Talisca

Hey guys.


I’m writing from Denmark. I was in USA, California, on vacation couple of time ago, and unfortunately i got pulled over by a police officer. He told me that i was driving to fast, but that its a judge who decides, who gets a fine for traffic violating (in Denmark its the police who decides it and you get a fine at the moment) A couple a weeks after that, I received the fine in Denmark, but stupid as I was, I didn't pay it.

My question is - What will happen if I return to USA? Im planning to take a couple of weeks in New York, Vegas and Miami (but not in California) Would I be arrested or so, or would it be possible for me to pay the ticket if I got pulled over or something?

Best regards.

Bo.

Newbie2FT

You should start by reading through this thread on this topic entirely:

Travelling to the US to Settle Arrest Warrants

The issue is no longer the fine or being willing to pay it if you are stopped. It is your "failure to appear" in court (FTA). When you signed the ticket the police officer presented to you, you agreed to either:

1) appear in court to contest the ticket or enter a plea, on the date printed on the ticket,
2) pay the fine, or
3) attend traffic school (in person or online).

By failing to do any of those three, civil fines may have been assessed and an FTA warrant for your arrest may have been issued by the court.

Here's a general explanation from the California court system: http://www.courts.ca.gov/9540.htm

To find out if the court of the county where you received the ticket issued an FTA warrant, you can Google search for the name of the county combined with a phrase like (traffic ticket search). In many cases, county court systems are online, and after you enter your name or ticket number, you can find out the status (whether an arrest warrant has been issued). If the county court system is not online, you can call the court clerk to find out the status. (Civil and criminal case documents and status are generally a matter of public record in the US.)

As for your trip, it's quite unlikely that US Customs and Border Protection officers would arrest you for a misdemeanor or infraction warrant when you land in New York or Florida, or even in Nevada. But you may be detained by CBP, airport police, or the local police/sheriff for that locality while they review the record, wait for additional documents or try to contact the county of the warrant, and determine if you are extraditable to the county in California where the warrant was issued.

At that point, you can no longer simply pay a fine to a police officer. You should really think about hiring a lawyer in the county where you received the speeding ticket to take care of any warrant.

Incidentally, it also hurts your chances of receiving Global Entry membership in the future, should you have citizenship in a country that joins the program in the future.

lfcfan

Just go in the county's court website and pay the fine. There may be some fees, yes, but the ticket is still payable.

I'm actually surprised they even gave you a ticket on a foreign license. Normally they just utter some profanities between their teeth and tell you in a very very stern voice to slow down.

TWA884

We have a thread in the Travel Safety/Security forum specifically dealing with this topic:

garykung

No one knows for sure, as it depends on the CA county that has the case. However - it is extremely unlikely that an arrest warrant will be issued against you.

FWIW - per my observation at a CA traffic court, many CA-licensed drivers are cited for failure to appear. They don't realize the problem until the licenses can't be renewed or the DMV suspends the license (told by another officer who stopped them over again).

The easiest way to resolve this is to simply pay the fine.

TWA884

Actually, warrants are routinely issued in California when folks fail to show up in court after signing the promise to appear when the ticket is issued. However, generally speaking, California does not extradite traffic and misdemeanor offenders from other states.

[Note: I am licensed to practice law in California and have extensive criminal law experience.]

William S

You should try to get that settled before going to the United States. You will probably not be denied entry, but if that somehow has made its way into the CBP computer system you would face secondary inspection etc and maybe wait for hours until they figure out how to handle it. A traffic ticket is anyhow a minor thing, but it should be settled.

garykung

I am not trying to argue. But could this be a So. Cal thing only?

TWA884

In California, failure to appear in court after signing a promise to appear when receiving a citation for a traffic violation is punishable as a misdemeanor even if the original charge was an infraction (Vehicle Code Sections 40500 - 40522).

I am based in Los Angeles County; however, over the years, I have had clients in custody with holds for traffic warrants issued by other counties, including in some Northern California (there is a regular statewide system for transporting inmates between counties and between counties and state prisons, so there are no extraordinary expenses as there are when extraditing from other states, which generally involve paying for airfares, lodging and meals for at least two law enforcement officers).

garykung

Were those only involving FTA with routine traffic infraction offenses?

IIRC - traffic courts work differently between North and South. While I understand FTA can be charged as either misdemeanor or infraction, most counties in the Bay Area (Nor. Cal.) only proceed FTA as infraction, i.e. no bench warrant. Also, regardless truth or not, many charged with FTA in the Bay Area actually claimed the DMV suspension as the reason why they returned to the court.

TWA884

Yes, those were for failure to appear on citations for violating Vehicle Code Sections that are punishable only as infraction. When I was in court on Friday, I saw at least two individuals in custody charged with nothing but failure to appear after signing promises to appear in court after being cited for infractions. Both pleaded guilty to reduced charges of FTA as infractions and received suspended fines in consideration for having spent at least overnight in custody.

In addition, I regularly see people coming to court to clear up FTA's that resulted in the suspensions of their driving privileges.

lfcfan

I wonder if OP paid the ticket...