There are two traffic courts. Try to be in the one for rich people. [View all]

[cthulu2016]

Last edited Thu May 31, 2012, 06:35 PM - Edit history (11)

I have only hired a lawyer once and it forever changed my understanding of why the rich get away with everything.

I don’t drink, but I often hang out in bars. I left a favorite watering-hole at closing time (2 AM) and began my drive home. A cop lurking in the parking lot followed me, expecting a DWI arrest. He followed me for miles, and I wondered if he was a cop, but I’m not a very wild driver anyway. No biggie.

As I near my home the speed limit (on a four-lane divided highway) abruptly drops from 45 to 25. My turn is a left at the very first light after the speed limit change. I drive it every day. Where the speed limit changes I take my foot off the gas and coast into the left-turn lane and stop. (The light is usually red)

This cop didn’t want to waste his five mile pursuit so he pulled me over. (I should mention that my car was a 20-year old piece of crap and that the cops here target immigrants in a big way after dark. Having a shitty car is reasonable cause to these cowboys. Had I been driving a new SUV I doubt I would have been pulled over... or followed in the first place.)

Knowing that I was being pulled over for frequenting a bar as a non-drinker and driving a crummy car in a pricey suburb I was irritated. The cop said I was doing 45 in a 25. Probably true for about 100 feet where the limit changes, but I had thought the guy might be a cop and had been driving pretty slowly the whole damn way. I pointed out that he was being ridiculous (Don’t do that!) in giving a bogus ticket to me because he was disappointed I wasn’t drunk, and that it’s a fine state of affairs when the cops are rooting for the citizens to be drunk. And I told him to give me the damn ticket and I'd mail it in and forget our lovely time together. So he took advantage of the fact that 20 miles over the speed limit can be classified as reckless driving and wrote me a ticket for reckless driving and said with satisfaction that I would have to show up in court for that charge. No mailing in the fine for reckless driving, which is a criminal misdemeanor, not a regular traffic infraction.

So I was charged with something for which I could lose my license and actually spend up to a year in jail! (Unlikely, but within the sentencing range for reckless driving.)

I hired a lawyer. I had never had a lawyer before and was naively ready for some real Perry Mason action. In my state a non-radar speeding stop requires 1/4 mile of "pacing" at speed. My turn was less than 1/4 mile from the 25 MPH sign. Heck, I was at 0 MPH parked at a red light less than a quarter mile inside the low speed zone so I couldn't have sped for a quarter mile. Quite the jail-house lawyer, I was. I went in with my charts of the incident, my intricate color maps accurate to ten feet, snapshots of the signs and surroundings and citations of state law. My lawyer looked at my stack of papers with open bemusement and told me that the law and facts would be irrelevant to my case, and to just be sure to show up for court, and bring my checkbook.

I had been in traffic court a few times in my youth, though not for at least a decade, and thought I knew the drill. But I only knew the poor-people drill. The judge asked who had a lawyer to raise her hand and moved all of us to the end of the docket and began processing the non-lawyer folks. 100% conviction rate. They offered whatever explanations they could and the judge laughed at them. I expected that, having been there before. (Granted, a few earned that derision. The best was a woman who said she couldn’t have been going 70 MPH because she had just gotten off work and was too tired to be going 70 MPH. I could only picture the Flintstones.)

After the riff-raff (almost all minorities or white teenagers) were duly fined and out of the courtroom the real fun began. The judge called a recess and all the lawyers formed a line outside a little room where the prosecutor sat. Each lawyer went in and was handed whatever reduction of charges the prosecutor thought a lawyer deserved for being a lawyer.

My lawyer was a former prosecutor. My prosecutor was a former defense attorney. You put in some years on the prosecutor side to makes courthouse contacts. Then you return to the defense side to make some money. When your contacts get stale you return to prosecuting… A revolving door of cronies. Since I was wearing a suit it was assumed I was a lawyer and I got to watch the whole process. At no point was any material aspect of the incident discussed. Never. It was only the charge, the person’s prior history, and whatever history the prosecutor had with the defense attorney. Not one single person was acquitted. Not one single person was convicted of the crime he was charged with. Everyone got a reduced charge with they understanding they would plead guilty to it. (And that the police report would be the only evidence.)

Since I was charged with a misdemeanor (an actual crime) mine took special handling. My lawyer came up and said that the prosecutor was willing to reduce the charge in exchange for a big fine. I was already paying a bigger fine (by being forced to hire a lawyer) so the fine they wanted was a relative bargain.

Then I was told that my plea bargain had to be approved by the cop. This was a direct violation of all letter and spirit of the law. In fact, it is actually printed in big letters on the ticket that the cop plays no role in adjudicating your case except as a witness. But that was the deal.

The moment I heard that I zipped out of the courtroom so I wouldn’t be there when they talked to the cop. Wouldn’t want him remembering the incident from seeing my face. My lawyer came out and said it was approved by the cop, and the judge started the session for people with lawyers.

And I pleaded guilty to… speeding. Going 45 in a 25. Exactly the action I was charged with, but as a speeding ticket rather than a criminal reckless driving charge. (Which was the outcome I cared about.)

If you hire a lawyer for traffic court you will probably not be convicted of the offense you are charged with. Nor will you be acquitted. And the law will never be mentioned by anyone. It has no bearing on the process!

(re: not being convicted of what you're charged with. I know a guy who was busted for smoking a joint. The joint was the only pot he had on him. I told him a lawyer might make a big difference and he hired one. They gave him a break, reducing it to possession of drug paraphernalia for the rolling paper around the pot. But rolling papers are completely legal here and sold at 7-11 and CVS! But it was a lesser charge and my friend was glad to get it.)

Anyway, at the small-court level the legal profession looks favorably on hiring a lawyer and the prosecutor will reward you for having done so, because he will be back in the defense side of the racket in a year or two.

They just want you to "play ball" with the system.