Cops, lawyers: what do I do about this ticket?

Which brings up another question. I remember being told years ago that out of state tickets did not get reported to your insurance carrier. Has this changed? Or was I misinformed?

Years ago I was pulled over in CT for speeding and paid the ticket. I was drinving in a company car at the time and I never heard a word about it from my boss. I would have definately head about it if his rates went up.

From what I understand (and IANAL) it depends on whether the states have a “reciprocity agreement” where they transfer this information to each other. I know that NJ/DE/PA have them but they don’t have one with MD as far as I know.

That’s the principle I was operating on when I ignored the MA ticket ten years ago. And at that time, and for at least five years after that, there was no reciprocity between MD and MA.

But the impression I got from the agent at the MVA was that this is now a national system. I’m not flat-out saying that all 50 states are now interconnected, but you might as well assume they are from now on. Because if they aren’t today they will be soon. Just think about it: MA just got $190 out of a MD resident they ticketed 10 years ago. Every state must have millions of dollars in old unpaid out-of-state tickets, and all they have to do is hook up their computers with the rest and they can start getting that money out of us when it’s time to renew our licenses.

Eugene McCarthy one said “The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.” From what I can see the bureaucracy of state DMVs has gotten a lot more efficient. Dammit.

Interesting side note: I recently took the National Safety Council’s Defensive Driving Course in order to get a discount on my insurance. Someone in class raised the issue of moving violations/points on a license being reported to insurance companies by the DMV. The instructor told us that (at least in NYS) insurance companies almost never check on your driving record for moving violations, in-state or out of state, unless they are giving you a policy for the first time. They are entitled to check any time they like, but generally will not look if you already have a policy and are just renewing. The instructor basically winked and said, “As long as YOU don’t tell them… they won’t know.”

Now of course that would be different from the case of state DMVs checking with one another, which in commasense’s case brought up an old ticket. But judging from the defensive driving instructor’s comments, it doesn’t necessarily follow that info shared by state DMVs also gets passed on to insurance companies.