§57.1. Failure to honor written promise to appear; penalty; disposition of fines

            A. Whenever an arrested person who was released on his written promise to appear before a magistrate at the place and time specified in a summons described in R.S. 32:391(B) fails to honor his written promise to appear, the magistrate or judge of the court exercising jurisdiction may immediately forward to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections notice of the failure to appear, with information necessary for identification of the arrested person. Thereupon, unless the original charges have been disposed of, the Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall immediately notify the arrested person by regular mail and any available electronic communication that his operator's license may be suspended if he fails to honor the written promise to appear or pay an appropriate fine for the offense within one hundred eighty days after the date the notice was received. The Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall send a second notice to the arrested person by regular mail and any available electronic communication no later than one hundred twenty days after the department receives notice from the court exercising jurisdiction of the pending suspension of the operator's license of the arrested person.

            B. Whenever the arrested person makes an appearance as required by Subsection A of this Section or pays an appropriate fine for the offense committed, as determined by the court, the prosecuting authority shall immediately notify the Department of Public Safety and Corrections thereof through the same means as the original notification of the arrested person's failure to appear. Upon such notification, and payment of one hundred dollars to the department, if the operator's license of the arrested person was suspended pursuant to Subsection A of this Section, the operator's license of the arrested person shall be released from the pending suspension, renewed, or reissued for the purpose of this Section. This fee may only be assessed once per summons as described in Subsection A of this Section. Twelve dollars and fifty cents of any fine imposed by this Section shall be paid to the court exercising jurisdiction, to be deposited in that court's criminal court fund and to be used in the same manner as the other sums deposited in the fund.

            C. If after sixty calendar days from the date of the notification issued by the Department of Public Safety and Corrections as required in Subsection A of this Section the arrested person has failed to comply, the fees provided for in this Section shall be considered final delinquent debt.

            D. The failure to appear due to incarceration shall be a valid defense for any violation of this Section, if the arrested person provides evidence of incarceration to the court pursuant to R.S. 15:714. The license shall be renewed and reissued without payment, all failure to appear payments waived, and any other flags reported to the Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall be resolved pursuant to statute.

            E. All notices from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections described in Subsections A and B of this Section shall include the following information: the summons information that the person failed to appear on; the date of the failure to appear; and the contact information and name of the court where the person needs to appear.

            Added by Acts 1978, No. 301, §2. Amended by Acts 1980, No. 779, §1; Acts 1984, No. 763, §1; Acts 1988, No. 180, §1; Acts 1995, No. 114, §1; Acts 2003, No. 966, §1; Acts 2015, No. 414, §1; Acts 2018, No. 714, §1; Acts 2022, No. 436, §1.