bktheirregular (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bktheirregular) wrote2005-08-04 10:52 pm
bktheirregular) wrote2005-08-04 10:52 pm
Unfinished business, or highway robbery by means of law
One thing that I had left undone before going overseas was a matter of paying off the town that caught me in a speed trap last month. Wide road, hidden cop, and to look at the ticket, the fine would sting but not bleed.
Except for the kicker: points on the insurance policy, which would lead up to a butcher's bill in the thousands down the line.
Now, New Jersey offers the ability to plead to a different offense in order to keep off the points. I didn't really have a choice, so I pled out. Which would be okay except for a few things:
1) The fine for the "lesser" offense is greater than the fine for the thing I got rung up for.
2) They never mention court costs on the ticket.
3) Instead of getting points on your license, you get hit with a massive surcharge penalty to be paid right then and there.
Upshot: a two-figure fine got turned into a check I had to hand over, totaling more than six days' pay at my current rate.
I suppose I'm lucky I deposited two weeks' paychecks today.
Except for the kicker: points on the insurance policy, which would lead up to a butcher's bill in the thousands down the line.
Now, New Jersey offers the ability to plead to a different offense in order to keep off the points. I didn't really have a choice, so I pled out. Which would be okay except for a few things:
1) The fine for the "lesser" offense is greater than the fine for the thing I got rung up for.
2) They never mention court costs on the ticket.
3) Instead of getting points on your license, you get hit with a massive surcharge penalty to be paid right then and there.
Upshot: a two-figure fine got turned into a check I had to hand over, totaling more than six days' pay at my current rate.
I suppose I'm lucky I deposited two weeks' paychecks today.
no subject