Legal Question in Traffic Law in Louisiana

There is a prescriptive period ("statute of limitations") on how long the government has to charge you, yes. However, that does not apply once prosecution has been started. In other words, if the state set an arraignment for your ticket (that was the court date they gave you on the ticket), they started prosecution within the prescriptive period. If you failed to appear, a warrant was issued for your arrest and can stay there essentially indefinitely.

You should also know that the type of warrant issued on "failure to appear" attachments is called a "bench warrant". It means that you must be brought before the court that issued the warrant and you cannot be bailed out by any other Judge or magistrate. That often means that, if you are arrested, you may sit in jail for several days and not be able to bail out.

The thing to do with old tickets and warrants on old tickets is to go into the traffic court voluntarily. They will assess a fine for failing to appear (contempt of court), but they will recall the warrant and you can even still fight the underlying charge. THEY WILL NOT ARREST YOU IF YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY GO IN VOLUNTARILY AND TAKE CARE OF THE ATTACHMENT (WARRANT).

I would strongly recommend hiring an attorney who regularly handles traffic court matters in the town that you are charged in. Most attorneys can handle the matter for you without your even having to go to court with them and they can probably save you more money than their fee costs on top of that.

I handle traffic court matters in the New Orleans area. You can call me if you are charged in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, etc. If you were charged elsewhere, I am certain you can find another qualified attorney on this site to help you where you were charged.