Legal Question in Traffic Law in Maryland

In Arizona, common knowledge about photo enforcement tickets is: don't respond and if you don't get served, ticket unenforceable in 4 months from date of offense. There have been news teams reporting this to Arizona residents for years, and I know this to work in AZ, and I believe the same is true for CA.

I tried to apply same logic in Maryland and DC, and it worked for quite some time. Recently, however, DC applies ticket balances to credit report. Multiple instances of collection accounts (1 per ticket) of say $400, or $200. I tend to think that they need some form of admission of guilt or agreement to pay from me in order to assess against my credit report. Will disputing these charges with credit reporting agency force them to provide proof of my agreement to pay? Do these tickets ever become unenforceable in these states? If so, when? Is there another approach that will get this off credit report? Or am I screwed, and must pay? I see a lot of folks on websites tell poor folks that they must just pay. But this is not true in AZ (or CA), does anyone know specifically what the law is in DC, Maryland? (Not looking for the 'just pay the stupid fine, dude' brushoff... really looking for someone who may have successfully been down this road in these states.. or unsuccessfully,,and why..) Thx...


Asked on 7/12/10, 8:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
William Welch William L. Welch, III Attorney

This seems to be more of a consumer protection or fair credit reporting issue, because credit is personal. These tickets go against the owner of the vehicle, even if he or she were not driving.

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Answered on 7/13/10, 4:14 am


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