PSA: Clerical errors can seriously screw up your life. Stay vigilant!

[Pacifist Patriot]

My son rear ended another car taking a right on red the day before Thanksgiving. The car in front of us at the merge off the highway began to move forward, he looked to the left, saw no oncoming traffic, and proceeded to take the right turn before turning back to check the car had indeed pulled out and made the turn. So completely his fault. He feels dreadful because he's been driving for five years and this is the first incident or infraction he's ever had.

The Florida Highway Patrolman was amazing! Great guy. Even apologized for the other driver being a jerk. He told us he had to cite my son for something because of causing an accident (duh!), and would just write up the citation as "careless driving" because they respond to a similar accident in that location almost daily and there were no other factors involved.

I have no idea why I happened to think of this, but I went to the Clerk of Courts website this morning and looked up the citation. The clerk had entered it as "reckless driving involving alcohol or controlled substance." Holy smoke! A traffic citation became a criminal case due to human error.

I called the Clerk of Courts, politely asked them to pull the original document because I thought a data entry error had been made. After being on hold for just a couple of minutes, the woman confirmed the mistake and told me they would fix it. Within 30 minutes the search database showed the correct information. I spoke to two attorneys who both told me to continue monitoring it AND cross-check with the DMV to ensure the computer system hadn't triggered a suspension. It doesn't appear that it has, but you know I'll be on that daily for awhile.

If I had not happened to check, my son would have had a mandated court appearance, possibly not even known of it, failed to appear, and a warrant issued for a suspended license. Automatic jail time.

Both attorneys told me data entry errors get made at the court house all the time. Seems like such a minor thing, but if you ever get a traffic citation make sure you research it about a week later to make sure it is accurate in the court system!

[frazzled]

1. That is why you need to pay attention to races for Clerk of the Court

and vote. Vote for every single race in the primaries and generals, down to the most seemingly innocuous offices, and research the candidates. We have a very compromised Clerk of the Court here in Cook County, IL, which is a massive jurisdiction—with a very outdated system. Two very good, qualified Democrats were opposing her in the primaries, promising to upgrade the systems. I feared voting for the one I liked best, because I thought the two opponents would split the "anti" vote, and I wasn't sure which one had more support. Indeed, the vote got split, and the incumbent Clerk retained her office.

We had a similar incident decades ago--but it wasn't a clerical error; it was mendaciousness on the part of the cop. We were in the last weeks of living in NYC before moving to another state for graduate school and trying to tie up loose ends. My office mates had given us some dishes for our wedding, but two of them arrived broken. I called the store and they said they'd have two replacements ready and packaged on the xth floor for me to pick up. My husband drove me uptown and pulled our old beat up 1969 Saab behind a line of fancy cars that were idling. I ran up and got the dishes and ran back down: my husband had a ticket in his hand. A cop had told him to move, so mr. frazzled pointed out the other idling cars and asked what the law was. The cop responded, "I am the law," and wrote a ticket. It said "failure to comply" and had a criminal court appearance date in November (we were moving in June).

We went to a lawyer friend in our apartment building, who could not find the infraction anywhere in his law books. But he said not showing up for a criminal appearance would be super serious and a warrant would go out for arrest. He sent us to another lawyer, who also could not find the charge. So my husband spent half a day on the phone to the court, being passed from person to person, and finally someone told him, "that's a traffic violation, go to traffic court any time!" So we went that afternoon, pleaded guilty (for convenience) and paid $15.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Oh wow!

[monmouth4]

2. They pay these clerks such low pay, lucky to have someone just to type I guess..n/t

[rocktivity]

3. My driver's license was suspended due to an unpaid ticket

unpaid, that is, by the previous owner of my car. I got it straightened out and received a letter to that effect -- a letter that I kept in my glove compartment for six months!

P.S. And I recall a murder investigation that stalled for a year because the perp's home state was entered as MT when it should have been MO.


rocktivity

[brush]

4. Pls do a screen grab of the corrected entry and print it out just in case you need proof that it...

Last edited Tue Dec 5, 2017, 05:03 PM - Edit history (1)

was corrected.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. LOL! First thing I did as soon as I saw it changed.

One of the lawyers also looked it up on her end in the section accessible to lawyers and confirmed it was changed as well. I document everything!!!!

[Leith]

5. My Brain Was Jumping Ahead As I Read Your Post

I thought sure that the clerical error was that he was being ticketed for "carless driving."

It's good that it all got straightened out.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Now that would have been funny!

[Drahthaardogs]

9. I bet if you went to court on that the judge would toss it

They usually get know of pissed when big errors like that happen. O mean, of there was no breathalyzer or blood yet charging you for under the influence...