Reckless driving / racing ticket in Washington State

[Needsomeadvice]

Hi all, back on December 29, 2006 , I was pulled over for racing. My car was impounded and the cop told me I was going to receive a ticket for reckless driving/racing with a court date in the mail. It is now the 23rd of January and I still have not received the mail. At the time I was pull over I had out of country plates (not to go into details other than they were german euro plates) although im now living in Washington and had a washington state license. How long does it usually take them to mail the ticket? BTW I was driving with the out of country plates legally. I didn't even see the cop looking at my insurance information, he didnt take it out of the glove box.

[Litigator]

Normally if they are going to mail you a citation they do so "promptly"--within a month or so-- but sometimes an officer will forget--doesn't seem likely he'd forget given the nature of the offense though. Although it is their burden to notify you, you don't want to get into a situation where you might get an FTA--the citation went to the wrong address or something of that nature and you miss a court date--it may unduly complicate matters. It may be hard to track down at this point but if you could find out the court where the citation may be heard (and there may be more than one option available) that may save you a headache on down the line--at least they could tell you if a citation was pending in their court. Otherwise all you can really do is just wait it out.

[seniorjudge]

I agree with litigator.

The post office may have lost some mail.

Go check with the court so you don't get busted for failure to appear.

[Needsomeadvice]

I do not have a court date, I checked the washington court date site which is supposely up to date.

[blewis]

Do you have your car back from impound?

[Needsomeadvice]

Do you have your car back from impound?

Yes I got it back within a hour and half of impound. Do you think the washington state patrol cut me a break? I am military that just returned from 2 years overseas. But I don't want to overlook the fact that I may still have this thing pending.

[blewis]

I would take one more crack at it, if I were you -- Failure to Respond brings a whole bunch of problems you really don't need. Call the Clerk of the Court -- call the District Court (for example, if this occurred in Auburn, you would call Aukeen District Court) for the area where this occurred.

Tell them you can't find your citation and ask them to please look it up and give you the number. If the clerk has no record of it, give thanks to the deity of your choice, count yourself among the lucky folks, and get on with the rest of your life. You may still receive a citation some day, but, until then, don't worry about it.

And thank you for your service to our country.

Barry