Have you ever gotten a ticket or been to court for any reason whatsoever?
If so and you were not guilty, were still you one of the 99.9% that was talked out of pleading your case to the judge?
If you were, don’t feel bad. The district attorney is paid to scare you and use any tactic to get you not to fight them in court or even try to beat a speeding ticket. I know -unfortunately- from lots of experience in dealing with the law that most local governments are designed to quickly persuade you not to fight. They are less interested in finding out the truth of a matter and more interested in moving people through.
This is because the local governments are -in most cases- motivated by finance rather than justice.
Today, I had to appear in court -yet again- but this time it was only a speeding ticket. In fact, it was a ridiculous speeding ticket of 56mph in a 45mph zone. Getting a ticket for 11 mph over is just silly and in my case, I wasn’t even going that fast anyway.
So, I fought it. I demanded a trial and an audience with the judge.
Dealing with the D.A. (district attorney) beforehand just brought back all kinds of memories about how hard they try to manipulate and coerce everyone in to a guilty plea. If you have a lawyer, you can typically avoid all of that. But, without a lawyer, you are basically “shark bait.”
In my case today, the D.A. was telling me how it was not going to go on my record and I could just say I was guilty, pay my $133 fine, and go home. In my mind, I think, “but what about my innocence in the matter?” It is obviously of no importance. The D.A. even used the words, “now, I cannot tell you what to do, but I wouldn’t take the chance talking to the judge. I’m not trying to scare you, but if you go before the judge, you have to understand that they are not bound by the same restrictions and can impose a penalty of up to $1,000 and 1 year in prison.”
I kept thinking, “that is highly doubtful for an 11 mph ticket!”
The problem is that even if you are innocent but you face some large penalty or fine, they will scare you and coerce you in any way they can. It’s literally their job. They are cold-hearted and they do not care at all about you. Remember that anything you tell them needs to be thought out ahead of time, because they WILL use everything you say to them against you. They may bring up something during the trial or they may give the officer some tip about how to trap you.
That paints kind of a scary picture for someone fighting something as simple as a traffic violation, doesn’t it?
However, the point of this post is that the judge’s first line of defense from having to judge cases ALL day is to have the D.A. get rid of a lot of cases. So, the D.A. ends up having to be the “bad guy” and you should realize that your goal is to get to speak to the “good guy” -so to speak.
If it was blindingly obvious that you were guilty, then going before the judge may be a bad idea, because they may actually exercise their right to impose harsher penalties than you would’ve gotten otherwise. But, if you simply want to try to prove your innocence and you really do feel innocent, then there is nothing wrong with going before the judge. It is highly doubtful that the judge would impose any more than the original fine.
In other words, you really have nothing to lose. But, it is the D.A.’s job to make you “feel” like you have everything to lose. Even as experienced as I am in these matters, I felt compelled a few times to plead guilty rather than face stiffer penalties, but I just had to remind myself that I was innocent and was not pleading guilty. If I can just get to the judge, I can at least say my peace and feel better that I tried.
In all actuality, I see it as the judge is like “The Wizard of Oz” and the D.A. is the one that guards anyone from seeing the wizard. His/her time is too valuable.
The wizard wants to appear scary so that you’ll respect their authority but really, they are just people doing their job and most are genuinely trying to be helpful. If you are respectful and have some evidence or testimony to present, you may find that the judge is much nicer than the D.A. made them out to be.
The bottom-line is that you shouldn’t let the D.A. deter you from fighting to prove your innocence –assuming that you can. Of course, this is by no means legal advice, so you should always discuss your situation with a lawyer to ensure that your case isn’t so against you that you’d be viewed as wasting the wizard’s… err… I mean, judges time.
For instance, if you were tagged as going 93 mph in a 45 mph zone, and you want to plead “not guilty”, then you had better have a very good amount of proof that it wasn’t you somehow. If it was you and you were exceeding the speed limit more than 15 mph, then the judge may still want to prove a point to you. So, there are factors to consider. You may be innocent of 48 mph but if you are still guilty of 30 over, the judge will probably punish you severely for it. Make sense?
So, anyway, in my case, the judge said that she felt after hearing my testimony and questioning the officer that I was not purposely speeding but that my vehicle’s instrumentation must have been off (I did not have time beforehand to get it checked). So, I ended up having to pay the $133 fine anyway. However, you may note that it was still only $133 and not the $1,000 that the D.A. made me feel I was facing. They made me feel like I was risking a lot when in reality, I was not risking anything and I felt very satisfied that I at least had the opportunity and courage to face my accusers, talk to them, and say my peace. That alone made it worth paying $133 rather than just taking it, saying nothing, and paying anyway.
I hope you never have to endure the court system, but odds are that you will. In that case, I hope this little bit of insight gives you some more options and makes it not seem so bleak of a situation -should you have the inclination to prove your innocence. 
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