Walk-in Traffic court

To cut a long story short, I got a red light violation ticket (381$) for taking right turn on red without stopping. (For those who don't know, it has to be treated like Stop sign) Since the ticket cost is high and I see a reasonable chance of reducing the fine (based on feedback from friends) I decided to fight it out (at least beg it out) at court.

1) When you get a ticket you have 3 options
a) Plead guilty & pay the full fine through mail and request traffic school
b) Plead not guilty by written declaration. i.e. Mail your case and hope you will get concession
c) Plead guilty - but try & reduce the fine by appearing in the court.

2-a) If you are choosing option 1, it costs you money but saves your time. And if you can apply for Traffic school then you can clear your points

2-b) If you are opting to plead not guilty by written declaration, then write your reasoning and sent it by mail. If accepted then you are free. If not accepted you are left with option a or c

2-c) If you choose c, then you should either get a court date of go to walk in court (in Alameda county it was on Tue & Thursdays).

3) Based on the suggestions to go early, I reached the court by 6.45AM for 8.30AM court. Apparently, they open they issue 50 (or so) tokens at 8AM and inform others to go home.
- There were atleast 70 people in front of me. I hoped that 20+ people would have come to support their dear ones. I figured out at 8AM that I was 10 people away from getting the coupon. 10 poor souls did come to support their friends :)

- The second attempt was more painful, I took a chance by going at 7.45AM on a very cold day (with mercury struggling to get out of his 0 degree celcius position) and was 2 people away from getting the token. (Damn! if only...) But I ended up taking the court date which was given a well 8 months away.

- The third attempt was planned to perfection. Thick jacket to negate the cold & Ipod to kill the boredom. Well almost perfect prepartion, apparently Ipods are not that useful without head phones :) I had to call Saumya to bring in the Ipod headsets and hot coffee. I reached the court at 6.15AM this time and had 30-35 people in front of me.
Tidbits:
- Afgani women in Traffic court line are no different from Indian women in water queue. They get upset if someone tries to cut the line. Even scary(?) looking Blacks were little bit scared
- Polish (or some Easter european) moms are identical to Indian moms. They show lot of affection but don't shy away from putting their kid in their place :)
- Camaraderie between people of different race, age and strata are easy to build when you have one common enemy - Cop or Traffic ticket :)

4) Finally I got the much awaited coupon. I entered a court for the first time in my life. Clear instructions were given on dos & donts by a professional clerk. Tape was played to tell what are the options we have (Plead not guilty, Plead guilty and No contest)
No Contest: It is almost like pleading guilty except for one thing. If someone sue you for the same reason you are pleading guilty (like Red light violation etc) they can use your guilty plea against you whereas with no contest, they cannot do that.
In that sense, no contest is better

5) Since they don't have appointed judge, they got a temporary judge that day. Only bad thing about it was, that judge relies more on the secretary (who happened to be a stricter one)

6) People are called in batches of 3-4 (with everyone else watching from their seats) to sit in front of the judge. One by one they were told their ticket reason and asked what they want to do.

7) New court date was given for people pleading not guilty (bcoz this judge was temporary - I guess)

8) Pleading guilty was the only option and the secretary was telling 381$ is a mandatory fine for red light violation. That means there is no chance of reducing that fine

9) In some random order I was called as 10-15th person. I pleaded "No contest" and then told the judge that I was taking right turn (and not shooting the red light) and still got the 381$ fine. Before the secretary could chime in, I said, my friends came and got their fines reduced.
The judge requested the picture/mail and after investigation reduced the fine to 125$
(First one on that day to get their fine reduced). I was happy that the time spent meant something :)

Here are my take

- Given the circumstances, it was definitely a good experience (not that I would look for one)
- If it is red light shoot (not right turn) OR <100$ ticket, then you don't gain anything for that 4 hour wait.
- If there is a traffic school option (by mailing), then paying 250$ more is not a bad option

Bottom line: DONT GET A TICKET! It is not worth it!