Q: If I was in court for a ticket in Jan 2018 why am I being notified to pay an outstanding balance now in July 2”21?

A: Thank you for your question. Is it possible that the notice you received was from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles and not from the court where your ticket was handled? While your question seems to indicate that you do not have any other points on your license, it may be helpful to know that in the State of New York, any driver (regardless of where they are licensed,) is subject to having to pay a Driver Responsibility Assessment (“DRA”) if they accumulate 6 or more points within an eighteen-month period. The eighteen-month period is calculated from incident date to incident date (not the date of conviction,) so if a driver has multiple convictions (resulting in points) during that time frame, and the points add up to 6 or more, DMV will impose a monetary assessment that if not paid in a timely manner, will result in the suspension of the license or privilege to operate a motor vehicle in the State of New York.

Further, it is not uncommon for NYS DMV, during routine “housekeeping,” to find that a driver should have received a DRA from old convictions and impose the assessment years later.

The easiest thing for you to do, is to contact the court and/or DMV and find out exactly what is causing you to have to pay the additional amount of money. If you were given a specific date to pay or risk suspension, you should move quickly to address this issue, so that your license and/or driving privileges are not suspended. If you are going to call NYS DMV, it would be a good idea to call them when they first open, as it is not uncommon to be on hold for quite some time.