and I produced them. About 2 minutes later, the State Trooper arrived, walked up to my car, and asked me "What's the problem here"? Again mystified by the question, I responded that there was no problem. The trooper then asked "What will you do if you receive a ticket", to which I replied "I will accept it". The Trooper then asked if I was in a rush, and I said "No, when I passed your radar unit, I was going the speed limit, right?" The Trooper stated that they did not see me speeding and stood by my car until the other officer came back and gave me the ticket.

 

I got a good lawyer Joel Beck. I will post his information later, I highly recommend him.

You gotta hate those damn pigs! Sorry I don't care for them that much!

 

Josh, this is who I used in the past at the advice of RatedS2k (Richie). Other members (Jeff, Keith, ZDave from O-town) have used him too with good results.

James Babkes
300 South Pine Island Road
Plantation, FL 33324-2673
(954) 452-8630

FYI - I've had 3 total tickets and he successfully dealt w/ all of them. No points!

 

Thanks for the contact info Kim . I called the office and was told that since the citation isn't in the system yet, there's nothing that they can do about it. I have to keep checking every week or two until it shows up. If it doesn't show up for a year, then it's dimissed.

 

I had several years ago. Some officers will not turn in the tickets at the end of the day (May choose to discard) I believe now they use the electronic system. Talk to a live person at the number on the citation, if they cannot pull the citation do what the lady told me, have a nice day...I'm trying to talk to my cousin at the Broward sheriff's Office to get you more accurate info, I need you to PM me the citation number.

 

omg you gonna keep on calling for a year straight?

 

Josh, I've talked to my cousin, he said that a million different things could had happen that is not showing up. Just talk to someone at the courthouse, if it doesn't show up, Have a nice day!! Don't waist your money on a lawyer...

 

ya seems kinda odd that it hasnt posted by now, dont you only get 30 days to pay the citation anyway?

 

Thanks - I'll stop by one of the county clerk offices again (one is at Rick Case Honda). I sure hope I don't have to keep calling every week or two, but that's the free advice that I received from James Babkes' office. Their office manager said that she has knowledge of citations that did not appear in the system for several months, but that finally did show up. That doesn't sound very fair to us citizens. I have not paid any money to an attorney yet, but will retain one if the ticket is ever entered into the system.

The citation states that I have to respond to it no later than 11 May 2009, but since it isn't entered into the system yet, there is nothing to repond to. People familiar with the system in Broward (two different traffic attorneys and the clerk of courts) have advised me that citations regularly appear in the system after about one month, and that you then have another month to deal with them. This citation is well past that time. For those of you living in counties other than Broward, the rules are different.

 

This ticket just showed up in the system!
I checked online as recently as 5 February and received the same message that I have been receiving since May 2009, "There are no records matching your citation number. Your citation number may be valid but not in the system". Then on Friday, 12 February, I received a couple of solicitations by lawyers in the mail offering assistance with traffic tickets. Suspicious, I looked up the citation again. So, after 10 months the ticket gets entered into the system, I receive no notice about it, and I now have 6 days "to comply". I'll keep you posted on the outcome.