all rise

14 Oct 2003

I just got back from traffic court. Note: the traffic courts are no longer in the Ben West building, but rather, at Metro Center. I discovered this after a pleasant half-mile jaunt through the pouring rain. In any event, once I got there, all the charges were dropped. Booyah. The ticket was for speeding, expired registration, and lack of proof of insurance. I fixed the last, and the registration is still in fact expired, since I am trying to sell it. I guess the judge was feeling generous and threw in the speeding violation as well. A $12 court appearance fee and I was out of there.

A humorous display, though, before it was my turn: Another judge was there, defending a speeding violation. He was not guilty, he said, because although it was marked as a school zone, the sign technically said “15 mph when children present”. And, since he didn’t see any children physically present, he was justified in going 40mph, or whatever. Of course, the other, presiding judge couldn’t agree more! The sign is obviously poorly worded, and badly marked, to begin with! And who really pays attention to school zones anyway?! All charges dismissed, etc!

Then they winked at eachother on the sly and met for mint juleps later at lunch. (I assume.)

As he was walking out, he leaned over to the nearest person and muttered “That’s the first case I’ve won in 22 years!”, which was pretty funny. Everyone laughed a little too long and hard, though, until he was out of the room, at which point everyone resumed scowling and waiting to take it up the ass from The Man.

I love small court sessions. There’s always something entertaining going on.