Friends,
On Dec 12, I sent a certified letter to the chief magistrate who signed the "Notice of Failure to Comply" notices I mentioned last receiving. The last line of that letter said to consider this my notice of intent to appeal if any adverse judgment is rendered against me in regards to these tickets. In SC, we have the right to appeal any magistrate's judgment to the "Court of Common Pleas" (aka "big court" as it's known locally or county court). It is the magistrate's responsibility to forward such "Notice of Intent to Appeal" plus all required relevant case paperwork to the clerk of court for the court of common pleas:
http://www.scstatehouse.net/code/t18c003.htm
This past Thur and Fri I received two separate but nearly identical notices of impending DL suspension from the SC DMV, citing my failure to pay the tickets as the reason for such. They both say my DL will be suspended effective 12:01 AM 02/04/2008 unless I pay by then. I will also have to pay an additional $100 reinstatement fee to the DMV if I do pay after that date/time.
Thus, it seems the magistrate has apparently failed to act on my Notice of Intent to Appeal, in derogation of:
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SECTION 18-3-40. Papers shall be filed with clerk of court.
Within ten days after service the magistrate shall file the notice in the office of the clerk of court, together with the record, a statement of all the proceedings in the case, and the testimony taken at the trial as provided in Section 22-3-790.
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I also note that the code Section cited on these suspension notices from the DMV are incorrect, citing 56-25-10 instead of 56-25-20:
http://www.scstatehouse.net/code/t56c025.htm
I cannot think of an intentional reason for mis-citing the applicable code.
Please advise the best course of action at this point, other than simply paying the tickets. I want to fight this but I also do not want the DL suspension, if avoidable, as that will snowball into insurance problems.