Traffic Tickets in LA

Photo by SeraphimC.

Heaven help you if you get pulled over by a motorcycle cop in L.A. for anything, because they ARE going to give you a ticket for something. “What?! You’re breathing? TICKET! Excessive emissions!”

I’ve always had a lot of respect for law enforcement until I moved to LA and until I got pulled over for turning left in the left turn lane at Sunset and Gower, right outside my office. Thirty minutes later, and after a argument with the officer, after being nice and respectful didn’t work, I still got the ticket. I laughed and told him I’d see him in court. I know he was laughing too though.

Traffic court in Los Angeles has to be one of the worst experiences I’ve ever gone though. I know I was right, I have a case, I want to present my side and not have to pay the $200. But to do this, you make a court date, then go, stand in several long lines, you’re treated like shit, and all this just for the arraignment. Meaning you can’t present your case, it’s just to have charges read against you and you put in a plea, and then pay you bail PLUS all the court fees which are 3-4 times what your bail amount is. Nowhere is this stated when you’re making a court date nor did anybody tell me about all of the court fees before the trail when I asked. I expected there to be a small court fee of something, but not 3-4 times the amount of the ticket.

I went to night court that started at 5PM, well 5:30, they were late. And I didn’t get out of there until a little after 8PM. The only person at the court that treated me with any respect or had half a brain was the judge.

After hearing the other 150 cases of the other people that were there, it was finally my turn to have the charges read against me. The judge couldn’t even make out what my ticket was for. I had to tell him, and then he laughed, I put in a plea of not guilty, and I went to pay my bail amount and all the court fees.

Now I have to go back to court another day (meaning take off work again and deal with all that BS again) for the trial, or you can do a trial by declaration, meaning you don’t have to go back to court in person. You just submit your case in writing and mail it in, and the officer does the same and a judge looks at it, passes judgement, and then you’re notified by mail if you won or not. If you win, you get most of the bail back minus some court fees, if you lose, you get nothing plus court fees, but you can appeal.

I really thought I did my research going into this, but nowhere on the official government websites does it really say anything about the breakdown of fees and the process. Not even the lawyers that advised me knew exactly what the process was.

I did find a site today though that I wish I had found before hand.

HelpIgotaTicket.com is a site ran by Geo. McCalip that walks you through your options, and gives you everything you need to know about traffic law in plain terms. There’s a tutorial, case law section, Preventive Measures, help getting a attorney, and even the Iggy Awards which highlights judges’ ignorance of the law. This is a wonderful site which should be at the bottom of every ticket.

This site is Geo.’s way of helping people get justice (not to mention keeping the cops off the streets and out of trouble). Geo. dedicates this site to those of you who have received questionable tickets (and the rest of you who have wanted to do your part in putting an end to the corrupt traffic ticket system we currently have) but have not known how to defend yourself.

I especially like the RADAR SPEED TRAP DEFENSE STEP BY STEP section.

Let me just say, if you get a ticket just pay for it and do traffic school. If you want to fight it, don’t ever do it by going to court. Do a trial by declaration.

I really think there’s a bigger issue here of cops giving lame tickets. When I have some time, I’m going to contact my commissioner. But in the meantime, traffic cops in L.A. have to realize they are giving themselves a bad name.

That’s my two and a half cents.

Followup to yesterdays blog about the New Beverly Screenings…

I did make it to The New Beverly Cinema last night with a friend half way through the first movie. It’s my new favorite theater in LA. Not because it’s nice or has great seating but because it has character and you know it’s always going to be a great crowd. And it’s CHEAP!

John Waters is sick sick sick.

A note though: the website says “West Beverly Blvd” but it’s not, it’s just Beverly Blvd. I entered West Bev into my cars GPS and ended up by the Beverly Center.

I want to run a theater like this one day.

~J