Originally Posted by
krystian
This was all so foreign to me, I've never had a ticket, not even a parking ticket. A few weeks ago I was pulled over for supposedly failing to stop at a stop sign. I was in a little bit of a hurry that day but I did stop, it might've only been for a count of 'one thousand and one' but it was a full stop.
I told the officer I stopped but he said no, you only tapped your brakes, you have to have the momentum of the vehicle fully stop. He was about a half a block behind me so apparently from his perspective he called it a roll. But I don't roll stop signs, I'm a creature of habit in some ways and am accustomed to feeling that little jerk that comes when the vehicle actually stops.
Since I didn't do it I decided to contest it and today was the court date for the informal hearing. At 9am sharp an officer does a roll call and tells us our options, you can stand before the magistrate and present your case and if he deems it plausible you can come back for a formal hearing with the officer present and present your case again. But, if you choose right now to plead guilty to "double parking" and pay the $140 fine assigned to it, your original ticket as well as the points assigned to it would be dismissed...and if you do decide to do the formal hearing and lose you can't go back and take the 'double parking' deal, you'll get the original fine and the points.
The fine for disobeying a stop sign is $110.00 and 3 points and I had been talking to some folk who said that if its basically your word against the ticketing officer, they'll usually win...decisions, decisions. It wasn't fair but I decided to do the 'double parking' to save future time and trouble and just get it over with.