Early Court Observations

Given that I couldn't get clarity about the 26mph notation and the price of this ticket seemed too high for the infraction, I chose to take the next step and go to court.

But I am not comfortable in courts and hospitals. So I went a few times before my date to just observe and get familiar with the various courts and watch how they were conducted.

The first court appearance I would have to make would be to enter a plea of Guilty or Not Guilty. A Not Guilty plea would get me a trial and a new court date. This first court appearance would be quick. They push a couple hundred people through in a few hours almost every weekday morning.

The second court appearance, if it happened, would be for trials. These would take a little longer but still usually no more than ten minutes per trial. If officers are to show up, they show up at this part. These happen in the afternoon most weekdays.

These court sessions are all public events and they're free to attend. (Short on funds for a movie this week?)

I watched a couple sessions of each and happened to catch sessions with different judges. I noticed that the judges varied in what reductions they gave and what hourly rate equivalencies they used for calculating community service. But at least they were consistent per day per infraction and didn't vary per characteristics per person.

As I listened, I was confused about the options available to each defendant. Implications of one sort or another were implied but the whole system of options and how they interrelated wasn't clear to me. They don't offer defendants a handy dandy chart to explain these. For example, if you choose community service, you can't go to traffic school.

Do people get so many tickets that they already know all of these options? Or are people too afraid to ask? Or do they just not care?

I was confused the whole time as I saw so many people choose their fates. Finally I asked the bailiff, where I got clear on how points and community service and paying your ticket, etc., were related.

I watched cellphone tickets go for $145. Running a stop sign at about 20mph in Half Moon Bay for one defendant was $238. Driving without a license was still not close to mine, at $320. And several who had tickets but didn't appear for their initial date accrued a Failure to Appear charge of $396. When they now appeared, it seemed like their ticket fee was dropped and they were now just on the hook for the Failure to Appear charge. I couldn't be sure but I wondered if I should have just not appeared, accrued the Failure to Appear charge, and reduced my fine at least a little that way. I bet there's a better explanation for all of this but I couldn't tell by watching.

I witnessed one trial involving a defendant and an officer where they both agreed that it was 4am in a particular industrial area in one of the towns along the peninsula. They agreed that the place was deserted, no other cars or people around. The defendant claimed they had made a complete stop. The officer claimed they didn't see the defendant's wheels come to a complete stop. The judge sided with the officer. The defendant received a $360 ticket.

A few days after observing this, I am quite sure I smelled a jaywalking ticket coming my way during a deserted morning in a town close to the one above. I didn't cross the street there and then. The cop drove off. Then I read that one writer's impression of Seattle was a town where jaywalking was judiciously ticketed to keep all jaywalking from occurring, even at 3am.

I am more alerted to possible infractions and expect to get tickets now for all sorts of benign behaviors that seemed to have gone ignored in the past. Is this the kind of world we want to live in? I sure don't. What has happened?

I never heard anyone ask about the mph notation on their red light violation camera ticket.

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