[ale] OT: Court tomorrow

[Mike Millson]

On Mon, 2004-11-15 at 08:57, Sergio Chaves wrote:
> I can  verify that.
> Two years ago I was on a intersection, merging to a freeway.
> The driver in front of me and myself made a complete stop waiting for
> traffic to clear so we could merge.
> The car in front of me "took off" and I followed  behind it.
> The other driver *suddenly* hit the brakes thinking she would not have 
> enough
> room/speed/etc. to complete the merge and I hit her.
> 
> ALL of that was acknowledge by the other driver and myself in court but
> it seemed that the judge did not hear a single sentence . All the Judge 
> kept
> saying was that I should have (a) waited for the other driver to complete
> the merge or (b) given more distance between the cars.
> 
> The hammer came down hard; my checking account got $150.00 poorer,
> I "earned" points on my MVR and, my insurance went up a little for
> having to pay for both car repairs. :-(
> 
> Sergio

This sort of thing used to bother me too. Then a lawyer friend of mine
explained that traffic court is not about finding out whose fault
something is or justice or anything that complex. It's a money making
operation. And when you go down there and plead innocent and try to
present your case to the judge and ask for a jury trial, you throw a big
monkey wrench into their money making operation. And they get pissed off
and you pay more for wasting their time. My advice is to just send in
your "donation" and avoid the humiliation of going to traffic court at
all cost. It's just a more elegant way of collecting money than, say,
when I was in Mexico and we were pulled over for "too many people in the
car" (4 I guess is too many) and were allowed to pay our fine on the
spot w/ a $20 bill.

Mike