Ok I got a quick question. Since I know a couple of you guys are like lawyers in the US, I was hoping to get an answer here rather than have to spend my non-existent free time on the phone or email to someone I don’t even know.
I got a speeding ticket in Nevada during a road trip in September. 90 in a 75 zone. Ticket amount is $195.
Now here’s the things. They misspelled my name. I no longer live at the address listed on the ticket. My driver’s license number is so poorly printed on the ticket it’s almost completely illegible, and it’s a Canadian license anyway. I don’t plan on entering Nevada again. And the next time I visit the US, I will be driving a different car with a different plate on it.
So my question is whether or not I need to actually pay the ticket. Will it affect my ability to enter the US, or will I be risking jail time or massive fines if I am caught?
At least for US citizens in New York state, if you don’t pay a ticket, a warrant can be issue for your arrest and you could get locked up overnight or something along those lines. The Nevada DMV site would probably have details on the escalation process. Also they could increase the fine substantially.
Border control / homeland security is pretty tight these days. I don’t know for sure, but you could potentially lose your right to enter the US. Or the ticket could be “lost” because of the errors and nothing will ever come of it.
I’d pay the ticket; $195 is worth the peace of mind. And you earned the fine for driving 90 MPH. In the US, don’t go more than 10 mph over and you most likely will not get a ticket. How many KM can you go over in Canada? People speed excessively on the QEW when I drive to Toronto. But I see the signs that say 40 KM over = $10,000 fine; that would suck.
Yeah, I know I was dumb to drive that much over the limit. The only excuse I have is I was driving some 2000 miles in 2 days, and I was hoping to cut down the overall travel time. Not really the best excuse.
Around here they generally let you get away with up to 10 km/h over, although some of the big highways in Toronto are special cases, if my understanding is correct.
They sent a letter to my old address saying they would put a warrant out and increase the fine if I didn’t pay it. I can’t do anything about it now as I have no money to spare, but I intend to return to the US some time late next year.