Yeah I was kind of shocked when the lawyer said yesterday I'd be on the hook for more costs. I almost assumed it'd be free or credited since it was taken care of and is probably an honest mistake.

But, I guess that proves what they say about assumptions!

Don't know how it works there. For traffic court here, NJ, I've always taken matters into my own hands. The last ticket I received was for failing to update my address. I argued to the prosecutor that the law only required me to have an address where I received mail. He only cared that I updated it by the time I made my appearance and quickly dismissed. However, the court cost was actually more than the ticket and I made a point to ask him to waive that as well, which he did.

There are other sorts of 'administrative' fees that are nearly impossible to waive. Things like license reinstatement, points surcharges, and costs from MVC (DMV) usually can't be waived by the court as it isn't the court that imposes them.

If you are hiring a lawyer to help with this, sure you will have to pay his fees, which are probably going to be several hundred dollars at least.

Did you try just going into the office of the clerk of the court with the receipt and saying "hey there's been a mistake."

The office of the clerk of court is hours away in another state. And its been the weekend so hasn't been open. Based on the traffic record I pulled on myself yesterday it shows payment never received from the court, although I have a receipt for $312 bucks paid. Maybe a simple fix but Im paying to have someone take care of it. Since I now have a court date in another city I live hours from during a work week.

You might be able to talk to them on the phone and fax them a copy of the receipt you have.

I’m just impressed you still have the receipt from six years ago. Good job!

I've had two parking tickets in my life - one a few weeks ago and one almost a decade ago - Ive still got both receipts, on the off chance something like this happens.

I assume that it's not a receipt like from a store, but a governmental "receipt" - a document proving payment of fine, which is something I'd definitely save on purpose.

(I'm not from the US, I have no idea how yours look - in Europe we have that on an A4 paper)

Did you not change your address and license when you moved states? That's typically required within 30 or 60 days, although a lot of people do ignore those laws.

Why change something. Now they get even more money. Sad but true.

sorry, I have no idea what you're trying to say.

In effect the state received an extra $250 by making this mistake, so there is little incentive for them to fix it.

fair enough. But that's a pretty adversarial way to think about the state (as an opponent of the citizen). I'd prefer to think that in most democracies, laws are usually designed or at least intended to protect citizens from abuses like that. That said, I think the U.S. has a less-than-stellar reputation for citizen-friendly laws. :(