Day 45: Court Day

I've had a really long day... the highlight of my day was being at the Glendale Courthouse for 3 hours. Last year in the Summer, I had gotten a couple of tickets, and had been irresponsible enough to not appear on the court dates. So, this year, I'm paying for them, with my time and money. I had a court date today, but didn't know which ticket it was for, exactly. So, I showed up to court wondering what the outcome would be. This was the first out of 3 court appearances, in my life, that I actually enjoyed. Maybe, I enjoyed it because it was the Glendale Courthouse and there were so many interesting cases...
There was one guy that was there for 2 tickets, each ticket having its own long list of violations. The judge was my most absolute favorite. He looked like Santa in a judge's robe, cracking jokes and being nice. (As shown in the sketch I did of him, above) He acted like Santa speaking to his elves.
So this Armenian guy stood in front of the judge, as his violations were read to him. Then, the judge looked up and said, "amplified speakers within 50 feet? How do you plead?" The guy looked up and said, "oh, ya, I was checking the sound system of the car, sir... guilty..." as he put his head down. Then, the judge said, "ok, well, how about the tinted windows... do you have the vehicle here for proof of a fix it?" He replied, "oh, no the car is at the body shop right now, and the lease is going to be up in two months, so I won't be able to show any proof, but I swear the tints have been fixed." (So, you can imagine why court was the highlight of my day today)
There was another case of a Hispanic lady who was being translated to. She was there to get traffic school and community service because she couldn't afford her ticket. The judge dismissed one of her violations and then, said "but, there is a $25 dismissal fee, so, $25 dismissal fee, $35 processing fee, $64 community service, and $225... that brings you to...." (giving her the total) As I sat there listening to the translator give her the numbers in Spanish, I thought, well...why not pay the ticket and get it over with?
Fees these days are ridiculous! Everything has a fee of some kind. After hearing all the different fees that just the court has, I realized that we should try to waive fees as much as we can, at anytime. Fees are just an excuse to make money on the side for anyone who carries them, but, when added up, that's where they make all their money.
As my turn came up, I found out that I was there for a speeding ticket and failure to appear. So, my load was heavy. I pleaded guilty for the speeding ticket, and looked up at the judge as he asked me, "so, give me your story, why weren't you at court when you were supposed to be?" As I thought of a good enough reason to give him... (for being such an irresponsible idiot) I explained to him about how I was going through the process of an address change, and hadn't received the paper work. (It wasn't all a lie, I just got a bit creative with it) So, he waived a few fees and gave me my total and two months to pay.

Tip of the Day: Don't settle for fees. Try to get them waived as much as possible. From personal experience, if you try hard enough, they will waive your fee, just to get rid of you, so don't give up.