09-07-2006, 12:18 PM
In college I was pulled over for running a yellow light in the 2 blocks between my flag football game and our apartment. I'd forgotten my wallet at home so didn't have proof of insurance or my license, I don't remember which. Anyway, I had to go to the Traffic Court in downtown Philly within 3 days to show proof of whatever I was missing. When I did that their "system" was offline so they couldn't do anything else than take a note, give me a receipt and input it later. While I was there I also decided I'd show up to court on my date to try and fight the speeding ticket.
Court date comes and I'm found guilty of the ticket in like 30 seconds. They then asked about the missing license/insurance and I told them I'd fixed that. The judge said the system didn't show that and asked what my plea was. I showed him the receipt and he said he didn't care what sort of paper I had, the system didn't show it. The court clerk asked him to look at the paper since it was legit and he refused.
I had to pay a fee to appeal the damn thing in court on another date. The prsecutor offered to let me plead to a lesser offense before the trial (to save them time) and I explained the situation. I was out of there in less than 10 minutes but I still had to take the day off and pay the appeal fee for THEIR mistake. In hindsight I would have done well to appeal the speeding ticket since they offered deals but the points never transferred to my VA license so I guess it didn't matter.
Court date comes and I'm found guilty of the ticket in like 30 seconds. They then asked about the missing license/insurance and I told them I'd fixed that. The judge said the system didn't show that and asked what my plea was. I showed him the receipt and he said he didn't care what sort of paper I had, the system didn't show it. The court clerk asked him to look at the paper since it was legit and he refused.
I had to pay a fee to appeal the damn thing in court on another date. The prsecutor offered to let me plead to a lesser offense before the trial (to save them time) and I explained the situation. I was out of there in less than 10 minutes but I still had to take the day off and pay the appeal fee for THEIR mistake. In hindsight I would have done well to appeal the speeding ticket since they offered deals but the points never transferred to my VA license so I guess it didn't matter.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth