Anyway, A coworker was driving through Texas in 1992 and was pulled over for a minor traffic violation. She had a Colorado license at the time a (still does)
During a busy time recently, she didn’t realize her license had expired. Well, she has to take the driving test over to reinstate the license… no big deal right?
Upon registering at the DMV they denied her the license due to the fact that she had a ticket in Texas. Well, she had paid the ticket, assumed it was taken care of since she had not heard anything further and moved on. Many years later the DMV nor Texas can pull up the ticket number or information and will not allow her a license until she gets it taken care of. She doesn’t know where to go.
Being an out-of-stater, new to CO, I think this is beneficial info for me to have in case anything happens, I’ll know how to take care of it.
IANAL, and I’d think that one would probably be necessary to get that mess straightened out. However, I’d think that you/she/whoever could ask for a court hearing, and without that evidence, I’d expect that the charges would be dropped.
The “friend” in question should simply work with the jurisdiction in which the ticket was issued. She should see if she still has any proof of payment herself. She should contact the jurisdiction and explain her situation, referencing the specific information about the citation in question. She should be able to get the jurisdiction to indicate that, either there was an open case, which was closed, or there is no record of an open case any more. In either case, the jurisdiction should be willing to notify the relevant Departments of Motor Vehicles (not sure if the Texas DMV would be involved) that the hold can be released.
Assuming, of course, that all is as your friend has stated. Often, it isn’t, which complicates things.
Mind you, I’m not your attorney, I’m not representing you, and this isn’t official legal advice under the laws of any relevant state. You get what you pay for.
I had something like this happen, too, only the progression was: Washington State license --> ticket issued in Iowa --> denied license when applied for in Minnesota.
In my case, I tracked down the County Clerk in the county where the ticket was issued. This took some doing, since it had been two years since I’d lived in Iowa, and I received two tickets during my 5-year residency there and had paid both in full. Or so I thought. Turned out that I’d underpaid one of the tickets by ONE CENT, and because it wasn’t registered as paid in full, a stop was put on my license (all of this unbeknownst to me, as I hadn’t been pulled over since then).
Here’s how it will probably go for your friend:
Find out which county in TX the ticket was issued in
Contact county clerk’s office to explain. Get nowhere.
Contact county clerk’s office again, explain again.
County clerk finds ticket, and, with luck, removes hold on license.
CO issues new license.
During my stint I also contact the Sheriff’s department of the county, and they were willing to help but I don’t think actually did anything. It took several calls with both the Sheriff’s office and the county clerk to figure out what had happened, and a lot of frustration, but I got through it and I’m sure your friend can, too.
