traffic court

as most of you know, i got a ticket not too long ago. my court date was set for april 1, which is a thursday.

well, i have class on thursday. so i called and was going to try to get a different court date. i thought the process for changing court dates was going to be difficult, but it really wasn't. i just called and they gave me a list of dates that i could come. only thing was, they're all on tuesdays and thursdays, which are the days i have class. and they're all at 9. so i'd have to miss class.

lucky for me, i was on spring break when i called. so i went last tuesday during my break. when i got there, the court room wasn't very crowded. but as it got closer to 9, it got more and more packed.

the judge came in and told us everything. the rules, what we were supposed to do, all that fun stuff. he said that if any cell phone went off, he would have one of the officers in the courtroom come get it and we'd have to pay $10 to get it back at the end. so, i just took the battery out of my phone. i knew it would be my luck for my alarm to go off or something.

once your name was called, you went up to the judge and he asked how do you plead. then you would answer either guilty, not guilty, or no contest. most people just plead guilty, but there were a few that plead not guilty or no contest. if you plead not guilty, you had to come back for another trial and plead your case. if you said no contest, you weren't saying you're guilty, but you don't have to come back to court (but you still have to pay the court costs and stuff).

it was pretty funny listening to people try to make up excuses and say oh, i'm such a good driver. i know i wasn't speeding. or i had to run the red light. i was going to get hit! now, that last excuse is kind of believable. but i'm sure the judge hears that 10 million times a day, so it's kind of hard to believe everyone.

honestly, i think it's probably more trouble trying to get out of the ticket than just paying the fees. i'm sure some of the people want to keep it from going on their record, and that's the only way to keep that from happening. but i really don't think many people win those cases. who knows. i may be wrong!!

you remember how i said the room ended up being packed? well, i was the last person called up. i guess it was kind of my fault though. i didn't think about it before court started, but they didn't know when i was coming that day. after court had started, i realized that i was probably going to be last because they didn't have the copy of my ticket so i could be called up. so, i waited. there really wasn't much i could do, though. but it really wasn't that long. i survived!!

i got off with 60 days probation. i just can't get another ticket for the next 60 days, and it won't go on my record.

oh, and funny little story. my aunt used to babysit the judge's kids. small world, huh?