Suspended License Confusion

Status
Not open for further replies.

ngreenspan

New Member
Nathaniel

Hi Folks. I'm wondering if anyone out there has any insight on my situation.

A week ago I was pulled over in Massachusetts for driving with a suspended license. The license was suspended two months prior for non-payment of two tickets which I received and sent in (paid) at the same time (same envelop) two months prior to that. The tickets were for 70 in a 55 and an expired inspection sticker. Clearly the tickets were unprocessed (lost in the mail?) and so my license was suspended. No letter was sent to me informing me of my suspended license and while I probably should have noticed that my check wasn't cashed, I didn't because I'm just not that on top of things.

So, flash forward to 3:00 in the morning and I am driving along (not speeding or in anyway violating the law other than suspended license) when I am pulled over and an officer tells me that I was driving without a license and threatens to arrest me. Naturally, not knowing my license was suspended I was more caught up in that than the original reason of "why did you run my plates". The car was towed and I was released on the road. I was never provided with a reason for the original offense.

This all happened early that Sunday morning. By 9:30 Monday morning I had been to the registry, paid off the past due tickets and fines and retrieved my car. I received a letter a week later informing me that my license to drive had been reinstated (gee, thanks for that letter!)

So, now I have to go to court for a criminal hearing wherein I'm told I could loose my license for a year and have multi-thousand dollar fines- even go to jail!

My questions are: what can/should I do and does the fact that I was never told what I did to have my plates run matter? I mean, did he have probable cause? Note that I received no other ticket at that time for, say, running a light, speeding, illegal turn etc and I don't have any DUI or excessive speeding tickets on my record.

Help! I don't want to loose my license or go to jail and I can't afford thousands in fines. Heck, I can't afford hundreds.

Thanks,
:eek:
 
Hire a lawyer.

Do your best to get your license back BEFORE you go to court on the latest criminal charge you got.
 
Thanks for the feeback

Thanks for your feedback. I have contacted a lawyer who said that since I had been to the RMV the next morning, paid all fines and had my license reinstated (more or less what you said) and because I had no prior record of any type, he would probably be able to get it dismissed without a conviction for just the court costs (I'm not sure exactly how much those will be). He charged a flat rate of $500 for this. So off we go to do just that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top