The Guilty Option

My court appointment happened to fall on Halloween. Before entering the courtroom, we were told many things including no food or drink, no sunglasses and no hats.

We entered the courtroom and took our seats. Staff members entered with drinks.

We rose for the judge's entrance. She entered wearing a costume hat.

It was a bit surreal. Was I in court or a fun house? Which rules are ok to dodge and which will get me a high priced ticket? And were there some behaviors that would get me arrested in here but wouldn't have a similar result outside on the sidewalk?

Even as I sat there that morning, I wasn't sure what issues I was going to raise. I listened to others ahead of me, which they recommended. It would take less time that way. One older man seemed overly kind about his rolling stop, even placating. Was that really how he felt? Or was he just trying to get out of there without it getting worse.

No, I did not feel that way one bit. I saw many things wrong with my ticket and how no human seemed to be responsible for it. I felt penned in. I would not be able to air all 55 of my grievances here. But I was determined to air as many as I could, whether that be one or two.

In this hearing, I would get my 53 seconds to make a couple statements before pleading something.

I could plead Guilty or No Contest, which it turns out for this court mean the same thing. I could choose to pay the fine - maybe it would be reduced. And I could pay to go to traffic school, which would keep the point(s) off my record.

Points? What are points? I'd never had to learn about them, having driven for 30-ish years with no moving violations.

Instead of paying the fine, I could do community service which, depending on the judge, could be levied at something between $10-13/hour with a due date of 9 months later. However, traffic school, which would keep points from showing up on my record wouldn't be permitted.

I ran some estimates on how much my insurance would increase. It wasn't a straightforward calculation but it seemed that over the three years the increase would be in effect, I'd pay in raised car insurance rates about double my fine amount.

The California DMV website suggested calling insurance companies to see how much my insurance would go up. I didn't believe this was good advice at the time. But I finally decided to call. They couldn't tell me. They said that sometimes the system allowed this query and sometimes it didn't. They made it look good but in the end, I thought this was just a clever way to get me to voluntarily tell my insurance company this information because my rate wouldn't have gone up till 8 months later and what business ever offers information that could be perceived as a quote that doesn't expire for 8 months?

So community service didn't buy me much. Just maybe a choice of how fast and where I could throw away some money.

Jail time. Jail time was available to me. But I'd still get the points on my record and the whole insurance increase.

I did see people choose jail time. (If you would like a closer look at the state of humanity in your neighborhood, sit in on some of these hearings.)

It seems traffic school is only available to those who pay the fine with money, not community service or jail time, and then pay the $49 fee to take traffic school.

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