Governmental blackmail is what it is. You can have your day in court, but they make it so difficult that most people just give up and pay the fine. Including me.
Let’s start at the beginning.
A couple months ago I was involved in a traffic accident in which a woman ran a red light as I was going through it. I didn’t see her and I ran into her.
The police showed up on the scene and believed the “she said” of the “he said, she said” situation. I got a ticket. The officer said if I went to court and the other party didn’t show up, then the case would be thrown out.
On the ticket it said that the citation would be recorded in the system ten days after it was issued and would be available for payment over the automated phone system. About a month later I was able to reach a human over the phone and I asked why my ticket wasn’t showing up in the system. She replied that they were behind entering the tickets in and it wouldn’t be available for another 2 weeks. My court date was about 3 weeks away. In about two weeks the phone system finally has my info: $130 fine with a court date of October 24 at 2:00pm.
I decided to go to court.
I take Marta out to Decatur, GA to avoid having to deal with traffic and parking and as I walk up to the courthouse I see a long line of people waiting outside. Apparently we all had a 2:00pm court date and the doors were locked until fifteen minutes before 2pm. Fortunately it had warmed up from the cold snap that had come through the night before. When we were finally allowed inside we filed into our respective courtrooms (ordered by last name) and we instructed by the court’s secretary (not stenographers, really, but I’m not sure their official titles) to sit near the front. If anyone spoke to them or asked a question they were rudely told to sit down and be quiet and said everything would be explained later. The people who came in later (they weren’t late, they were just still passing through security) were met with extreme impatience as the secretaries insisted loudly that all questions would be answered by their explanation that was to be given later.
One woman behind me discovered the man next to her didn’t speak any English so she went to ask if translation would be provided. Her answer was, “NO ONE IS TO COME UP ASKING IF WE PROVIDE TRANSLATION SERVICES. WE CAN HANDLE ALL LANGUAGES.” He didn’t understand a word of it. When all 230+ people (all of whom had cases) finally made it into the courtroom, the all-question-answering presentation was, well, presented (in English only, by the way). For me, it just raised more questions. One thing I did discover was that it was simply the arraignment where I could enter a plea, not the actual court date. If I pled “not guilty”, I’d have to go back in a month. Since I was just going off what the cop said. I decided to give up and just pay my fine and hope for a point reduction on my license. Everyone who wanted to just pay their fine and leave (and there was quite a few after that speech) lined up. When I handed mine to the court-nazi, she shuffled some papers and replied “$230 dollars, 0 points.” I was confused, and replied that the phone system said $130, but before I could even finish, she responded sternly, “Sir, it is $230, you can sit down.”
It took everything I had not to start yelling into that horrible woman’s face, but as we were informed by the court-nazis earlier, contempt of court fines were significant. I said down, dejected.
The judge came in and reviewed all the fine-payer’s cases first which for most people was her stating your name, you standing and her stating, “zero points, you can go pay your fine.” She was all business, but never rude and I did notice that the behavior of the psychos to her left and right changed markedly once she entered the room. When met with a Hispanic person, she called them to approach the bench, she spoke to them in Spanish alleviating some of the complete confusion from their face (only to be replaced by the same dejection that was on mine). She called my name, I stood. “Zero points, you can go pay your fine.” I left and waited 40 minutes in line to pay $230.
I walked back to the Marta station.
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10 Comments
you couldnt have described the scene any better, and i bet i was met by the same court-nazi as you, or maybe they are all the same. But anyway, on my ticket it stated that my court time was 8:30 pm and i knew that wasnt correct since they close @ 4 so when i call they tell me my court time is 2pm, so i guess if i hadnt called i would have a warrant for my arrest! and the HOV sign clearly states that the max fine is $150, but when confronted by the court-nazi, i was told THE FINE WAS $325!!!! MY OPTIONS WERE TO PAY OR GO TO A $90 CLASS!
MY EXPERIENCE WAS HORRIBLE!
had almost the same situation a few days ago…got a speeding ticket back around august of 2007, fine was $345. i paid cash at the cashier’s window and received a receipt. then about a month and half ago i got a stop sign violation ticket. had a court date for 2:00pm at the recorder’s court. i go in front of the judge and she tells me the system shows that i haven’t paid the speeding ticket. they take me back in the holding cell and say that if i don’t pay the $345 i would be held in jail until my new court date. so i have to call my friends and bother them to brind $345 to the courthouse, all the while i’m sitting in a locked holding room. my friend finally drops the money off and the officer opens the door to let me out. he hands me a receipt that i thought was for the payment that day. he tells me (with no apology whatsoever) that they found my payment receipt for the payment around august, and that he’d refund the money to my friend downstairs. at this point, he just hands me the money and says i can go. wasted my whole day and bothered two friends from work for this shit…and they don’t even apologize. what’s worse is that i didn’t even take care of the ticket i went there for originally. dekalb recorder’s court is a joke and a black hole for tax payers of dekalb county. such incompetence and lack of job skills among employees is why that place needs to be fixed
Can you not get a public defender?
dekalb county traffic court is CRAPPY. never get a ticket in dekalb county.
experience #1 i got a ticket in doraville (dekalb county) and lost the ticket. called to find out when my court date was and they couldn?t find it in the system, they told me it tkes awhile to enter in the system, try back in a few weeks. went to the office in person, same thing. finally found out that doraville has a separate court system (no the systems are not EVEN LINKED) and already i missed my court date, had to pay the fine.
experience #2 got a ticket by the farmers market. remembering the incident from a few years prior called both dekalb county and clarkston?nothing. they gave me sme story about it may take awhile, kept trying back. got referred to a few other local cities, still nothing. finally discovered my ticket was in decatur. luckily made my court date. city of decatur judge was cool. easy breezy. got lucky
experience #3 ticket for dekalb county recorders court. GRRRRRR, yes, people spilling out the building. court date rescheduled. forgot to go back. big fine now.
i take responsibility for losing my tickets and not remembering my dates (hell, they give you court like 3 months later so I don?t know how anybody with a life is supposed to remember that), but I still tke responsibility. I gotta get my stuff together :) BUT, why do they have all these separate jurisdictions and no UNIFIED computer system. and why are people always spilling out the courthouse?
SOMETHING IS WRONG.
furthermore. experience #3, my so-called offense was speeding in a school zone. Let’s talk about how the cop pulled me over by pointing at my car and telling me to pull over. If I’m 20 mph over the posted speed limit, how do I see the cop pull me over with his hands? and does he have laser radar in his EYES?
My boyfriend and i were on our way back to school at 3 o clock in the morning going west on I-20. The speed limit was 55, and he was going about 75/80 (I told him to slow down). But there was NOBODY on the highway, NOBODY! Unfortunately, there were like 4 police cars parked behind huge sign to the point where we couldn’t see them until we got right up on them. so we got a ticket. That was back in May. He called to see how much the ticket was and when his court date was. His court date was scheduled for July. When he went up to the recorders office, there was a list on the door with names of people whose courts dates were rescheduled, including his. So he had to wait for them to send him a letter telling him when his new court date was. He was scheduled for today, August 7.
He took his grandfather with him this time so he could help pay the ticket, got to the office and his court date was canceled AGAIN. Because many job applications ask for any and all criminal records, he hasn’t been able to get a job. So now we have to wait probably for another 3 months before we even know how much he has to pay.
STOP PLEADING GUILTY AND YOU WON’T BE TREATED THIS WAY! File lawsuits against the courts, and cops!
I have one experience. I got one ticket in October and appeared on the court on court date according to officer’s request. The violation, my first violation, was that I forgot to turn the headlight on on 9:00 PM. I do remember that your honor gave me a waiver at 5:00 PM in the center courtroom. What makes me confused is that I received a subpoena issued by Joyce W. Head ordering me to appear on 10/13/2009 again. What’s the stuff? Did I need get some proof or documents at the time? I dialed the number provided and wrote e-mail to the given address.The phone is always busy and the email fails to deliver. I feel bad about it.
I was ticketed, NOV 14, TWO DAYS after the Journal did an article about low revenue-HOW TIMELY! I have proof that the cop was too far away to see me and will submit it to the judge BEFORE my court date Jan 16. NOT GUILTY-JURY TRIAL! I REFUSE TO GIVE MY MONEY TO DEKALB RECORDER’S COURT-AS I PAY TOO MANY TAXES ALREADY! Truthnews@aol.com Infowars.com
Dude, that’s really scary! I have been “summoned” to do the exact same thing you did at Dekalb County Recorders Court in a few weeks. I got a speeding ticket on I-85 and the automated phone system says the fine is $261 dollars! Am I going to have to shell out an extra $100 for my ticket like you had to? I’ve read the news articles and Dekalb County Recorders Court is in ‘Chaos’. Funny thing is, even if I pay the fine, chances are they won’t record it and I might have to pay it again in the future just like rkang. I will definetely update you guys on what happens after I go to court. Wish me luck!