Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
17 years ago my sister used my name when she got pulled over for a traffic violation.
Now I am unable to renew my drivers license because of this. I am in California and Arizona is holding my license. What can I do?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Get your sister to admit to the truth and help you. She would have to file an affidavit in some type of proceedings with the Arizona DMV to exonerate you. You even may need to hire an attorney if DMV does not believe the evidence that it was not you, or or if your sister is not willing to cooperate. There may be other suggestions from other lawyers on here.
This doesn't have anything to do with real estate. Although a large part of your problem involves administrative law (the branch of law that has to do with bureaucracies and how to deal with them), I think the most effective approach is to hire a criminal defense lawyer. Sure, a traffic violation is super-minor (usually!) in the overall scope of criminal cases, but I think the guys that practice in this field are probably the best equipped to get the records straightened out. You should look for an attorney in the state where the problem originated, whether that be California, Arizona, or somewhere else, with the traffic violation, because regardless of where your license is issued or where it has been lifted, all these states share information and your bad rap has to be corrected at the source. By the way, if this was 17 years ago, your lawyer may be able to assert a statute of limitations on your behalf.
You'll have to go to the court that has the ticket record, and try to convince them of the ID problem. They then can correct their records and submit the correction to DOJ, and provide you with a court order to use with various agencies as needed. Declarations from your sister would certainly help, along with fingerprints and photos, etc. You really should hire a local attorney there to help.