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Received summons.....

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  • 24-08-2012 11:11pm
    #1
    rainbowdrop
    Registered Users Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭


    Hi guys,

    Hopefully I am posting in the right place with regards this. I am just looking for a bit of advice with about this matter.

    I got a phone call from my mother this evening to tell me that there was a letter waiting at her house for me. She arrived home earlier today to find a plain brown envelope had been dropped on the doormat, handwritten with my name and my parents address (I left home approx 10 years ago).

    I was puzzled as to who this could be from, so I called to her house to collect the letter, and it turned out to be a summons for 'valid NCT disc not displayed'. Now, I was stopped without an NCT disc at the end of March. It had ran out at the end of February, so was 4 weeks out of date (I booked the NCT 2 weeks after being stopped, and car was NCT'ed in mid-May, which was the earliest I could get an appointment.

    The summons I received today for the offence has a 'summons date' 18th June 2012, and a court appearance for next Friday (7th Sept). Where has this summons been for the past 2 months??

    My question really is: Is this summons legally binding? As far as I am aware, a summons has to be handed to you. This summons was posted into an address that I haven't lived at in a decade, it's 2 month old, with a court date in a weeks time. I admit I was wrong and did drive with no NCT, but I got it sorted at the earliest opportunity after getting stopped. Aside from all this, I won't be able to make it to court next Friday anyway as I will be on holiday (and even if I was not on holiday, I would not have been able to get time off work with that short notice).

    I'm just wondering what will happen if I don't turn up? Thinking of calling into the local garda station and explaining that I won't be in court, but they seem to have fcuked up the summons side of things, so want to know the legal requirements for this procedure before I go into them, and if there is anyway of this being dropped.....


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    #2
    Procrastastudy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,224 ✭✭✭Procrastastudy


    rainbowdrop wrote: »
    Hi guys,

    Hopefully I am posting in the right place with regards this. I am just looking for a bit of advice with about this matter.

    I got a phone call from my mother this evening to tell me that there was a letter waiting at her house for me. She arrived home earlier today to find a plain brown envelope had been dropped on the doormat, handwritten with my name and my parents address (I left home approx 10 years ago).

    I was puzzled as to who this could be from, so I called to her house to collect the letter, and it turned out to be a summons for 'valid NCT disc not displayed'. Now, I was stopped without an NCT disc at the end of March. It had ran out at the end of February, so was 4 weeks out of date (I booked the NCT 2 weeks after being stopped, and car was NCT'ed in mid-May, which was the earliest I could get an appointment.

    The summons I received today for the offence has a 'summons date' 18th June 2012, and a court appearance for next Friday (7th Sept). Where has this summons been for the past 2 months??

    My question really is: Is this summons legally binding? As far as I am aware, a summons has to be handed to you. This summons was posted into an address that I haven't lived at in a decade, it's 2 month old, with a court date in a weeks time. I admit I was wrong and did drive with no NCT, but I got it sorted at the earliest opportunity after getting stopped. Aside from all this, I won't be able to make it to court next Friday anyway as I will be on holiday (and even if I was not on holiday, I would not have been able to get time off work with that short notice).

    I'm just wondering what will happen if I don't turn up? Thinking of calling into the local garda station and explaining that I won't be in court, but they seem to have fcuked up the summons side of things, so want to know the legal requirements for this procedure before I go into them, and if there is anyway of this being dropped.....

    On top of not reading the charter it seems the search function has also caused you an issue. May I suggest that you use it and treat the information found with the due weight of legal advice off of the internet.

    EDIT: Google FLAC if you are unable to afford a solicitor.


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    #3
    ResearchWill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,111 ✭✭✭ResearchWill


    Not serving a summons for 2 months is not a defect. Other than that get legal advice, turn up or don't turn up, your choice. But as an aside not a good idea to tell AGS that you are going to ignore a summons to turn up in Court.


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    #4
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,387 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Your car is registered to an address that you haven't lived in for 10 years, is that so that you can use a rural/small town address to get a lower insurance premium despite the fact that you now live in a city?

    If that is the case and you're involved in an accident, the insurance company will be will within their rights to revoke your policy.


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    #5
    Marcusm
    Registered Users Posts: 10,240 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    coylemj wrote: »
    Your car is registered to an address that you haven't lived in for 10 years, is that so that you can use a rural/small town address to get a lower insurance premium despite the fact that you now live in a city?

    If that is the case and you're involved in an accident, the insurance company will be well within their rights to revoke your policy. seek to cancel your policy from that date and recover from you any sums they are required to pay out to third parties.

    Fixed your post (for clarity).


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    #6
    keano007
    Registered Users Posts: 293 ✭✭keano007


    Summons isn't invalid. The months gap is from the date the summons was applied for by the Garda to the date you were served it. Once the summons was applied for within 6 months it's valid.

    As regards the address, you either gave that address to the guard when stopped or I expect you have that address on your licence and failed to tell the guard when he stopped you.

    The summons doesn't have to be handed to you personally. Service to your family members is fine, after all you did receive it or else you wouldn't be here talking about it.

    Face up to it, it's not the crime of the century. If you have the car NCT'd now bring thr cert to court with you and it will stand to you if not get you off altogether.

    If you can't attend send a friend, family member or solicitor and ask them to seek an adjournment for you. If going down that route inform the guard on the summons.


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    #7
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    If I were you I would get in touch with the Garda named and show him your NCT cert.


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    #8
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,387 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Marcusm wrote: »
    Fixed your post (for clarity).

    Thanks but on a purely technical boards note, it isn't in order to rewrite my post and then put in a quote box as if I had written it the way you think it should have been written.

    I accept the correction, just not the way you presented it.


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    #9
    angeline
    Registered Users Posts: 904 ✭✭✭angeline


    The summons has not been messed up. The date of issue of the summons by the court and the date of delivery to you is irrelevant. Once the summons is in an enevelope addressed to you giving you 7 days nortice of the court appearance is all that matters. If you do not turn up to court you will be simply convicted in your absence and given a fine.


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    #10
    rainbowdrop
    Registered Users Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭rainbowdrop


    coylemj wrote: »
    Your car is registered to an address that you haven't lived in for 10 years, is that so that you can use a rural/small town address to get a lower insurance premium despite the fact that you now live in a city?

    If that is the case and you're involved in an accident, the insurance company will be will within their rights to revoke your policy.

    Wrong! My car is registered at my OWN address, and always has been. I live in the same rural town as my parents. That's why I was puzzled about the summons being delivered to my parents house. The day I got stopped, I showed my driving license to the Guard at the side of the road, which had MY address on it.

    I also produced my documents at the local station a few days later, and these are all also in my name with my address on them. It is a small town though, so it wouldn't take much for the Guard to find out who my parents are and where they live. Why not drop it in my letterbox though, he had my address?
    keano007 wrote: »

    The summons doesn't have to be handed to you personally. Service to your family members is fine, after all you did receive it or else you wouldn't be here talking about it.

    If you can't attend send a friend, family member or solicitor and ask them to seek an adjournment for you. If going down that route inform the guard on the summons.


    The summons wasn't handed to anyone though? It was put through my parent's letterbox when they were not there, in a plain brown envelope that had no stamp or anything on it. Lucky it was posted yesterday, as they set off on a 2 weeks holiday this morning, so if it had been posted today, I wouldn't have even known about it until they returned, a week AFTER the court date.

    I'm heading away myself next Thursday, so definitely won't be able to make the court date on Friday. Just under a weeks notice is not enough time for me to make alternative arrangements.
    MagicSean wrote: »
    If I were you I would get in touch with the Garda named and show him your NCT cert.

    Think this is what I will do. I will try to get in contact with the Guard and explain the situation. I'll show him my NCT disc, and an email as proof that I booked the NCT 2 weeks after he stopped me.

    Thanks everyone for your help!


This discussion has been closed.
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