Digital Landfill

"All we want are the facts."

For those aware of your cultural history, this was, in fact, what Joe Friday ACTUALLY said. It was later modified to, "Just the facts, ma'am." For those young people who have no idea what I am talking about, or who have no idea who Joe Friday was, I plead guilty to being ancient.

I was recently asked for my advice -- document and information management advice, not driving or legal advice -- about a traffic court situation.  Per Joe Friday, what follows are the facts (and nothing but the facts), followed by my advice.

I would like to tap into the power of my network to determine whether the information management advice I gave was crazy or not.

The Facts

• The subject in question is a resident of Virginia.
• The subject was temporarily living in a neighboring state.
• The subject has a somewhat dubious record with regards to traffic-related points.
• The subject got a failure to wear a seat belt ticket (new law allowing officers to pull as a primary rather than secondary offense; now also a points violation).
• The ticket had the right name and the temporary address in neighboring state (not the permanent address back in Virginia).
• The ticket had a totally wrong drivers license number and the wrong state (not sure why the officer got that wrong; could it have been intentional and he was a nice guy and some sort of unofficial warning?)
• The ticket had the right vehicle tag number, but the wrong state (again, same question as above).
• The fine is $130, which is less than it would actually cost in gas (not to mention time) to drive back to the neighboring state and contest the ticket.

My Information Management Advice

• Why the hell weren't you wearing a seat belt? 
• The only way I can think of to track the offense and the potential points back to your driving record in Virginia is through a SSN or a driver's license number.  
• Given that the there is no SSN linked to the ticket, and the driver's license number is totally inaccurate, you are off the hook in regards to points being transferred back to Virginia. Don't risk your good luck by going back and contesting the whole thing and raising the possibility that the information will be actually corrected.
• My advice -- Just pay the fine as a testament to your stupidity and don't bother thinking about driving back there to contest it.

Your Verdict

• Is this sound advice relative to the likely information linking and records management capabilities of the various systems? 

Please feel free to post a comment.