Fuck the system or the system is fucked?
Aug. 25th, 2011 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenI have never had any interaction with the court system outside of jury duty and traffic court, but from my sample of n=2, I have decided that court is a place where the justice system fucks with you because it can.
Case in point: my trip upstate to get a plea bargain on my speeding ticket. Under pain of losing my license, death, and any other number of hyperbolic statements meant solely to spread fear, I showed up, as demanded of me, for a pre-trial conference at the court. I gather they do this so as not to waste time with real trials that will just end in pleas. That is all fine. You get a lot of noise about this conference, which is less fine, especially as the wording about how you'll be hunted down and shot like a dog (slight exaggeration there on my part, but you get the idea) if you don't show exactly at this time, is not only on the ticket, it is also mailed to you again to remind you. I got the message, and, because I was traveling somewhere I had never been (I wasn't speeding through this town, just through its part of an interstate highway), I left myself time to get lost. I got there half an hour before the mandated BE THERE OR DIE IN A FIRE appointment time.
At which point I was informed that a prosecutor would show up an hour after the appointed time to talk to people in the order in which they showed up. This was not treated as special circumstance. It was SOP to have everyone show up an hour before the prosecutor would even deign to talk to them. I get trying to schedule around a) lazy people, b) perpetually late people, c) emergencies, and d) a lot of people showing up all at once, but an hour? That's excessive. They know how many people they have and they are under no obligation to burn candles waiting on the late/lazy/etc. people. They said two. You motherfuckers aren't there at two or even two-thirty, your problem. Why should it be everyone who did show on time's problem?
And what did I get for that almost-two-hours-waiting-for-my-go time? Well, I got another hundred pages in my book. I also got slapped with $235, which counted the $150 fine for the ticket itself and $85 for the court's time. The court kept me waiting, on purpose, for an hour, and I got, at most, five minutes with a DA and less than that with the judge. Hell, I spent more time getting my receipt for paying the fine than I spent talking to the judge. As I said to several people afterward, there are high-class hookers that don't make for 5 minutes of their time. Point of fact, most lawyers don't. Sheesh.
I'm not thrilled about the $235 fine, but I really can't complain about the deal I got. I copped to 75 when I got pulled over, and I'd have even accepted 20 mph over, so long as I avoided that bullshit "driver reassesment penalty." The only way to have done better was to get it dismissed, and I'm not going to haul my ass back there to protest a ticket that they absolutely had me dead-to-rights on speeding on the off chance Officer Whoshisface wouldn't show up to Bumblefuck to testify. It's done, and I'll see about maybe taking defensive driving to knock off the points. I lucked out in that my quarterly update on my insurance arrived the mail before I left, and I checked it to see that I can get up to two sub-15 mph over speeding tickets without seeing a change in my rates. I'll double-check that against what they say my rates are as bills arrive, of course, but at least I don't have that headache.
My Dad called me to see how it went, which was sweet. He's heard precisely zip from his lawyer since retaining him. It's possible he hasn't had to go to court yet, but I know it's not going to be reduced to a parking ticket, like this guy seems to think he can manage. So when he gets a ticket for whatever, he'll have to pay the fees and what not. He'll probably hear from the lawyer then. We'll see who had the better plan when that happens.
Case in point: my trip upstate to get a plea bargain on my speeding ticket. Under pain of losing my license, death, and any other number of hyperbolic statements meant solely to spread fear, I showed up, as demanded of me, for a pre-trial conference at the court. I gather they do this so as not to waste time with real trials that will just end in pleas. That is all fine. You get a lot of noise about this conference, which is less fine, especially as the wording about how you'll be hunted down and shot like a dog (slight exaggeration there on my part, but you get the idea) if you don't show exactly at this time, is not only on the ticket, it is also mailed to you again to remind you. I got the message, and, because I was traveling somewhere I had never been (I wasn't speeding through this town, just through its part of an interstate highway), I left myself time to get lost. I got there half an hour before the mandated BE THERE OR DIE IN A FIRE appointment time.
At which point I was informed that a prosecutor would show up an hour after the appointed time to talk to people in the order in which they showed up. This was not treated as special circumstance. It was SOP to have everyone show up an hour before the prosecutor would even deign to talk to them. I get trying to schedule around a) lazy people, b) perpetually late people, c) emergencies, and d) a lot of people showing up all at once, but an hour? That's excessive. They know how many people they have and they are under no obligation to burn candles waiting on the late/lazy/etc. people. They said two. You motherfuckers aren't there at two or even two-thirty, your problem. Why should it be everyone who did show on time's problem?
And what did I get for that almost-two-hours-waiting-for-my-go time? Well, I got another hundred pages in my book. I also got slapped with $235, which counted the $150 fine for the ticket itself and $85 for the court's time. The court kept me waiting, on purpose, for an hour, and I got, at most, five minutes with a DA and less than that with the judge. Hell, I spent more time getting my receipt for paying the fine than I spent talking to the judge. As I said to several people afterward, there are high-class hookers that don't make for 5 minutes of their time. Point of fact, most lawyers don't. Sheesh.
I'm not thrilled about the $235 fine, but I really can't complain about the deal I got. I copped to 75 when I got pulled over, and I'd have even accepted 20 mph over, so long as I avoided that bullshit "driver reassesment penalty." The only way to have done better was to get it dismissed, and I'm not going to haul my ass back there to protest a ticket that they absolutely had me dead-to-rights on speeding on the off chance Officer Whoshisface wouldn't show up to Bumblefuck to testify. It's done, and I'll see about maybe taking defensive driving to knock off the points. I lucked out in that my quarterly update on my insurance arrived the mail before I left, and I checked it to see that I can get up to two sub-15 mph over speeding tickets without seeing a change in my rates. I'll double-check that against what they say my rates are as bills arrive, of course, but at least I don't have that headache.
My Dad called me to see how it went, which was sweet. He's heard precisely zip from his lawyer since retaining him. It's possible he hasn't had to go to court yet, but I know it's not going to be reduced to a parking ticket, like this guy seems to think he can manage. So when he gets a ticket for whatever, he'll have to pay the fees and what not. He'll probably hear from the lawyer then. We'll see who had the better plan when that happens.
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Date: 2011-08-26 04:01 am (UTC)no subject
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