Please Help...

[Nulty]

Back in 2000-2002 I accummulated $1400 in unpaid traffic tickets, and my license was suspended for not paying them.  My license has been suspended since 2002 and there has been no activity on my license whatsoever since then(over 8 years now).  I was told by a representative of the DMV(Dept. of Motor Vehicles) in Tallahassee that after 7 years with no activity on a license, the unpaid tickets must be purged, but that it is handled by the courthouse in the respective county of the ticket, not the DMV.  I have contacted the court in Orange County, and they affirmed that unpaid tickets do get purged after 7 years of inactivity, but that they do it as they get to the case, and most times it could take 10+ years -- they did purge one ticket for me though.  I then contacted Osceola County, and they said that unpaid tickets never get purged no matter how much time passes.

I am totally stumped on what to do about this, and I don't have a source of income so I can't hire an attorney.  I do have a car, but I cannot get insurance or drive it without a license and I desperately need to be able to drive in order to find a decent job.  I've contacted various "Free Legal Aid" places on the web, but none of them will give me the time of day because to them "traffic tickets" are too petty to deal with.  I don't have access, nor the knowledge, to look this matter up and see if there is a law or procedure that says unpaid tickets are purged after 7 years of inactivity.  If I could just find it in writing, then I could file some kind of motion with the courts to force them to follow said law/rule and purge my tickets.  

Please help me in any way you can, or refer me to someone whom you think may be able to.

ANSWER: David,

I am not familiar with Florida law since I don't work there but how about this?  The tickets have never been adjudicated meaning that you never stood trial for them.  What about declaring that you now want to stand trial for each and every one of the tickets and see what the state does?  It would mean that they would have to put on some kind of case and trying to find the officer might be enough for them to dismiss at least some of the tickets.

Sorry but that is the only thing that comes to mind.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

Thank you for your time and efforts on my behalf.  I thought about your suggestion about trial, but FL law states that if you don't contest the ticket within 30 then it's an automatic admission of guilt and you're stuck with it.  So that wouldn't work.

I've found Administrative Codes in other States which state that after a certain period of years, old unpaid tickets can be purged from your license, but I don't know how to look that up for FL.  I've tried Google, Ask, law sites, and everywhere, but I don't know how to look it up.  I'm not an attorney, so I don't have access to the Lexis/Nexis thing, so I'm stumped.  Do you think you could point me in the right direction?

[Gurion]

I really have never heard of tickets being purged.  In my state that doesn't happen and I guess that the reason is that someone could get a ticket while passing through, ignore it, and then have it wiped out in a few years.

I am afraid that I can't be of any more assistance.