I got a traffic ticket recently. On a dark and rainy night, I did not come to a complete stop at an empty intersection, and a zealous (or perhaps under-quota) officer pulled me over. I have received a couple of these in the past, and have gone to mind-numbing traffic school to avoid getting any points on my license. This time I decided, hell, I'll just pay the darn thing.. I don't have the time or the patience to do that again.

In the extremely fine print on the back of the ticket, it said that I was to appear at traffic court on or before the date written on the ticket. There was also a phone number to call. I phoned and heard the pleasant news that it is now possible to pay the ticket over the phone using a credit card. A few number-punches later, I heard that I must have my docket number in order to do this. The docket number is not printed on the ticket, but is printed on the Courtesy Notice that you received in the mail. Of course, I had not received any Courtesy Notice. So I waited for it to arrive, so that I could pay by phone.

This morning, I realized that the date on the ticket was TODAY, and still no Courtesy Notice. Quoting the fine print:

WARNING: if you fail to appear in court, you may be arrested and punished by 6 MONTHS IN JAIL or a $1,000 FINE.

A courtesy notice MAY be mailed to the address shown. If you do not receive such couresy notice, you are still required to comply with the items below by the appearance date.

So I postponed coming to work and went to the traffic court. The woman at the window looked at my ticket and punched the numbers into the computer. "Oh, this was just entered in the system today," she said. "You have to wait until you get your courtesy notice."

I protested feebly, understanding the futility of it all. She repeated herself. "See you later," I said.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 2:07 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.