I got a ticket in Long Beach on 7/17, court date listed as 9/17. The CHP officer said call if I haven't heard anything in 3 weeks, 3 weeks passed, 4 weeks. Called the courthouse and tried to look up ticket by citation number and drivers license, nothing there not on record. Now the deadline was today to pay the ticket and still, nothing listed by DL number or ticket. Is my only option to show up to LB courthouse at 8am next thursday like scheduled? The courthouse was unhelpful and every time I call to speak to an operator their lines are either full or there are 90 people in line and a 3 hr wait . I have work I can't wait on the phone with them at work in a hospital.

If I do have to go before the judge should I ask for a reduced fine and traffic school due to the court never processing after 2 months and the date being passed without me being able to pay? Has anyone ever heard of something like this happening or had this happen to them? I'm hoping the cop just never filed the ticket and they will tell me to just go home

 

I can't speak for Long Beach, but, in IE, I coulda sworn they had an automated court date extender thing. You would just call up, press in your cite number, confirm your details, and then it would tell you your next court date. The reason I bring this up is because you could use that to see if the ticket was even filed by the cop.

 

this is where you should take a day off of work if you can. go to court early and get in line. figure out what the heck is going on. i've never heard of this, but i would not screw around with that.

also ask the clerk for a trial by declaration. look into that. it's gotten me out of a couple of tickets on the croth rocket and in the car.

good luck man.

 

That is what I did, the automated system has been telling me they have nothing on file for the ticket # or the DL #. I guess I'm going to get up early, drive up to LB on the court date and wait in line... Hopefully the cop just never filed the ticket. I don't intend on missing that court date, better to show up and take the time off work than to have a late fee assessed and a warrant or something

 

Yeah, better safe than sorry.

 

go to court and speak with the prosecutor ask for a plea bargain

 

you might have to go to the court...
get in the first line with ticket stuff, if its not on file they will give a direct number to call every week until it is. im in a similar situation man

 

Yep, thats what wound up happening. They gave me 2 options:

1. Pay, they would go in the back and force process the ticket, give me the fine amount and I can pay the ticket.

2. Call every week until it is processed for up to a year from the ticket date. If it is not filed a year from the ticket date than I am off free. On the off chance the ticket was lost here I don't have to do anything.

I chose option #2. Maybe I'll get lucky and the cop lost the ticket or forgot to file it. Hey he did pull 2 of us over at once....

 

Sometimes you do get lucky. Cops and Clerks makes mistakes. I had a ticket dismissed once 'cause the clerks notified the wrong cop.

 

...so, Puerto Rico is NOT the very worst in THAT department!...Surprise, surprise...I hope your ticket got lost in the bureaucratic mess in Court! G'luck!