License suspension for a court date that hasn’t yet happened?! Where do I go from here
Location: New York
I’m a 21 year old female in upstate New York. I was pulled over on my way to school on Thursday the 7th for having no inspection. While running my license and registration, the officer informed me that my license was suspended.
In March, my license was suspended for failure to appear to court. I discovered that I had in fact missed a court date during the same day and time that I was at another court. My fault. I paid the fine, suspension was lifted, rescheduled the court date, appeared at court and resolved the ticket. Since early March I have received no new tickets or been pulled over. I have a ticket the is being paid with a payment plan, but other than that, I have nothing outgoing.
Assuming this was the confusion, I informed the officer that I had paid my suspension fine and that my license had been lifted of the suspension since March. That is when he informed me that my license was actually suspended for failure to appear to a court date on May 3rd, just 4 days before, which was a Sunday. Confused, I asked him if he was sure and if he would be able to let me know what court had issued my suspension, but he said he couldn’t see that information. He came back and gave me two tickets, one for driving with a suspended license, and one for driving an uninspected vehicle. Regarding the inspection, I had gone to the shop a few weeks before hand and they failed my inspection because I have a minor exhaust leak. I was instructed to drive the vehicle for a month for the code to clear and to come back to get the inspection. They handed me a paper which I kept in my windshield and gave to the officer, but he told me he has to ticket me because I am technically supposed to go to the DMV and get a temporary 10 day inspection. He was nice enough to tell me he was “leaving the scene and whatever you decide to do afterwards is none of my business”, so I drove the 5 minutes I had left to get to school.
On Thursday, after my final exam, it was 5pm. The DMV was closed and so were any of the courts. On Friday, called the DMV all day and could not get a hold of anyone or any of my voicemails answered. I went online and got a drivers abstract where I was finally able to figure out what court issued my suspension. I called them and received an automated message saying that they don’t answer to phone calls and that I have to email them. I emailed Friday and asked what the suspension on May 3rd was for, as I am not due to appear at this court until May 14th (this Thursday), and I can’t fail to appear to a court date that hasn’t happened yet. There was no answer Friday, so I followed up Monday evening. No answer Monday, so I sent an email this morning. A few minutes after, I got a call from the town I got a ticket in, but I assumed it was my doctor and they’d leave a message. I was at work and wear gloves so I couldn’t answer the phone quick. When I checked the voicemail, it was the Sherrif’s office from the town that I had gotten pulled over in on Thursday. They told me to call ASAP, so I did but had to leave a voicemail.
Then, my brother texts me that Sherrif’s are at my house looking for me. They handed my brother 2 more tickets for me, telling my brother that if anyone asks, I have to make sure I tell people that the tickets were personally delivered to me, and not to my house and another person while I wasn’t there. I don’t think that’s right? Isn’t that some form of breaking the rules?
After hours had passed and I still hadn’t heard from the court that suspended my license, I emailed them again, and so did my mom. At this time, the Sherrif’s office called back and told me that the original tickets they gave me contained a court date that was invalid, so here are 2 new tickets with valid court dates when they are holding court. They aren’t new ticket charges, still for “uninspecetd motor vehicle” and “aggravated unlicensed operator”.
After I hung up with him, I checked my email and the other court had finally emailed me back. They said “The court lifted the suspension on 3/25/26 and filed the suspension lift electronically to NY DMV. We will send it out a second time to DMV. Attached is a copy of the suspension lift”.
I called back the officer who issued me the ticket to ask him what can be done about my ticket for driving while suspended, because I was never supposed to have a suspended license. I am waiting for him to call me back because I had to leave another voicemail.
Can I get the suspension ticket thrown away?
Can I do anything about both new tickets since they weren’t delivered to me and the officer said to my brother make sure she says we delivered them?
Am I supposed to go to the DMV or the court that lifted my suspension? They said they lifted it in March and now it’s May but I was still suspended.
Where did they get May 3rd from?
Is there anything I should do before I go to this court date?