Traffic Citation Help

#1
kiddiedoc

kiddiedoc

Renaissance Man
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#1
I'm trying to help a friend here (seriously).

So, she was pulled over on I-40 between Jackson and Nashville in a rental car while caring for her ailing father. She then left the ticket in the car when she returned it to the rental company. Now, the ticket is going to go unpaid and affect her record/license.

She called the THP, who told her they turn tickets over to the local county for handling. However, she doesn't know which county she was in and has not been able to locate it by calling around.

Does anyone have any idea how to lookup a ticket in the state (or have a contact with the ability to do so)?
 
#2
#2
I’m not sure if such a database exists in Tennessee, but in Kentucky there’s a system called “CourtNet” that can be researched for such info. The problem is, though, the information is confidential and not accessible to the general public. My thought is, once the Court Clerk (or TN equivalent) received the ticket, they would input it into the database. Once in the database, any Court Clerk would be able to find the pending charge based solely by your friends name and indentifying info. So, depending on the time frame, your friend should be able to go to her local Court Clerk and ask them to research her, specifically, and find the ticket. Again, I don’t know if the process is similar in TN as in KY, but it may be worth a try.

Also, in KY offenders are given generally 30 days to pay a ticket before the initial court date. That’s something your friend should be considerate of when searching for her ticket. Don’t wait too long or the court could issue a bench warrant and/or suspend her license.

Hope this helps. Merry Christmas!
 
#3
#3
Based on the location, she might want to call the THP District #3 and District #8 office. They should be able to track it with the date that she received the ticket. Unless things have changed, a copy of each ticket was kept in the district office and one copy was filed with the county court clerks office.


District #3 phone number is (615) 741-3181
District #8 phone number is (731) 423-6635
 
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#4
#4
How many counties does 40 run through between Jackson and Nashville?
 
#5
#5
Jim said:
How many counties does 40 run through between Jackson and Nashville?
Click to expand...

If I had to guess, it was probably around Dickson. The cops circle that stretch of highway looking for drugs going eastbound and cash going westbound.
 
#6
#6
From west to east if she drove down I40:
Jackson
Madison
Henderson
Carroll
Decatur
Benton
Humphreys
Hickman
Dickson
Williamson
Cheatham
Davidson
 
#7
#7
Rasputin_Vol said:
If I had to guess, it was probably around Dickson. The cops circle that stretch of highway looking for drugs going eastbound and cash going westbound.
Click to expand...

My guess was Dickson as well. They are always sitting at the 840 split
 
#8
#8
The rental company might have a record of it, since the plates on the car were theirs --
 
#12
#12
MadisonvilleVol said:
Based on the location, she might want to call the THP District #3 and District #8 office. They should be able to track it with the date that she received the ticket. Unless things have changed, a copy of each ticket was kept in the district office and one copy was filed with the county court clerks office.


District #3 phone number is (615) 741-3181
District #8 phone number is (731) 423-6635
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll pass this along
 
#13
#13
Coug said:
From west to east if she drove down I40:
Jackson
Madison
Henderson
Carroll
Decatur
Benton
Humphreys
Hickman
Dickson
Williamson
Cheatham
Davidson
Click to expand...
Between Benton and Humphreys County is the river. I wonder if she can remember what side of the river she was on...
 
#14
#14
Just go to your local police department and have your drivers license run and it will pop but he recently got a ticket in the jurisdiction contact them
 
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#20
#20
kiddiedoc said:
I'm trying to help a friend here (seriously).

So, she was pulled over on I-40 between Jackson and Nashville in a rental car while caring for her ailing father. She then left the ticket in the car when she returned it to the rental company. Now, the ticket is going to go unpaid and affect her record/license.

She called the THP, who told her they turn tickets over to the local county for handling. However, she doesn't know which county she was in and has not been able to locate it by calling around.

Does anyone have any idea how to lookup a ticket in the state (or have a contact with the ability to do so)?
Click to expand...

Not sure if I can be of any help, but I'll try...

So it sounds like THP does business like GSP does, which is when a trooper writes a citation, it gets filed with the county (state court) in which the citation was written. Since she doesn't have the citation # or (I'm assuming) the trooper's name / badge #, now we got do it the hard way.

The advice posted above on the THP District Office sounds like a good starting point, but you'll need to get lucky with a helpful clerk / radio operator in those offices. Good luck.

Failing that, the only solid option is to go county by county along the driven route; call the county office that handles traffic citations; and have them run her name to see if they have the citation. I can't think of a better way to do it.

But in any event, she needs to get serious about tracking the citation down, and either paying it or getting a new court date. A Failure to Appear will likely result in automatic suspension of her TN license, or whatever state her license is in if she lives in a state that participates in what's called the "Non-resident Violator Compact". And a subsequent stop with a suspended DL is an automatic arrest in most NRVC states.

I don't know anyone who might could help up there, or I would be happy to make a call to see if there's a way to track the citation down. But the Clerk of State/ Magistrate Court in any given county should be able to run her name through their system to see if there's been any "interaction" in their county. If she's getting blown off, she needs to start calling the Clerk of Superior Court in each county to see if that might help.

Last resort: send an email to THP Headquarters, with a detailed account of when and roughly where it happened, and an explanation as to why she needs divine intervention. Sometimes getting the Colonel involved gets things moving.

Good Luck.
 
#21
#21
Biopsyman said:
Just go to your local police department and have your drivers license run and it will pop but he recently got a ticket in the jurisdiction contact them
Click to expand...

Generally, the citation will not appear on the DH until after the court date, and then only after the originating agency sends the final disposition to the state DMV. That might be too late in this case, to avoid a suspended DL.
 
#23
#23
Here is the simplest thing to do as this is what happened to me.......I was given a speeding ticket in Virginia and within a week several attorneys from the county the ticket was written sent letters wanting me to hire them (attorney) to fight the ticket. I would recommend waiting a few days for the attorneys to make contact.
 
#24
#24
Roustabout said:
THP are notorious for not showing up to court. Local DAs can't stand them.
Click to expand...

After giving it some more thought, there has got to be a TN LEO on VolNation. Don't know how you'd find them, but GrandVol knows who most of us are. They would know more about it than I would; all I know is how things work in GA, and with the NRVC.

Facebook maybe? Freak? Granted, this is not a life or death situation, but a suspended DL for FTA is tough and expensive to recover from, and the insurance carriers love it, as it gives them an excuse to jack your rates.

Again, good luck.
 
#25
#25
MR_VOL said:
Here is the simplest thing to do as this is what happened to me.......I was given a speeding ticket in Virginia and within a week several attorneys from the county the ticket was written sent letters wanting me to hire them (attorney) to fight the ticket. I would recommend waiting a few days for the attorneys to make contact.
Click to expand...

That's an ambulance chaser tactic. Some places do it (Jacksonville, FL for instance), and some don't. It's usually the refuge of a hungry, or not very good, attorney. They pull the dockets for pending court dates, and reach out to people who have yet to adjudicate their case. Popular move for pending DUI's and other serious traffic offenses (chargeable accidents, etc). I wouldn't count on it in this case.
 
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