Can I be booked by Judge if my court summons isn’t for my ticket but for a payment plan arrangement?
While on vacation in mid-late November I was pulled over going 90 on the freeway (traffic was flowing at 80-85 but no excuse I'm guilty of speeding), anyways, apparently my license was under suspension for failure to pay a fine. I didn't know it was suspended as I never received any paper work saying so, thus ignorance is my only defense. this is the second time in the past 5 years this has happened, suspended same reason 3 or so years ago (Tx surcharge fine) but I thought it was all cleared up with all my old tickets from my teenage years as I was able to re-issue my license back then.
what I'm really worried about is, because I'm a "repeat offender" I'm going to get a harsher punishment, like jail time, despite them not booking me at the time of the offense. I'm supposed to be going in to schedule a payment plan but they said I must appear in front of a judge to schedule the payment plan. Since the summons is for "Payment Plan Hearing", can I still be booked for the offense?
at the bottom of the summons it states "Failure to appear for trial may result in a warrant being issued" but then it says, "you may call prior to Jan 12 and pay your fine of $XXX" where XXX = my ticket fines.
I'm a little bit more relieved to read that, but still hesitant to go....its ~200 miles away for court. and yes, I have a ride taking me
January 16th, 2010 - 11:19
You better get yourself a lawyer.