It's been a long time since I was issued a traffic ticket. A very long time, probably 20 years or so. I recently earned the honorable distinction of having one of these slap on the hand reprimands delivered to me by the boys in blue and after making 2 visits to traffic court to plead guilty and take my chances at getting the fine reduced, I am convinced that the process is a built in deterrent, an integral part of the efforts to minimize poor driving judgment, inclusive as punishment for having broken the law.
On the first court date after waiting an hour, I was told my case wasn't on the roster (an oversight), which I knew from reading the roster posted on the wall and questioned upon arrival, so my court date was rescheduled.
The second appearance I sat for almost 5 hours waiting for my name to be called only to have the judge state that he could not try my case because the prosecutor had left for the day and he as the judge was not empowered to impose the agreement previously discussed between the prosecutor and myself without the prosecutor present. He was apologetic as he instructed the clerk to reschedule my appearance for yet a 3rd court date. I made a comment about how this process is the real deterrent to speeding (yes I know, that mouth again). He laughed, remarked that I had a good attitude and encouraged me to wave at him when I arrive for court on my new date so he could see me and expedite my getting to the podium (hope he isn't going to throw me under the bus). He went on to say that if I wore the same earrings he would be sure to remember me. I don't know if that's a good thing.
Why 5 hours? Because municipal court has a specific order in which cases are to be heard. There is a hierarchy of sorts and some of the cases which enjoy a priority over vanilla types of cases like mine are somewhat surprising.
Repeat offenders and "The Usual Suspects" all take priority over a case like mine. And oh wait a minute, if one of the defendants in a case is called and doesn't appear, the judge instructs the clerk and the court moves on to the next case, however, if the defendant from the prior case appears, once the judge has ruled on the case in progress, that prior case now gets their turn. There's no go to the end of the line and wait for a new turn, the court just fits them back into the lineup. This happened several times.
Municipal court is like an all you can eat buffet combined with an old fashioned Chinese food menu, you know, one from column A and two from column B.
1st up - Defendants with attorneys present get processed first. Judging by the unsolicited marketing letters I received from numerous attorneys after my ticket hit the system, my guess is they pay a lawyer between $250 and $500 an hour to speak for them, the fines get reduced and the offense is re-categorized to a lower level. In some cases depending on the circumstances I guess an attorney can make certain things disappear. Ok, I don't have a problem with that but this option didn't necessarily seem to be the smartest move financially in my case. After all as I found out, my options without an attorney were just as good if not better considering I did not have the additional responsibility of paying lawyers fees. The deal I struck with the prosecutor was satisfactory to me. He even advised me to go out into the hallway and call my insurance company for further guidance on how the charges were going to affect my standing before I accepted the deal.
2nd - The Public Defender gets to drag in any open cases for which he can produce a warm body; dozens of cases for various offenses.
3rd - County Jail inmates (I think it was the county jail, I did not verify, does it matter? Hey they were in orange jumpsuits) who are currently residents of our penal system and have a municipal court date are now able via
webcam technology to have their day in court. One by one they enter a designated booth at the jail and respond to the charges via camera and microphone. Tick tock, tick tock, not loving technology this day.
4th and last - Traffic Violation cases are called. Interesting, these are typically the quickest and easiest cases to process.
Here's hoping my case gets heard on my new date and that by signaling the judge with the requested hand wave and wearing the suggested earrings, my future won't include having to wear one of those jumpsuits..........even if it is my favorite color.
