Court Date

Although I didn't mention it when it happened over a month ago, I got a speeding ticket going 80 in a 55 mph area of I75 in the city. While I certainly wasn't going all that much faster than the people around me, I got unlucky and now have to pay for what the government deems a driving fallacy. I describe it as such because I personally don't think I did anything dangerous or wrong. Everyone else on the road at the time was going around 70, I was on the left-hand side of the highway and wasn't tailgating, and I always use my turn signals and drive responsibly (which can't be said for so many other slightly slower drivers out there). Besides, I never go faster than 80, and only drive that fast if it's reasonable to do so.

Anyway, normally when I get a ticket, I just pay it right away, but when I found out how much my ticket was going to be ($588!!!), I figured I would have to go to my court date to see if it could be lowered at all. So, this past Wednesday I went in for my court date, which actually turned out to be a real hearing in a small court (as opposed to my experience doing the same standing in line in Bloomington). Due to this misunderstanding, I walked in ten minutes after the session had started, so I was placed on the "late" bench and reprimanded for not being there on time. As it turns out, had I been another ten minutes late, I would have had a warrant issued for my arrest! Crazy!

After waiting through the list of people that got to go before me, I got to talk with the prosecuting attorney, who ended up telling me that short of a defensive driving course there was nothing I could do at this point to lower my fine. This frustrated me to no end, as I really would have just paid my fine when I got it had I known you couldn't alter it at all by going in in person. When I went in for my ticket in Bloomington I was able to get points taken off my offense, and I had heard of a few other people who had successfully gotten their fines reduced by going in, so I didn't think it was all that unreasonable to expect something of the sort. Oh well.

So now I'm trying to look out for cops more and drive a little slower. Maybe I should just invest in a radar detector...