Location: Live in California, ticket in Arizona
16 years ago I got a speeding ticket in Arizona. I paid the ticket, went to driving school, and went about my merry life thinking this was over and that I had paid my dues. I never received any correspondence stating otherwise.
1 month ago I received an email from the California DMV stating that my license was suspended due to "failing to appear in AZ" and told me to call the Arizona DMV. I'm totally confused about what in the world they're talking about so I call them as directed.
Arizona DMV says that 16 years ago I was supposed to not only pay all the fees, but that I also needed to show up in court to get a guilty verdict. As far as I'm aware this was never explained to me, but whatever. I'm told I need to pay a $10 fee to make this go away. Fine. Take my money. I pay and think this is all over.
I just changed insurance companies and rates skyrocket. I'm super confused and my broker says that I'm no longer getting my good driver discount because my license was suspended from 2010-2026, which is insane because at no point until a month ago was I advised that my license was suspended so it most certainly wasn't suspended for 16 years. I also got a ticket in-between those dates, renewed my license several times, and moved, none of those times was I advised my license was suspended.
Is there any way I can make this suspension go away? 16 years ago I made a good faith effort to do everything I thought I was supposed to and then out of nowhere Arizona screws up my record 16 years later for a $10 fee? That seems insane to me and now I have to pay 20% more for insurance for the next 3 years because Arizona is that bad with their paperwork?
Let's say I can't make it go away entirely, does it matter or can it bite me in the butt in any way that it shows it was suspended for 16 years when it wasn't?
Edited to Add: I live in and have always lived in California and was just driving through Arizona.
I have moved, but the address that I lived at, at the time of the ticket is my parents' house so if they had sent me anything at all I would have received it.