License Suspension Reinstatement (Chicago, Washington, Brooklyn: apartment, college, living in)

[depthofpercep]

My question is about what the process is to reinstate a drivers license through the Secretary of State when the resident is a non-Illinois resident BUT the suspension took place while in Illinois (Chicago). Unpaid traffic violation.

The backstory: I received a traffic violation in 2003 while turning right at a red light. They confiscated my license and was supposed to send me a court date in the mail. I never received it. The method of how I was cited was questionable at best and illegal at worst. I found out my license was suspended two weeks ago after applying for an EDL license through Washington State. I had been able to renew my license through Michigan and also apply for a license in New York State. No issues. I paid off my ticket last week but on the Notice of Compliance form I received makes two statements I cannot quite clear up. It says the following:

"Illinois Residents: Mail this copy and a $70.00 reinstatement fee payable to SECRETARY OF STATE to the following address........write your driver's license number on the check or money order. Please do not send cash."

Then below this says:

"Non-Illinois Residents: Mail this copy to your State's driver's licensing authority."

The licensing office in Washington told me I needed to acquire a Notice of Reinstatement.

Now do to I mail in $70 to the Illinois Secretary of State or just bring this Notice of Compliance to the licensing bureau in Washington?

[ofcjim40]

Why did you not follow up on the ticket? From 2003? What have you been doing for 8 years? What other tickets did you receive with the red light ticket? What DL have your been driving on until now? Your DL was taken as bond, not confiscated as you put it. You had an IL DL at the time right? If you just got one ticket you would have gotten a court diversion envelope. You do know you are only supposed to have one DL from a state at a time right? If you are suspended in one state another state should not issue you a valid DL. So I'm having a hard time following your time line. So could you be a little more clear as to what took place. You would have had several warning letters mailed to the address on your DL. Were you not up to date on this? You neglect to notify the SOS? Sounds like you neglected a lot of things you should have done, you now have to unravel those issues.

[jimmythegreek]

Something ain't right here.

[depthofpercep]

I was an out of state resident from Michigan living in Chicago for college. I took a right turn at a red light (legal in Michigan and was not aware of the traffic law in Illinois/Chicago). I was actually chased by a civilian car by a person in civilian clothing. I had three passengers and the individual in the white Ford Focus chased us just north of Hollywood ave. The individual tried running us off the road several times while violently screaming at us with his window down. I did not stop and tried to out run the person. I was driving a very small compact car at that time, smaller than a Ford Focus and was able to squeeze through a spot that the individual couldn't and lost them. By the time the individual caught up, we were parked and walking back to my apartment. As soon as we got to the sidewalk several police officers surrounding us and "pulled us over" when the car was parked. They proceeded to tell me that the individual in the Ford Focus was an off duty cop. They confiscated my license and wrote me a ticket and told me that a court date would come in the mail. I never received the court date. Come to find out last week they wrote down my address wrong. Intentional or accidental I don't know. I actually did follow up about 6 months later when I never heard about the court date. They couldn't locate the ticket and they didn't have anything on my record. In fact, I was written a speeding ticket about a year or two later and had to go to traffic court then. It was not brought up then. When trying to resolve this suspension status in the last two weeks, the Circuit Court had a very difficult time locating the ticket. It took over an hour and had to call 3 different phone numbers.

I was under the impression that the off duty cop tossed the ticket because he was afraid of receiving legal rammifications for the illegal method of how he went about "pulling" us over.

"Something doesn't sound right" - that's for sure. I was able to get a reissued license in Michigan twice. First time to replace the license that was confiscated and a second time when I was robbed. In 2008, I moved to NYC and in 2009 I applied for a New York State license and had not complications whatsoever.

I am applying for a Washington State license BUT it's an enhanced drivers license which is a passport drivers license that allows you to cross borders to Canada and Mexico without a passport. This may be why my status on my license in Illinois comes up as "suspended".

Also, for the record, I was pulled over in Idaho by a state trooper at the end of March during my move to Seattle from Brooklyn. The officer ran my license but let me off with a warning. He said my license came up clean.

And to answer your question about other traffic violations with the red light violation is that I had one speeding ticket about a year later but that was paid and resolved on time. No outstanding parking tickets or other traffic violations. In fact, I sold my car shortly after the speeding violation and have not owned a car since.

[ofcjim40]

That had to be one of the most confusing DL stories I've read. Wish I could help but sounds like about 80% of the info is left out or wrong.

[dewthedru]

Originally Posted by ofcjim40

That had to be one of the most confusing DL stories I've read. Wish I could help but sounds like about 80% of the info is left out or wrong.

what's confusing about it? it sounds like you've never left the state and had to get a new DL or had cops screw up a traffic ticket.

[depthofpercep]

Originally Posted by ofcjim40

about 80% of the info is left out or wrong.

I thought the question was pretty clear. Do I issue the $70 reinstatement fee to the Illinois Secretary of State or issue the payment to the state that I'm applying for the drivers license?

Seriously though, why the condescension? Am I posting in the wrong forum? Did I attack you personally? If you don't have anything positive to say to help, why bother wasting either of our time?

As crazy as the story might sound, I'm not aware of leaving any info out. Definitely not intentional. I spoke with the Illinois Secretary of State today. They actually managed to screw up two of my addresses. My permanent address (which was on the license they confiscated) and the address I was living at in Chicago.

If you are serious about helping and not trolling, can you be more specific what you are confused about? I appreciate the advice.

[ofcjim40]

Ok, you haven't made it clear, was it an IL or a MI DL that was taken for bond? In IL only an IL DL can be taken, out of state DL's can not be taken as bond. But reading further in your post I would believe this was on the MI DL because you state you we able to get the DL reissued. But yet you state that the IL SOS screwed up the address on the DL that was confiscated, or are you saying the SOS copied it wrong on their paperwork from your MI DL. If this is the case, did you have both an active IL and MI DL at the same time? If yes, then yes your MI DL was confiscated because you can not have two DL active from two different states at one time. One must be surrendered.

Also, it is legal in IL to make a right turn on red. The only time it's not is when a sign is posted.

You waited 8 years to resolve this. You said that originally the ticket couldn't be located, yet a full 8 years later you call the Circuit Court and it is located. So I'm assuming they told you the date your finding of guilt was and when the suspension took place. You should request a copy of your driving abstract.

You were given a ticket, on the ticket the address for you is written down. How is it that just last week you discovered the address was wrong? Was the address right on your ticket when you got it but they copied it wrong on internal paperwork. Why did you wait 6 months before doing something, not calling after a month or 2 to find out what was going on?

On your ticket it must have either had a court date on it, or you would have been given a court diversion envelope. You would not have just been given a ticket with a "to be determined" court date on it and nothing else. That is not the way it can be done in Chicago or IL.

You say a year or 2 later you were written another ticket, on what physical DL did you have in your possession then? Was it a DL of the same state or different from this original incident? How did you get this DL to begin with?

What made you believe the off duty officer "tossed" it? Have no idea what legal "ramifications" you would be referring to.

You are saying you have applied for an IL, MI, NY and WA DL. Each time you moved, did you surrender your former State's license before getting the new State's?

I'm not being condescending. It's just when a lot of info is left out or is muddled and followup is not done, it's hard to give a straight answer.

So to break this all down to the info that is needed:
On what State DL did you get the ticket?
Was your address right on the ticket?
When did you get the 2nd DL, and from what State?
Did you surrender every DL you've gotten to the new State or did have more than 1 active DL at a time?
Where is the original "confiscated" DL at now?
What did the Circuit Court tell you when they located the ticket?
What has the SOS office told you when you called them asking this very question of who gets the $70, I'd assume you've done that already?
So if it was your IL that got suspended, you have to take care of it through IL. If it was MI, then you would follow the directions you were given. There would be no reason to pay it to WA because you not have a DL through them, and there's nothing to be reinstated.

Simply put, if you are suspended in one state, another can't issue you a valid license for their state until you clear up the suspension. So you will need to get your IL DL reinstated, then essentially "surrender" it to WA and that get a WA license.

[ofcjim40]

Originally Posted by dewthedru

what's confusing about it? it sounds like you've never left the state and had to get a new DL or had cops screw up a traffic ticket.

How did you get the OP never left the state when the OP has listed IL, MI, NY and WA? You can't just "get a new DL" when you have an outstanding violation. And what is it that the Officer could have screwed up?