Ticket from 5 years ago in Texas.. Has never been heard in court.. What to do ?

[bulldogs3]

Hi, I recently recieved a letter from an Attornys office representing a Justice of the Peace in Lancaster, Texas. They are collecting a ticket from the year 2000 for speeding. I did get the ticket and at the time was told by the Justice office that they had no ticket on file for me. It appeard that the office was being audited by the state for problems with cases not being booked. I was told to call back in 30 days to check the status.
I called back and they said they couldn't find any sign of me having a ticket in the system. I asked if that meant I did not need to respond and they said yes.
5 yrs later they are trying to collect for this ticket and the agency(attorney) is saying that if I do not make a plea and have it payed in 10 days they will turn it back over to the county and suggest they take action against me.
I asked the agency if this ticket had ever been heard before a judge and they said it had not. So there has been no failure to appear yet.
My problem is that I moved to Washington State in 2002 and I don't know how to fight this without going back to Texas. The entire time I've been here I have not heard anything about this ticket and for the 2 years after the ticket while I still lived in Texas I heard nothing. I have a new Liscense in Washington and my employer has pulled MVR's 3 times and nothing has ever come up about this.
I plan to call the Justice office in the morning. Is there any route I should take to get this dismissed from Washington State with out having to go back? I really can't afford the $282 they are trying to collect at the time due to financial problems.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[LeanneHead]

Statue of limitation

I am not sure but I think they may be contacting you now before the statue of limitations runs out on the ticket. You should probably contact an attorney but I don't think they can tell you that you are not in the system and then 5 years later you are.

 

[lwpat]

There is no statute of limitations on a speeding ticket. It may be that your rights to a speedy trial have been violated. I am not an attorney and cannot give legal advice. If you cannot afford the ticket then you cannot afford the attorney to get it dismissed. Do some online research and enter a plea of not guilty and request a jury trial. Then file a motion for dismissal based on speedy trial. I am not sure it Texas has a statute on point or not but you can check that out also.

There is a lot of this going on in Texas with some tickets 8 to 10 years old just now showing up. Unfortunately you are at their mercy.

 

[freebird]

This is very true. I read cases about California looking for revenue in the form of parking tickets from many, many years ago. San Franciso in particular.