FARMINGTON – Three district courts in Maine failed to properly handle certain paperwork after a law change in 2005, and as a result almost 300 people are driving today with a suspended license without receiving a notice of suspension.

The problem was discovered last week in the Farmington, Skowhegan and Springvale district courts, according to Mary Ann Lynch, director of court information for the state Administrative Office of the Courts.

Those affected by the error should expect a letter explaining the situation, according to Lynch.

“We made a mistake. Here is the mistake, and if you have any questions, here is the number to your clerk,” she said, describing the attempt to direct affected drivers to their local court offices.

The clerical error affected drivers whose licenses were suspended for failure to appear in the three courts between 2005 and Oct. 1, 2010, according to court documents.

Here is what happened, as described by court officials:

Drivers failed to appear in these three courts to answer to civil or criminal traffic infractions. This failure to appear resulted in automatic license suspension, which is described as a consequence on the initial summons. The standard notice of suspension did not reach the drivers, however, because the courts failed to change their clerical practices.

The Legislature had changed the law in 2005 to require courts to send a notice of suspension directly to the drivers. This shifted the responsibility from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to the courts.

The three courts erred by continuing to send copies of the notice to the bureau.

In Farmington, a total of 108 people failed to receive notice of suspension because of the mistake, according to Lynch. Of that group, 89 drivers have since had their licenses reinstated, and 19 people are still under suspension, she said.

In Skowhegan, 549 people failed to receive notice of suspension, and 448 drivers have since had their licenses reinstated, according to Lynch, leaving 101 people still under suspension.

In the Springvale area, another 173 people — out of 912 who did not receive a notice — are still driving under suspension, according to Lynch.

Those people who had their licenses reinstated had appeared in court for various reasons and addressed the failure-to-appear issue, Lynch said.

All of the courts were notified by e-mail in 2005 of the law change, and the court office is looking into “why it was that these three courts didn’t change their procedures when all of the other courts did,” she said.

A court clerk from Springvale discovered the mistake while visiting another court, Lynch said. A survey of all of the courts found the same problem in Farmington and Skowhegan, she said.

The list of affected drivers was compiled from court records of failure-to-appear cases since 2005, according to Lynch.

After contacting the drivers still operating under suspension and looking into what caused the mistake, Lynch said the courts plan to review any other consequences to the public.

The mistake may have affected some people charged in those courts with operating after suspension, according to Dan Billings, a defense attorney at Marden, Dubord, Bernier & Stevens in Waterville.

He said a failure to receive a notice can be used as a possible defense to a charge. “Most of the people who say they didn’t get a notice, they probably did,” Billings said. “But I have dealt with cases where the notice was sent to the wrong address. That’s a defense to the charge.”

It’s still unclear if the people affected by the recent mistake will be able to ask the court to review any charges and fines.

Evert Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties and president of the Maine Prosecutors Association, said there is no order that the cases affected by the recent mistake must be dismissed.

The notice of suspension is not required to charge someone with operating after suspension, according to Fowle. The required notice is given on the traffic ticket, he said.

At the bottom of a summons, it states that failure to appear in court for a traffic violation will mean the person’s license or right to operate “shall be subject to suspension without further notice.”

But, according to Fowle, penalties are “somewhat harder” when someone is operating under suspension willfully and not unknowingly. “There is a preference for people, obviously, to have been sent a notice,” he said.

Billings, the defense attorney, said, “Often the people who are dealing with this operating after suspension, they may have paid a fine to go along with that just to get it done.”

This mistake could have influenced the decision to forgo legal representation, according to Billings, affecting people’s understanding of the situation.

“One of the most serious issues is that operating after suspension is a criminal offense,” Billings said. “People often don’t take this situation seriously, and the consequences can spin out of control.”