What do I do to take care of a suspended license due to an unpaid ticket?

I got a traffic ticket 3 years ago and it went unpaid until today (Very long story, so please don't judge). During that time my license was suspended for not paying the ticket. I was just pulled over and given a ticket for driving on a suspended license. I want to have my license re-issued before my court date, so hopefully the judge will just drop the charges (or reduce them) . It had been so long since paying the ticket, it went to collections and I had to pay online to the collections agency. I didn't know this because I never got any haring phone calls. Turns out the county that issued the ticket had not updated their area codes since the early 90's and my town's area code had changed since then. I paid the $500 fine online to the collections agency, but now I am wondering how to deal with the DMV and what other fines may be involved. I'm not sure if there are steps that I need to take that are in between paying off the ticket and tackling the DMV or if I can just go straight to the DMV with proof of payment and have them lift the suspension. Anyone delt with this? i could really use some help, I've been battling the DMV and the court system for over a year about this and the DMV tells me to talk to the courthouse and the courthouse tells me to talk to the DMV and the judge will not issue any advice on how to take care of it and the cops are just plain clueless when it come to this process. Please some advice!!!!