Today I went over to the New Britain court to fight my speeding ticket from December. I got there a little earlier than required, but still didn’t see the the court’s attorney until more than an hour of waiting.
He looked through the stack of papers which mostly consisted of photocopies of the original ticket. I noticed that there weren’t any notes at all on the sheets and that the only thing that the attorney had to go on was the actual ticket. I figured this could only be good for me, I mean I imagine something like the following went though this guy’s head:
“Oh crap, the damn cop didn’t make any notes about this ticket, I don’t have a leg to stand on here, so I better lay it on thick…”
Which of course he did. I admit a certain amount of nervousness (don’t ask me why, since I really didn’t have much to fear here). I told him my story, never admitting to anything and not trying to make the cop sound too stupid.
He spread it on a little thick after that telling me that he never does this, but he was going to give me three choices. Of course he said this as he pulled out a 1/2 sheet of paper with writing on it (a similar 1/2 sheet that he pulled out for the girl that talked to him last).
Choice one was that I could plead guilty and he would reduce the fine to $150. He showed me the piece of paper as he explained my second choice, which was to “contribute” $250 to a charity then sent the receipt to them. If they received the receipt in 30 days they would nolle the ticket. Of course my third choice was to go before a judge and plead my case.
One of my biggest pet peeves about our legal system is that it’s easier to plead down than it is to plead your case. Sometimes this is good, sometimes (as I’ve discovered with my past), you kick yourself for it. It’s done for many reasons, for one, you know (for the most part) what you’re getting yourself into (although the hole can be deeper than you thought). Possibly more importantly you don’t have to worry about taking time off of work, sitting in court rooms and (if you needed one) racking up legal fees.
Unfortunately, the court never looses. If you hadn’t guessed I took option two, thereby keeping my record clean and only coughing up the $250. So even here, where I feel that I won, the court still is the bigger winner, and that sucks.
