Driving On A Suspended License (My Day In Court)

Those of you that read my thread "Should Law Enforcement Be Allowed To" know I got popped for driving on a suspended license with notice and failure to show proof of insurance.

Today I had my day in court.

I really liked this judge. He was very fair with everyone that went before him this morning. When it was my turn to stand tall he explained the charges and asked me if I understood them.

The first thing he tackled was the failure to provide proof of insurance. I didn't think I was going to have to face this charge today, but fortunately, I brought in my insurance card and presented it to him. Next came the suspended license with notice charge.

He asked me if I understood that charge. I told him yes I did and explained to him that it was suspended for failing to pay a ticket. I also explained to him why it went unpaid.

He dropped the $91 fine for the no proof of insurance, but more importantly, he took the criminal charge of driving on a suspended license with notice and dropped it to a civil charge of driving on a suspended license without notice. That reduction in charge took a $350 fine and dropped it to $141. The down side is I was adjudicated guilty for the civil charge, but in the long run its still much better than a criminal conviction. After all was said and done, I only have to pay the $141 in combined fine/court costs.

One thing that I wasn't really expecting him to say but wasn't exactly surprised when he said it was "I'm looking at your driving record and other than a couple of tickets you haven't been in any trouble for quite some time, but I do see that you got in trouble a while back." So I said "yes sir, back in 1996 I got a DUI and since then I've been trying to keep my nose out of trouble." When he mentioned the DUI I thought I was really gonna be hit hard, but fortunately I was not.

All in all I think things went very well for me today and this judge has helped restore some lost faith in the judicial system in that not all judges are hard ass jerks that are eager to put you in jail or fine you out the ass. Like I said earlier, he was very fair.

 

I'm not surprised to hear that this happened to you. I know a few folks, myself included that had to go to court because the clerk fouled up the paper work. I'm glad to hear things worked out in your favor.

 

Highly paid or even underpaid, they are supposed to be fair. I'm not sure what judges here make but I think it's a fairly decent salary, an example of an unfair judge here that I can easily use was the one that would never under any circumstances show any type of leniency, he was notorious for always giving the maximum allowable sentence by law, even if it was a first offense and had no prior criminal record.

His daughter was killed by a drunk driver so he was always a hard ass when he tried DUI cases. Fortunately, some years later he was removed from the bench for this reason.

What I'm saying is, regardless of pay scale there are always going to be judges that hand down harsh sentences based on personal biases or conflicts of interest.

Not sure of how they do things in the state your from, but I know from yesterday and being in court a time or two for being popped on a DWLS way back in the day, that if you get every thing reinstated before the court date (if legally allowed), then adjudication of guilt was always withheld and all the defendant had to do was pay a fine/court costs.