[CA] Received a noticed of past due court fee from 14 years ago

[Rankik]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

So I just received a letter from a law firm stating they represent the superior court of CA for Los Angeles county. They list the court with the amount due (about 700), the case number and a description that states "failure to appear". The date for this case number is from July, 2003, which would be a bit over 14 years ago. I'm trying to remember what the heck might have happened 14 years ago, it might have been a speeding ticket but I honestly can't remember, it was so long ago and I would have been 18 at the time.

I tried looking up the case number on the court county's website but none of the searches in there are able to find anything under the case number... but than again I might not be looking under the right search area (there are multiple search links, depending on the criteria).

Anyway, I'm not even sure how to handle this, and the fact that this is something was potentially over 14 years ago and suddenly showing up, I don't know how to proceed or what to do. Any advice on this would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

So I just received a letter from a law firm stating they represent the superior court of CA for Los Angeles county. They list the court with the amount due (about 700), the case number and a description that states "failure to appear". The date for this case number is from July, 2003, which would be a bit over 14 years ago. I'm trying to remember what the heck might have happened 14 years ago, it might have been a speeding ticket but I honestly can't remember, it was so long ago and I would have been 18 at the time.

I tried looking up the case number on the court county's website but none of the searches in there are able to find anything under the case number... but than again I might not be looking under the right search area (there are multiple search links, depending on the criteria).

Anyway, I'm not even sure how to handle this, and the fact that this is something was potentially over 14 years ago and suddenly showing up, I don't know how to proceed or what to do. Any advice on this would be appreciated, thank you.

About anything I have to suggest would potentially cost more than the 700.00 they are asking from you. However, I do find it weird that a law firm would be representing the county...and weird that you cannot find the case number on the places you have searched online. I also find it weird that a failure to appear would have a fine associated with it rather than a warrant to pick you up.

I would keep searching online for proof that its a real situation, but you also might want to google the law firm itself to see if they are real.

 

[FlyingRon]

What is the name of this firm?

I thought GC Services handled all the LA County stuff.

 

[Rankik]

Thank you for the suggestion of looking up the law firm. There are a mountain of negative reviews of the law firm trying to collect funds on tickets that don't even exist or are in error.

The law firm goes by Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP. With the case number that is listed on the letter, there is no record anywhere in the LA county site that I can find about a fine or violation. I also agree that is it so strange that if there was a failure to appear in court, from 14 years ago, why it went on for so long unnoticed or anything not happening. I feel like I should ignore this but at the same time, if for some reason it is something real, I wouldn't want it to get worse..... though than again, it's been 14 years (if that is even the real date shown), what more could change....

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you for the suggestion of looking up the law firm. There are a mountain of negative reviews of the law firm trying to collect funds on tickets that don't even exist or are in error.

The law firm goes by Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP. With the case number that is listed on the letter, there is no record anywhere in the LA county site that I can find about a fine or violation. I also agree that is it so strange that if there was a failure to appear in court, from 14 years ago, why it went on for so long unnoticed or anything not happening. I feel like I should ignore this but at the same time, if for some reason it is something real, I wouldn't want it to get worse..... though than again, it's been 14 years (if that is even the real date shown), what more could change....

There is another option. You can simply inform them that you have researched the matter and the case number they provided does not exist anywhere in the LA County Court system. Therefore the failure to appear does not exist, and that they should stop contacting you.