So I have a court apperance next Wensday

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

A month back I was going to ride the train back to my town. Normally I'd just walk because its only 20 minutes away but that day I decided to take the light rail because it was raining outside and I was carrying alot of stuff. So I went on my local light rail to go to the train and when I tried to buy a ticket for the light rail I couldn't get my debt card to work, turns out I was using the wrong pin number. My actual train was leaving in 20 minutes and the light rail only comes by in intervals of 15-30 minutes so when it came I picked up a ticket off the ground and went on.

When I arrived at the station a police officer saw my ticket and noticed it had expired and gave me a ticket charging me 74 dollars, for not paying 1.5$. Eh, the cop was polite enough so what ever. It was due on either the 20th or the 26th, the guys handwriting was pretty bad so I went to the city hall on the 19th just because I didn't want to risk it. When I got there I waited in line and got to overhear the conversation of 3 other guys who had some experience on the streets and were complaining about their experiences with the law and at that time I felt slightly sympathetic but I knew their experiences with the law were completely different from mine so I didn't know whether to believe them or not. Then when it was my turn I gave the woman behind the desk my ticket and paid her the 74 dollar fine and she told me the ticket wasn't in the system and that I'd have to go upstairs to get that fixed. Admittedly there was a part of me that suspected the whole thing would blow away but I didn't want to risk it. Unfortunately now that I was there it's not like I could simply take it back. So I went upstairs to try to pay the ticket and the lady behind that desk told me they'd mail me a court notice with some information so I could pay and if I paid before the 30th of march I wouldn't have to go to court.

So I got the notice, mailed them a check about a week ago..........and got my check mailed back to me. There was 5 little bubbles with possible explanations for why it might have gotten mailed back to me, I don't remember them all off the top of my head but the one that was checked off said "other" and listed a court date for March 11th. Geeze how helpful, that sure cleared that up.

I called the city hall and when I told the person on the otherside of the line that I had paid my due before the required date they told me to "tell that to the judge" and hung up. Again the lovely Newark law enforcement community being helpful and concerned as always.

So I'm going to have to go to court on the 11th..... for paying my ticket. Apparently this is a criminal act in the parallel universe in which the Newark criminal justice system exists in

[motion denied]

that's why weber was some sort of a cool fellow

[Decolonize The Left]

By chance do you have all the documentation: the original ticket issued by the cop, the court notice, the original check, and the returned check with the 'other' paper?

[The Feral Underclass]

Kafkaesque -- you just keep paying the fine over and over again but it never goes away.

That is just some crazy bullshit. Will you have to pay extra cost for going to court?

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

By chance do you have all the documentation: the original ticket issued by the cop, the court notice, the original check, and the returned check with the 'other' paper?

I have all the documents and I have every intention of presenting them to the judge


Kafkaesque -- you just keep paying the fine over and over again but it never goes away.

That is just some crazy bullshit. Will you have to pay extra cost for going to court?

That's what I'm afraid of. I'm not sure if I will have to pay extra for going to court since I didn't pay it late, but I'm afraid they might charge me with some arbitrary bullshit because they can. I know it might seem a bit unwarranted but to be honest at this point it doesn't seem beneath them.

[Tenka]

Feels conspiratorial. I think I'd have a mental breakdown in your situation, as I may have almost had when I was called for jury duty (fortunately got out of that...).

Good luck explaining to the court how the justice system's utter incompetence brought you there. :(

[Decolonize The Left]

I have all the documents and I have every intention of presenting them to the judge.

You'll be fine. Dress appropriately, look clean cut, keep your files in a folder or manila envelope and simply explain what happened and present the documents as you go through your story. If you have all the stuff then your check should be postmarked, etc... so you have proof that you followed the law. Be polite and respectful, refer to the judge as 'your honor', address the cop as 'officer' or 'officer [their name]'. Do not get aggressive or loud and be patient. You are in the right and you have proof - you have nothing to worry about. Just be sure you are polite and respectful and everything should be fine.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

You'll be fine. Dress appropriately, look clean cut, keep your files in a folder or manila envelope and simply explain what happened and present the documents as you go through your story. If you have all the stuff then your check should be postmarked, etc... so you have proof that you followed the law. Be polite and respectful, refer to the judge as 'your honor', address the cop as 'officer' or 'officer [their name]'. Do not get aggressive or loud and be patient. You are in the right and you have proof - you have nothing to worry about. Just be sure you are polite and respectful and everything should be fine.

Yea you're right, I mean the worse possible thing that could happen is that they do accuse me of..... I don't know being too competent, I could probably take it to a higher appeal court and the case would be blown out of the water. Of course to be honest if the fine isn't that bad I might not bother, I'd only really do it if it's anything around 500 because I'm not paying that money for literally doing nothing

[Decolonize The Left]

Yea you're right, I mean the worse possible thing that could happen is that they do accuse me of..... I don't know being too competent, I could probably take it to a higher appeal court and the case would be blown out of the water. Of course to be honest if the fine isn't that bad I might not bother, I'd only really do it if it's anything around 500 because I'm not paying that money for literally doing nothing

You're not going to be fined again. You will probably still have to pay the original ticket amount but you won't be fined again.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

You're not going to be fined again. You will probably still have to pay the original ticket amount but you won't be fined again.

I can life with that

[Os Cangaceiros]

That story of criminality was not exciting enough for my tastes. Would've been better if you, like, pistol whipped somebody and outran a vicious K9 dog.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

That story of criminality was not exciting enough for my tastes. Would've been better if you, like, pistol whipped somebody and outran a vicious K9 dog.

Maybe next time, maybe next time

[SHORAS]

Troll the fuck out of them with common law and "freeman on the land" bullshit.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Shit, law and order at it's best, eh? :unsure:

Reading that I immediately thought of two movies - Brazil with the all-powerful
bureaucracy and reams of paperwork and Gridlock'd with Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur going from office to office across the city trying to get into any rehab programme.