Long Beach Cant Find My Speeding Ticket.....What Should I Do? (lawyer, school)

[jet757f]

Maybe someone has had this happen and knows what course of action I should take.

I got a speeding ticket on the 405 fwy in the Long Beach area going 80mph which is 15 mph over the speed limit. This was issued by the CHP.
So I was waiting for the courtesy notice to pay the fine and go to traffic school. The notice never shows up. So I call the Long Beach court which is listed on the yellow ticket that I have. First I check the automated system with my drivers license number and then the ticket number. Nothing is found. So I call the Long Beach court and talk to a clerk. She checks the ticket number and my drivers license. There is no record of a ticket. She tells me just to come down to the court office on my court date anytime which is next week.

Does anyone know what procedure they will use if they dont have any record of the ticket?
Would I be better off just ignoring the ticket since it cant be found?
Im just worried that it could turn up out of the blue someday and then I would have a warrant.

[stillkit]

In the first place, how long ago did you get the ticket? It's in the system somewhere, but that system moves at a glacial pace.

Here's something I've had happen a couple of times and which may affect you: Waiting for the courtesy notice may complicate your problems. Twice, I've gotten tickets from the CHP and the courtesy notice didn't come for 6 months. The reason, they said, was the sheer volume of tickets which they process and "under-staffing." In the meantime, though, my appearance date had come and gone, warrants for failure to appear had been issued and they wanted more money than the original fine. It seems that the courtesy notice is just that...a courtesy and does not relieve you of the responsibility of meeting the appearance date. The Catch 22 is that you can't pay the ticket or post bond until the ticket winds its way through the process because it hasn't yet landed in the court of jurisdiction. Personally? I think they do that on purpose to scam more money out of drivers.

In both cases, I had to get a lawyer to straigthen it out.

I'd suggest you do the same. In the end, it will be cheaper than fighting off the California bureaucracy yourself.

[jet757f]

At this point I guess I will just go to the court office on Wed and if they have no record of it get something in writing that I did appear.