Who's super lucky? Oh yeah, that would be me.
I had my hearing yesterday for my traffic violations. I went into it hoping for, at best, no points. I knew I deserved the tickets, so I was willing to pay the fines in full. Not especially happy about it, but willing. I was early, as I generally am. I signed in and took my seat. I should mention that there is nothing on the walls to stare at and I did not bring a book in.
After a couple of minutes, I hear someone call my name. It's the cop who had pulled me over. Figures that he'd manage to show. We went into a conference room and he offered me a deal. Reduced violation on the running the red light so no points. He gave me nothing on the littering because Bensalem is zero-tolerance. Hey, I got my no points. I took the deal.
Proceeded into the courtroom and sat some more. The judge finally arrived and started calling people up. He seemed pleasant enough, but we all know that looks can be deceiving. My turn comes and I approached the bench. The judge quickly outlined the charges. I also got a fatherly "What happened there?" about the red light. Thankfully I stopped short of scuffing my toe and saying "Aw shucks, Pa. I guess I just wasn't paying attention." For once in my life, I managed to say nothing more than was absolutely necessary. Miracles do happen.
The cop outlined our deal, the judge asked me if I agreed. I said yes. Judge said that he would reduce the littering fine. Oh hell yeah! I was figuring that he'd knock it down by 50% or so. Heh, I was wrong. Maximum fine for littering is $300 - minus court costs, my littering fine was fifty dollars. That's right five-oh. I paid more in court costs than I did on that fine. The red light violation was the same fine, but did I mention the no points?
All told, I was in court for about 30 minutes and only 5 or so of those minutes were spent talking to anyone. If you gotta go to court, that's the way to do it.
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