Island Lake - dumb move

The Daily Herald reports today that the Village of Island Lake is going to send good money after bad in its efforts to collect on old Village-issued tickets. Would you believe they are going to try to collect on some tickets going back to 1991?

Anybody that pays one of those tickets when TekCollect comes calling ought to have his head examined. He should just tell them he doesn't have a clue what they are talking about. Trying to collect on a ticket that is 20 years old?

Can you imagine that laugh that a judge in McHenry County Circuit Court or in Lake County would have, if TekCollect and a Village attorney showed up to prosecute?

Any judge will laugh them right out of the court room. Maybe he'd even sanction them for wasting the court's time. If Island Lake "lost" the tickets in a bottom drawer at the police station or the Clerk's office (who were the Clerks and the Police Chiefs over that time span???) and failed to take regular collection action, then the Village has forfeited its right to collect on them. Where did they get the legal advice to commence collection activity? Or did they get any legal advice on that point?

Trying to collect on old tickets from 5-10-15-20 years ago is a dumb move. Forget it, folks!

The tickets are probably illegal, anyway, if Island Lake does not provide due process. At last check there was no administrative adjudication court, where a violator could challenge a ticket and defend himself against the charge.

Looking back, I should have thrown away a $5 "Welcome to Woodstock" overnight parking ticket that I received on my first night in Woodstock. But I rolled over and just paid it, even though there were no warning signs on the roads entering Woodstock, as the folks at the PD told me there were that February morning in 1996.