What to Do About Old Tickets Causing a Suspension

[scoot412]

My question involves a driver's license issued by the State of: Pennsylvania

I'm trying to clear up an indefinite suspension on my PA Driver's License. I have a number of old citations (mostly for driving while suspended/revoked), none of which I responded to. Given that these incidents occurred so long ago and I never responded, I assumed that they would have held hearings in my absence and found me guilty.

I just used the state portal to pull up the dockets for each of the incidents. To my surprise, I've learned that there was a hearing for only one of the incidents. I did not show up for the hearing and, obviously, was found guilty. (That one is paid off and closed). On all of the other dockets, the case status is listed as "inactive" and the processing status is listed as "awaiting plea."

I'm curious as to what I should do about these tickets that are still awaiting my plea. They are all from years ago (2006-2009). I've read that in PA, the statute of limitations for processing a summary offense is three years, but I'm not sure if that applies in this case.

Anyway, here's what I'm looking at:
9/2006 - Disregard Traffic Control Device - (Awaiting Plea)
3/2008 - Driving While Operating Privilege is Suspended or Revoked - (Awaiting Plea)
12/2009 - Driving Unregistered Vehicle - (Awaiting Plea)
12/2009 - Driving While Operating Privilege is Suspended or Revoked - (Awaiting Plea)

Do I issue a plea and request hearings for all of the above? Should I consult an attorney about the possibility of having some of these dismissed?
I'm not naive enough to think that I can get everything tossed out or dismissed but if I could whittle away some of it, that would be great.

I know that I did some irresponsible and stupid things in the past and I do want to resolve all of this as soon as possible.
I did surrender my license to the state in May of 2010, so I know that I have 2+ years of credit on any suspension I may be facing.

Any thoughts or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[vincedia]

You will want to make sure you are not pleading guilty to any of those citations. You also need to be careful how you request hearings, or dismissals. If you just appear in some courts, they can and will detain you for ignoring the citations. If you send a letter, some judges will not respond. So it can be tricky depending on where each citation was located.

There is a statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for citations over 3 years, but the statute has no teeth, and is looked at as optional by most magistrates.

My best suggestion is to consult with someone who can guide you through these tickets to try to prevent any more suspension, and if done properly, may even be able to get your privilege restored in the process. Ultimately you want each court to send a DL-38 to PennDOT to remove the indefinite suspensions without sending a conviction to start a term suspension.

Good Luck,
Vince

[David from Pennsylvania]

As to the statute of limitations, vincedia is probably right in your case; though if it is worth anyone to check out it is you. You need to work out those tickets with the DJ somehow, as Pennsylvania certainly isn't going to give you your license back until they are worked out. However, you may have a compounded problem.

I did surrender my license to the state in May of 2010, so I know that I have 2+ years of credit on any suspension I may be facing.

That is probably not true. You almost certainly cannot be racking up suspension time now for the pending tickets, unless PennDOT specifically told you that in writing when you surrendered your license. If that did happen you are going to want that piece of paper. There is potential for new suspensions if you are convicted of the pending offenses, especially if you were ever suspended for DUI.

Eventually you can request a "restoration requirements letter" from PennDOT using the forms on their website. It seems like the best attack is to have an attorney at the DJ to either attack the tickets with the Statute of Limitations OR request some lenience with a global settlement; hack them down as much as possible.

Then you will have to get your restoration requirements letter from PennDOT. If you like what you see on the letter do whatever it says to get your license back. If you don't agree with their assessment of how much time and money you owe them, you can then decide how whether an appeal of that determination is in your best interest. In my experience having that restoration letter is invaluable because it lets you know where you stand and whether your time is counting.

[scoot412]

Thanks for your response, David.
I've never had a DUI so, that's in my favor.
I did get in touch with a traffic attorney here and, hopefully, will speak with him in the coming week. With any luck, he can whittle away at the unresolved citations. Following that, we'll see what PennDOT says.