A Ferguson court employee reported, for example, that “the bench routinely starts hearing cases 30 minutes before the appointed time and then locks the doors to the building as early as five minutes after the official hour, a practice that could easily lead a defendant arriving even slightly late to receive an additional charge for failure to appear.”
As having a lead foot- i've had plenty of speeding tickets handled by attorneys and decided one day to try my hand at representing myself- since what could be the harm, besides being granted a continuance. I walked into C (Town) (very wealthy community) with a ticket for a driving w/ a suspended driving license and speeding ticket- because:
6 weeks prior (approx) F (town- even wealthier than C) had pulled me over, I didn't have insurance card. Forgot to show up to show them current, so they suspended my DL, without my knowledge, which i'm not disputing. After C-Town pulls me over- i find out and get a ticket for driving w/ suspended & ALSO get arrested, bc of Frontenac's traffic warrant. They phone F town, and get the okay- for me to bail myself out from C town. Long story short- I was in and out of the station within 20 mins. The arresting officer even took me back to my car, which he allowed me to park in a neighborhood, and watched me drive off, after he had given me a driving on suspended. I then went to F town to show that my insurance was current at the time of ticket, got my DL suspension revoked. $20. Then at court, since i had a "perfect" driving record, the prosecutor dropped my speeding ticket- and fined me $200 (including court cost) and dropped the driving on suspended down to non moving.
So- around christmas after that, i'm driving back from visiting friends in IL, and take 270. And get pulled over for speeding in Calverton Park (North county), so i get off at the upcoming exit. The cop proceeds to harass me about my car- which was a brand new 750li. Asking what i do for a living. I answered. So then he seemed somewhat "understanding" (maybe to say- oh, she isn't a drug dealer.)- and says, "I'm going to let you off with a stop sign ticket."
I go to Calverton Park court, thinking i can rep. myself easy- when i finally get to the judge- he TOO asked me "what is it that you do young lady?" Then, after i answered, he said, what is it that i can do for you, so i said, since i have an excellent driving record, am i able to take a driving course and get the ticket dropped to a non moving fine. To which he says- no. you will need an attorney for that. And gave me a date to which the case which continued. 2 months later- my ($100) attorney sent me a letter stating that i owed $150 in non moving violation and no class.
Oh and btw, how he spoke to me, was WAYYYYYY nicer than how he spoke to other people who had similar traffic infractions. Def was an eye opener. You could tell the median income of the people in line was lower than average. All these people showed up bc they did not want to or have the money to hire an attorney. Were they just going to have to take their chances and more than likely pay a fine that would result in points on their license.
