Again, I’ll have to point out that a National ID card does not= a National Drivers license. Each state has it own law, you must know these in order to drive. This does make some sense- driving conditions in Fla, HA, ND, NY/NY or LA/CA are radically different. Next- to a extent, your state drivers license is your state voter ID.
If you get a Passport card, you effectively have a National ID card, but it is *not *a operators license.
:smack: Amazingly enough, that six minutes would have been spent reading the whole thread, including Bouncer’s post.
For the OP, yes, I’ll repeat the advice by everyone to lawyer up.
What happened to the OP?
I guess he high-tailed it… no he zoomed… no he got outta here like a bat outta hell!
I get the feeling your going to. 
And good luck with that.
Agreed. The National ID was not a National Operators License. But, the National ID (REAL ID) was proposed to be implemented through the driver licensing system and mandated national sharing of information through the AAMVA.
Here is the wiki page on the REAL ID Act: Real ID Act - Wikipedia
From that page:
So, no it doesn’t grant operator privileges. That is still handled by the states. But it does mandate/facilitate the exchange of data between states via the AAVMA (something that all but a few states are doing already).
Did it? There is no statute of limitations if a warrant is issued. You’re bloody lucky you didn’t wind up in the hoosegow.
Get a lawyer, suck it and pay the fines, get a valid VA license, and stop driving with your head up your butt.
The consensus here is the right one: get a lawyer.
I will share that a common trick to establish length of residency is to ask, “Is this your current address?” when looking at the out-of-state licenses. The driver will often say, “No, I moved to (Virginia address) in August,” an admission which the officer will document.
I would also like to suggest (and I am not a lawyer) that the OP does not try the “well, everybody was doing it!” defense in traffic court.
I made those assumptions based on the OP. They’re reasonable assumptions. I left out the assumption that he was a chronic speeder and that turned out to be so also. Those are the same assumptions a judge will make when looking at those ‘facts’. Sorry if you’re offended for some reason.
I reread the OP and realized that residency has nothing to do with this.
First of all, SoL has to do with being charged.
Second of all, failing to show up to court and not paying a ticket is handled differently by states and judges so YMMV. My stepson went to court, got driving school, didn’t take it and the judge said Fuck it. That’s your freebie.
Mrs. Cad got a ticket in a small Colorado town and is trying to figure out her options.
I got a ticket in Colorado Springs and had 10 days to respond. I couldn’t schedule a court date online (to delay until payday) so I figured I’d pay the ticket when I got paid in 15 days (I remember saying it’s only 5 days late). The judge issued a bench warrant and the fucking Sheriffs showed up to arrest me but I had left for work. They then showed up at my work to arrest me but being payday (So 5 days late does matter) I was on my way to the courthouse to pay (I love early prep periods) so by being 5 days late on a ticket I came within 30 minutes of being arrested (twice!!).
So here’s what happened to the OP. He didn’t deal with his ticket and the judge suspended (or even revoked) his driving priviledges in that state. As far as VA is concerned he doesn’t have a license to drive in Virginia. He may still have a physical NC license but it is invalid in VA in spite of any interstate compact.
So I concur with everyone here. You cannot drive legally in VA and get a lawyer.
IANAL but the statute of limitations only applies to being accused/formally charged. In other words, they can’t come back after seven years after you were moping and doping and say “We now have enough to charge you with mopery and dopery”. In your case you were accused the moment the old ticket was written. The normal progress of things is 1. Fail to pay fine - notice to appear. 2. Failure to appear - warrant (theoretically never expires but no one extradites for $200 tickets) 3. Eventually DL is suspended. This may take a while. In NJ if you are in an accident while driving with a suspended license, someone is injured and you are convicted you ARE going to jail for 45 days. Even if it wasn’t your fault. Certainly not worth the risk to most people. YMMV but is probably lower at higher speeds.
Biggest advice: slow your butt down!
I’m not takling about the statute of limitations on the 2002 speeding ticket.
I’m talking about the statue of limitations on failure to appear for court, in 2002.
Those are two separate things.
A warrant was indeed issued in 2002 for my arrest. I got a letter to that effect in late 2002, I remember that. However, the SoL on that expired in 2007. I may not be legally allowed to drive in Virginia with my NCDL, but the original arrest warrant is null and void.
Thanks for all the hate. It amazes me that, even with a much higher average age on this board than others, so much hate abounds. it’s more literate here than the average Youtube comments thread, but not a bit more compassionate.
I am not sure you recognize the difference between “hate” and “dislike for people who do not take responsibility for their actions.”
The trouble you have described is of your own doing, and yet like most human beings, you feel like you are a victim. Rational creatures, or “haters” as you describe them, have been pointing out several mistakes in your theories, and most resposible adults have little sypathy for irresponsible people believing they can outwait or ignore problems that the rest of us would have just dealt with long ago.
You may want to check this out prior to calling your lawyer, or going to the DMV for a new license.
edited to add, dude you fucking skipped court and hid out in another state, do you really think the Law is going to say “It’s totally cool, since you stayed on the lam for long enough, we’re not going to arrest you.”
If there were such an active warrant, I would have been arrested in 2009 when i got my second speeding ticket in VA.
And if not then, most certainly last month when the trooper pulled me for the most recent ticket.
So yeah…there’s that. Anyway…thanks for the irrelevant link that mentioned nothing about VA law.
i was 27, a fulltime student, and had a part-time job in 2002. I was so poor I couldn’t pay attention, and I got caught in a speed trap in another state.
Although many posters in this thread don’t remember being 27, and have probably never been that poor, plenty of people find themselves in the situation I was in.
And if you think compassion lies thick on the ground here, I’d like to sell you a bridge.
To clarify–I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m looking for useful, hopefully Virginia-specific legal advice. If I think posters are idiots about some aspect of their life, I generally keep it to myself, unless I think they’re harming other people.
I fail to see who i harmed by avoiding paying the original ticket, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Do you honestly think that the warrant is going to stay active for the next 100, 500, 1000 years?
Right or wrong, there is a SoL for misdemeanors just about everywhere, and if you can successfully “stay on the lam” long enough (generally around 5-7 years) it does indeed go away…
But I will go right back to your original statement about hate. I thoroughly disagree you are a *victim *of hate.
For a lot of us life has not been easy either. Perhaps now, if you were to say “how can I go about fixing what I did wrong then” you might elicit more sympathy. Or compassion. Or whatever.
There has been plenty of advice. Sorry it hasn’t been couched in feel good sugarcoating.
You’re right. I suck. I should be shot. Kill me! Kill me now!