# Tectonic plates move faster than my courtesy notice **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 5, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929 "2005-10-05T18:23:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/1 "2005-10-05T18:23:42Z")
Last month I received a speeding ticket ☹ . Being the honest citizen I am, I resolved to sort out the ticket as quickly as possible. I was planning on going to traffic school to prevent the ticket from raising my car insurance. September went by and no courtesy notice. I started to get worried, so I called the traffic court to see what is going on. It turns out that they _just_ started processing tickets issued in September :smack: Why is it so goddamn slow? I want to get this sorted out quickly; hell I almost wish cops let you pay the fine when they issue the ticket, just to get it out of the way 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/2 "2005-10-05T18:25:58Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > …hell I almost wish cops let you pay the fine when they issue the ticket, just to get it out of the way 😛 Suppose they had a credit card swiper in their cruiser. “Okay Mac, I caught you doing 55 in a 35. That’ll be $80. You can contest it in court in 45 days or pay the fine right now.” I wonder how many people would elect to pay right then if the option were available. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/3 "2005-10-05T18:34:38Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > Suppose they had a credit card swiper in their cruiser. “Okay Mac, I caught you doing 55 in a 35. That’ll be $80. You can contest it in court in 45 days or pay the fine right now.” I wonder how many people would elect to pay right then if the option were available. If I knew I was screwed (i.e. no reasonable way to argue otherwise) I’d probably do that, so long as I had a receipt. That reminds me, some places let you pay your ticket by credit card. I always wondered what the courts would do to you if you decided to get weaselly about it and issue a chargeback…:eek: ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/4 "2005-10-05T18:57:07Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Last month I received a speeding ticket Well, according to one of the sponsored links, there are “simple, legal, guaranteed” ways to avoid paying that ticket. Looks like you are in the clear! ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/5 "2005-10-05T19:36:40Z")
You think that’s bad? Let me tell you my speeding ticket story. It was…October of my junior year in college. My parents came down to see my in a play I was in. The next morning (after the cast party, I remind you) I had to drive fifteen minutes to have breakfast with them. I was late, so I stepped on the gas a little more than usual, going 73 in a 55 (in my defense, it was a speedtrap. It’s a small part of I-87 north of Albany that it 55 MPH. Since I had only been driving on that road myself since last May, and not very often, I didn’t notice the ONE sign telling me it was 55 MPH (there is more than one sign, but only one from when I got on the interstate to where I got my ticket (about ten miles.)) Anyhoo, I get my ticket, was even more late, arived and had to say why (granted, it was my first ticket, so they went easy on me.) I checked the form saying not guilty on the back to request a court date and sent it in (seeing as it was my frist time, I figured the court would also go easy and bump it down so I didn’t get points ion my license.) Well, about a month goes by, and I get a notice from the court, telling my to show up November 17th, or around there. Well…it was now well past November 17th. I looked at the envelope, and it was POSTMARKED on the 17th. Just how in the Hell am I suppossed to show up for a court date if the letter doesn’t get sent to me until that day?! I called up the courthouse and explained the situation, and they said they understood, and they were very back-logged, and a new date would be issued and I’d get a notice. Well, a month goes by…nothing. Another month, and another, and another, still nothing. By summer, I figure I was “lost in the shuffle,” as it were. Well, come may of my senior year, I get a notice to show up to court for a speeding ticket I received in October of 2002. :smack: You’re kidding me?! So I got a ticket at the start of my junior year and never went to court for it until a week before I graduated. (FTR, it was reduced, but I still got a point or two on my license.) ---
**Author:** ![fushj00mang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@fushj00mang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fushj00mang)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/6 "2005-10-05T20:33:57Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > That reminds me, some places let you pay your ticket by credit card. I always wondered what the courts would do to you if you decided to get weaselly about it and issue a chargeback…:eek: Sumter SC allows you to pay cash immediately to the officer issuing the citation (he gives you a receipt.) You can still contest it in court of course. The court does take credit cards. But, if you’re found guilty or plead no contest and then try to do a chargeback, they’ll issue a bench warrant and bring you in. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/7 "2005-10-05T20:39:58Z")
Oh, hey, a $20 bill paperclipped to my driver’s license. I have no idea how did that get there officer. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/8 "2005-10-06T14:05:59Z")
**Bouv** , I can beat that. Ticketed in '89, driving over the speed limit in the right lane, being passed by traffic in the left lane. This was the very start of my 2nd year of College. Forward 3 years, and the notification of a court date finally comes in the mail. This one had a happy ending though, the clerk owed my uncle the “Statie” a favor, and though I was dressed for court, and arrived in front of the courthouse, I was sent away by my uncle prior to entering saying “It’s all set.” 😃 Happy ending, but 3 freekin years??? What happened to a fair & speedy trial??? -Butler ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/9 "2005-10-06T14:44:09Z")
This was related to me by a former coworker. His father got a speeding ticket, delivered to him, in hand, personally, by the officer who stopped him. In Wisconsin. For 10 years, the guy, and the car in question, which was up on blocks for 10 years, had never left Massachusetts. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/10 "2005-10-06T15:22:27Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > I was planning on going to traffic school to prevent the ticket from raising my car insurance. Do yourself a favor and make _absolutely sure_ that your insurance company works that way. I used to work for a major insurance company, and had the unenviable task of explaining to someone that he had taken the class for nothing, because his particular policy didn’t stipulate that driving school would help. He had just taken it as a given that it would knock the ticket off his record, and now his rates went up _and_ he was out the money he spent on driving school. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/11 "2005-10-06T16:55:39Z")
Yeah, I hate it when I break the law and then the government’s inconvenient about it. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/12 "2005-10-06T17:18:17Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > Yeah, I hate it when I break the law and then the government’s inconvenient about it. Isn’t there something in the constitution about a speedy trial? ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tectonic-plates-move-faster-than-my-courtesy-notice/324929/13 "2005-10-06T21:36:16Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > Isn’t there something in the constitution about a speedy trial? So, a month isn’t speedy? > [@Incubus](#): > > It turns out that they just started processing tickets issued in **September** Date of post 10/05/05 :rolleyes: