My Comment:
My good friend Chris Jackson posted this on Facebook. I read it this morning and thought this is how such a situation should be handled.
Her Post:
I’M BEING SUED BY 46TH DISTRICT COURT: I am being sued by the 46th District Court (Southfield, MI) for a parking ticket they claim I got on June 5, 2007. Yes, 2007—nearly 20 years ago!
They are demanding $125.00. I called the court clerk yesterday, and she hit me with the classic attitude: “Just because the ticket isn’t paid doesn’t mean it goes away.”
I stood my ground and told her: “I never said it goes away. What I am saying is I have absolutely no knowledge of this ticket, and I never received anything in the mail about it.”
Here is why this whole situation is completely ridiculous:
My record is clean: I’ve had plenty of tickets since 2007, and I have paid every single last one of them. I’m not hard to find—I lived at my last address for almost 20 years before buying my current home.
They ghosted me for 14 years: The clerk admitted that the last time the court even attempted to contact me about this was back in 2012.
Nothing is on my record: I ran a name and birthdate search in the court’s official public database, and absolutely nothing came back. No active cases, no warrants, and no judgments.
The Legal Reality:Under Michigan law (MCL § 600.5813), there is a 6-year statute of limitations on civil infractions. Even if a judge had signed a “Default Judgment” against me back then, Michigan judgments expire after 10 years (MCL § 600.5809(3)) unless the court formally renews them. Since their last contact was in 2012 and my public search is completely blank, they missed their legal window to renew it by years.
They let this sit dormant for over a decade, and now they are trying to scare me into a quick payout. I am absolutely fighting this on the basis of the statute of limitations and a total lack of due process.
I WILL KEEP Y’ALL POSTED!