We can forgive people for being forgetful but not the court papers. Few things are as immortal and unforgiving as legal documents. As someone rightly puts it, they can live through bankruptcy, and even after the death of a person.
Ask Garry Prentice and Noreen Frank, and they can confirm this. They are law-abiding citizens in the city of Toronto. But out of nowhere, they receive letters of suspension of their driving licenses. Caught completely off guard and clueless, they rushed to the courthouse when they found out that they had outstanding ticket fees from the 80s.
Understandably, both of them were shocked. The worst part was that they had a wait almost a week to get their licenses reinstated and Gary Prentice had to pay $275 as well.
They had both lost a week of work, which added to their loss. However, both Prentice and Frank are both reluctant to fight for the ticket. Both of them live and work far from the city, and fighting for the tickets will turn out to be very expensive and time-consuming.
These are not isolated cases, and many such cases are being reported, according to paralegal Daniel Jenner.
Why the sudden crackdown on old traffic tickets?
For many years, the city of Toronto had a system where the fines went into suspension status or default. But ever since the system decided to go after unpaid traffic fees, some people are receiving suspension letters out of the blue.
It is because the majority of the address, as well as phone numbers on record against the ticket fines, are out of date. This is the main reason why they do not get any warning about the old ticket. The ticket collection agency is actively working on behalf of the city of Toronto, but it is still not sufficient apparently.