I am going to describe two nearly identical situations from my life in 1999 and 2007. You will vote on which one you think turned out better for me.
In both situations, I received a "seatbelt ticket". California has a law where you are not allowed to drive without a seatbelt. I was very unlucky both times -- once in 1999, once in 2007 -- as I was driving just a few blocks and didn't bother to put on my seatbelt, and was pulled over. I usually do wear my seatbelt, which is why both of these were really irritating. Anyway, a seatbelt ticket does not affect your driving record. It typically runs from $20-$25.
Unfortunately, in BOTH cases, I did not receive a "courtesy notice" from Los Angeles County. You cannot pay the ticket on the spot. You need to wait for this notice, telling you how much you owe and where/how to pay. I did not receive the notice either time, and both times I forgot about the ticket. It is technically my responsibility to keep track of this, so each became a "DID NOT APPEAR" violation when I failed to pay on time. This is technically a bench warrant for your arrest, but in reality they rarely (if ever) arrest someone in a situation like this. However, the fine rockets up from your original $20-$25 to something outrageous like $560, and you need to see a judge to get it reduced. Apparently these courtesy notices are notoriously unreliable in Los Angeles County, and I suspect this is not unintentional.
In 1999, my ticket was in Norwalk, a crime-ridden city near Los Angeles.
In 2007, my ticket was near LAX, and fell under the huge West Los Angeles court jurisdiction.
Both cities are part of Los Angeles County.
1999 Norwalk Situation
Even though this was a traffic matter, it was assigned to the criminal court system, since technically it involved a warrant. I arrived to find that I was one of just three people in court that day. One was a young man who stole a car, was pleading guilty, and was ready to serve his sentence. The other was some kind of gang-related case. Needless to say, my case was the only "minor" one of the three.
After sentencing the car thief, the middle-aged female judge moved onto my case.
"Okay, bailiff, please take the defendant to be processed to begin his sentence immediately. Next we have Mr. Witteles... umm... something about a seatbelt here? Can you please explain?"
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2007 West LA Situation
This couldn't be more different than the above. This whole process was obnoxious. First I had to come all the way down there to schedule my hearing (with Norwalk I was able to do it over the phone), and then I had to come back and wait a long time for the hearing to start.
Rather than sharing my court date with a few career criminals and a judge unfamiliar with the seatbelt ticket warrant, I was in a large room full of mostly middle-class looking people.
When the elderly, cantankerous judge sat down, he announced, "I know why all of you are here. You had some itty-bitty little violation, somehow forgot to pay the fine, and now it's a big, scary, expensive warrant. But I have good news for everyone here. I'm sure you all have great reasons for not paying the fine on time. So all you need to do is come up and give me a reason you didn't pay. It can be any reason. Tell me the dog ate your courtesy notice, I don't care. As long as it's a reason, I will take that big, scary, expensive warrant, dismiss it, and turn it into a severely reduced fine."
After waiting through about an hour's worth of people coming up (I'd say about 20 total), he finally called my name.
"Mr. Witteles, what is your reason for not paying your seatbelt ticket?"
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In both cases above, I told the true and accurate reason it all happened, which was actually the same for both of them.
How do you think each of these turned out?
I am not asking you to guess or rely upon your amazing psychic abilities.
If you think about it, it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out which one turned out better, or if they both broke out about the same.
Please vote and post your reasoning.
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Originally Posted by Dan Druff
