The Cat Who Walks Alone, who got her driver’s license in August, rear-ended a city bus in November (she didn’t realize it was going to stop for the railroad tracks about 5 blocks from our house). $4,000 worth of damage to the family car ($1,000 deductible ), she was OK, nobody was hurt.
The phone rings, “This is the Anytown Police Department, do you have a daughter named The Cat…?” :eek: I walk down there. The cop who handed us the ticket (Failure to Reduce Speed to Avoid an Accident) said you had two options: you could pay the ticket and thus plead guilty, or you could go down to Traffic Court and fight the ticket. He DIDN’T say anything about the Illinois Traffic Safety program, which is where, if you’re eligible, you can get court supervision, take a 4-hour course, and get the ticket off your record in 2 years.
So I went ahead and paid the ticket, philosophically. “Worse things have happened to teenagers, at least no one was hurt…” They send her driver’s license back. End of story. Then a week later, we get this Traffic Safety brochure in the mail (evidently the two halves of the Circuit Clerk’s Office don’t speak to each other), I think, “Oh, that’s a good idea,” I send in the money and the form, and they send it back within the week, with a Post-It note saying, “We can’t accept this since you already pleaded guilty–call this number if you have any questions”.
It was a busy week–Christmas concerts, snowstorms, etc. I stuck it in the “Pay This” box, with the other bills, where I didn’t come across it again until yesterday, as I was paying bills. (We also got two notifications from the Secretary of State, to The Cat and to the “parents of”, telling us that she now had a conviction on her record. Those also got shoved in the “Pay This” box when they arrived. :rolleyes: )
So. The Circuit Clerk’s office says we can pay another fee, go to Traffic Court, and ask the judge to “vacate the Cat’s conviction” and ask for court supervision, and then she’ll be able to do the Traffic Safety Course and have it removed from her record.
My main question is, (don’t laugh) what do we wear? It goes without saying that the Better Half will use Spot Annual Leave and go with us. The Cat always looks marvelous, but the B.H. and I tend towards the blue jeans/Dockers look. Should we get dressed up? Sunday best? Or more casual? We don’t want to look like arrogant suckups, but neither do we want to look like we just fell off the turnip truck.
Should we take a lawyer?
Is this the sort of thing where everybody shows up at 9 a.m. and they work their way through the docket, so you have to figure on spending the entire day there?
Is it like Judge Judy? Or is it like Night Court?