Q: I cant find parking tickets from 17 years ago. What can I do to find out about parking tickets that old?
my license was suspended and I just got it back after paying the moving violations, now im trying to find out about parking tickets, but cant seem to find anything. I don't know what I can do. I called springfield, il and all they told me about were the moving violations, nothing parking ticket wise.
A:
Hello Asker,
Unfortunately, tracking parking tickets can be a rather difficult task. The good news is that you can narrow it down based upon where you most commonly got them and who is currently holding the debt. In terms of parking violations, they are often adjudicated by the municipalities independently. This means that they are private matters held by each municipality. That is the hard part. Since they are private, they don't report to the secretary of state except in one circumstance; if you have 10 or more unpaid parking tickets, they can request the secretary of state suspend your license. This means that the secretary of state can, at a minimum, tell you how many municipalities have 10 or more tickets and may even be able to identify those municipalities if you are lucky.
Using this method, you can find which cities you have parking tickets from based upon where you most commonly got them. The second method to find out is to track the debt holder. Few city government's personally pursue the debt and often employ a debt collector. Harris and Harris, Law Offices of Arnold Scott Harris, and Blitt & Gaines are among some of the big names in this business. If you contact them, they can inform you of any debts they hold in your name. They will also likely be able to give you a list of companies that hold debts like their own.
Honestly, I feel the second method is the easiest as there are FAR fewer debt collection agencies than there are municipalities issuing parking tickets.
Hope that helps and let us know if you have any additional questions!
Sincerely,
Jason A. Wilkins
Traffic Attorney
(630) 445-2293
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