Man, what states do you people live in?
Here's the other side of the coin, or: how government ineptitude can let you slip through the cracks.
In Florida, I got a speeding ticket. I waited to pay, in person at the courthouse, until literally the last minute of the last day I could. I paid, and they didn't tell me that I had to do anything else. I asked, and the guy shrugged and said no, I was done.
Turns out, I was supposed to take my receipt to the DMV to prove I paid (I find this to be insanely ludicrous to this day). Turns out, 2.5 years later when applying for the series 7, my brokerage calls me and tells me I have a suspended license.
They suspended my license 2.5 years earlier and I never knew. No letter. No phone call. Nothing. I lived at the same address they had mailed the damn thing to.
So I walk into a DMV and say to the woman "hey, I paid a parking ticket 2.5 years ago before it was due, and nobody told me I had to bring it here to show you."
I hand her the receipt. She nods, excuses herself, walks to the back and..... returns 3 minutes later and says I'm all set.
I then moved across country not long after, and got a speeding ticket in Georgia. One of the early counties that hump the (mostly illegal) Super Speeder law. The bitch cop claims I was caught going 89. That's 19 over, and Super Speeder is some bullshit state law that allows for massive civil (municipal) fines for people going 15+ over. I was honestly only going 81, as that's what I set cruise control to. I told her she was mistaken, but she says "your car is very unique and identifiable." (I asked her what she would call the color, and model, and she got pissy and walked off after handing me the ticket).
I would have challenged the ticket if I wouldn't have to fly across country to do it. But something occured to me. My license was suspended for 2.5 years, during which I was pulled over in Georgia twice (both times for illegal tint, both times let off). Nothing came up. Another thought occurred to me: my license was expiring 3 weeks later, and I would be getting a new license in California.
I took a risk, and did nothing. I didn't pay the ticket, or the fine. I was issued a new license in California. 2 months later, I swapped car insurance. My insurance was insanely low, and their check on my license was clean.
One month after that (3.5 months after I didn't pay the ticket, essentially), I was informed by my former housemates that a letter came in Florida saying that my license expired, and I had to pay a fine to renew it. Another letter also stated that I would have my renewed license suspended if not paying a fine for the Georgia speeding ticket.
This was 3.5 months after not paying the ticket. It is now 11 months later, and it still has not shown on my California license, or to my insurance.
Suck my dick bureaucracy.