Info box: The state has a backlog of an estimated 13,000 traffic ticket appeals due to a computer glitch, causing some people to wait eight months or more for an appeal.
While the state is cracking down on suspended drivers who get behind the wheel, nobody has been given what is supposed to be an automatic license suspension for failure to pay a traffic fine since last March when the ticket bureau switched over to a new computer system.
Glitches in the new system also have caused a backlog in the courts for drivers who have appealed their tickets. An estimated 13,000 cases are backlogged and while attempts are being made to hear the oldest cases first, some people have been waiting eight months or more for their day in court.
Secretary of State Matt Dunlap confirmed the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which is under his jurisdiction, has received no suspension notices from the office that handles moving violation tickets since March. The judicial branch manages the Violations Bureau, the office that handles moving violation tickets.
“It’s 500 to 600 per week that we have not been receiving,” Dunlap said. That adds up to more than 20,000 suspensions.
News of the foul-up comes just as the state is launching a new website to give police more readily available data on repeat offenders in response to a crash that killed a Scarborough woman last summer. The truck driver involved in that crash was driving on a suspended license and had been suspended 22 times before, with 63 motor vehicle convictions on his record.
Ted Glessner, state court administrator, said programming needed to make the new computer system able to notify the Secretary of State about unpaid fines that trigger automatic suspensions could be up and running as early as this week.
That means tens of thousands of drivers who didn’t pay their fines will be getting notices this month that their licenses have been suspended.
“There isn’t going to be any grace period. They’ve already had their grace period,” Glessner said.
Once notified of the suspension, drivers will have to pay their fine and a reinstatement fee to the Secretary of State to get their licenses back. If they don’t, they will receive a summons to court and could have a warrant issued for their arrest if they don’t show up.
“When the police officer pulls you over, you’ve got some options,” Glessner said. “You’re notified at the outset – you can pay, write back and request the ability to provide additional information or, you can say, ‘I want my day in court.'”
Those who chose court, however, also have been stymied by the new computer, which was purchased off-the-shelf for $250,000 without all the necessary capabilities.
The computer couldn’t book court dates until this past fall, and that created a backlog, Glessner said.
“There are 13,000 cases that we identified as that backlog number,” Glessner said. The oldest cases did get scheduled first, but the system simply hasn’t been able to catch up, he said.
The courts are putting on a blitz this month and next to try and clear the ticket appeals. “It’s normally not the top priority,” Glessner said, “but during this time period we’ve identified this as a priority.”
“We even have members of the Supreme Court sitting on this docket to get this thing done,” he said, along with adding on days when court will be in session and using temporary judges.
The problems at the Violations Bureau started last March when the state purchased a new computer system to process the 145,000 tickets issued each year for motor vehicle moving violations. The bureau does not deal with parking tickets.
An estimated 65 percent of those who get tickets pay right away. The problem has been with those who either contest the tickets or don’t pay.
“The system wasn’t quite up to handling the entire state of Maine,” said Warren P. Armstrong, director of information technology for Maine state courts. Armstrong said the state chose the “least expensive” way and bought a system designed for a municipality or a county court system.
“There wasn’t enough space for all the data entry we had to do,” in terms of creating reports for the court to schedule appeals or notifying the Secretary of State of suspensions.
“It’s been a huge frustration for everybody involved with it,” he said, including the citizens of Maine.
“It’s been getting better and better, but it’s still not back to where we want it to be,” he said, predicting it could be summer before the computer is fully functional.
Glessner said he did not believe the court system should have spent more money at the outset to get a different system.
“We’re dealing with the taxpayers’ dollars and we have to be frugal, and I think that we were. We didn’t end up with the kinds of disasters you hear about with other computer systems,” he said “It’s getting better every day.”
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