Traffic Fine Fiasco

Art_Wolf

I am am in an annoying position right now - After receiving a fine I gave my visa details and mailed it off. Now almost a year after the offence I receive a court summons. I look over my visa statements to find I was never charged for the fine and then after contacting the An Garda Síochána they never received any correspondence from me.

Now I am booking a day off work to come up from Galway and hiring a solicitor for someones screwup or has something similar happened to someone else and how did they deal with it?

grumpytrousers

that's a pisser; you've no proof at all that you attempted to pay. I've no doubt that you did send off your details and so on, but you've not a leg to stand on.

How did you hand 'give' your visa details? Is there a phone number on the fixed penalty notice? I mean, normally when you do the credit card thing over the phone, they try and hold you on until the transaction goes 'through' so there's a record somewhere.

In terms of how you deal with it...well, the thing is that as soon as the case is called that either your solicitor or yourself explain exactly what happened. There are plenty of cases where cases get thrown out 'cos the fixed penalty notice didn't arrive; in other words there's no visible attempt by the motorist to avoid taking their medicine, and due to a screw up in the (postal) system, they never paid the fine.

Your contention that you tried to 'take your medicine' might be believed. Or it might not. You can't prove that you did try, but on the other hand, nobody can prove that you didn't. Or something....

best of luck, either way

cycleoin

Traffic fine from over a year ago? Sounds like (without giving any sort of advice and not to be construed as same) a case where raising an undue delay argument might be appropriate? In any event - if you're willing to pay the fine I don't see the problem, you wanted to pay it then, you want to pay it now.

D.C. Judges can be a bit off the wall but you might be lucky and get a reasonable one!

Art_Wolf

Cheers for the advice

On a slightly related point - the old man mentioned to me yesturday about AA doing legal representation so went to inquire.. to be informed that they had stopped that service about 20 years ago ¬_¬;;

Our man in Havana

They give legal advice to members, in that they will advise you over the phone but ultimately you will need to get your own representation.