I Missed My Court Date for my Traffic Ticket, What do I do now?
Missing a court date for a traffic ticket is a stressful experience. If your traffic ticket is serious enough, you could have an order for arrest. If left unresolved long enough, you will owe an additional $200 failure to appear fine and have your license suspended.
Don’t worry. We have experience helping people who missed court for a traffic ticket. There are steps that you need to take right now to help us get your case back on the docket and to prevent this from causing anymore trouble for you than it already has.
What Happens If You Miss Your Court Date in North Carolina?
Every case is different and generally, what happens depends on what judge the case was in front of when you missed court. If serious enough, some judges will issue a warrant for your arrest. However, this is the worst-case scenario and is typically reserved for more serious traffic tickets.
What usually happens when you miss court is the bailiff calls your name out and when no one answers, the clerk updates your case in the system as “called and failed.” This puts your traffic ticket into a “state of limbo,” where you have a 20-day grace period to get your case resolved or put back on the docket. During this time, the DMV is not notified that you missed your court date, so you are not in any sort of danger of having your license suspended.
However, if left unresolved past this 20 day grace period, the court system automatically issues a “failure to appear” to your case, which carries an additional mandatory $200 fine and the court system automatically notifies the DMV to suspend your license. The DMV at this point will mail a letter to your current address on file, telling you that you have 60 days to get your case resolved or your license will be suspended.
Every county has different policies, but with most tickets, an experienced attorney can submit a strike order for your failure to appear (with the consent of the district attorney’s office) and put your case back on the docket or even resolve it. If the order contains the right language and a judge signs it, the order will remove the failure to appear from your record and restore you to before you missed court. This also would remove the $200 failure to appear fine from your final court costs and fines.
It is important that once you know that you missed your court date, call an attorney as soon as possible so we can start taking action now to mitigate the consequences for your driving privilege and court costs/fines.
The sooner we get involved, the easier it is to get it fixed!
How to Get Your North Carolina Driver’s License Reinstated After Missing Court
After your case has been resolved and all of your money has been paid to the court, you can call the DMV 24/7 through their automated system and check the status of your license:
NCDMV: 919-715-7000
If when you check the status of your license it says “suspended,” your case has still not updated in the system. It generally takes at least 24 hours for the court system to notify the DMV that everything has been resolved. These two systems are linked in real time, but there is a bit of a delay when they communicate between each other. If it still says “suspended” days later, you must take additional action to get your license back. If you drive during this period of suspension, you could be charged with “Driving While License Revoked,” a class 3 misdemeanor.
If when you check the status of your license and it says “active,” your license has been fully restored and there is no further action required on your part. You might want to consider ordering a replacement license through the NC DMV’s app:
APPLE:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myncdmv/id1434083150
ANDROID:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilgov.nc&hl=en_US&pli=1
If when you check the status of your license and it says “eligible for reinstatement,” you must pay the reinstatement fee to the DMV in order to get your license back. Until you do this, you could be charged with “No Operators License,” which is a class 3 misdemeanor in NC.
If you need to pay your reinstatement fee to the DMV, you can either go in person to your local DMV or you can electronically pay these funds using MoneyGram. Please note, you must check with your local DMV to see what hours and locations offer walk-in appointments before going.
To electronically pay your reinstatement fee, you must first create a MoneyGram account by going here:
https://www.moneygram.com/mgo/us/en/
After creating an account, use the following information for payment:
NCDMV Biller ID#: 18857
Biller Account Number: (your NC driver’s license number without any zero’s in the beginning)
For more information, the NC DMV’s official license restoration page can be found here:
https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/license-id/license-suspension/Pages/driver-license-restoration.aspx
How SCHEURING LAW, PLLC Can Help You:
At SCHEURING LAW, PLLC, we understand you need your license for your independence and your livelihood.
Don’t Wait to Take Action.
The sooner we get to work for you, the sooner you can get your license back and move on from this!
If you’re unsure where to start or feeling overwhelmed, we offer a free consultation and will provide you with a list of items that need completed in order to get your license back.
Contact us today for a free consultation!
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The information provided herein is given for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice. Never take any action without first consulting with an attorney. Failure to do so can result in your license being suspended, your insurance rates going up, or in some cases, potentially going to jail or have a permanent conviction on your criminal record. No attorney client relationship is formed by the information being provided herein.
