What do i do about my jaywalking ticket?

Were you jaywalking?

Hiring a lawyer is useless and expensive.

Pay it and forget it.

You did the crime, you pay the fine.

I don’t think the officer’s vision failed when seeing you do it.

Jaywalking is not something to fight over, just pay it.

what exactly happened?

chances are there is zero evidence they can produce in court to prove someone did not pretend to be you when they gave a fake name.

<stands before traffic court judge> “I’d like to dispute this ticket” says @benvp.

Judge looks at ticket, looks @benvp and says “Were you jaywalking?”

Now….what will you say back that won’t sound idiotic? You’ll be wasting the judge’s time. Pay the ticket.

@SpatzieLover per @poisonedantidote “Your Honor, I contend that it was my undocumented evil twin who stole my ID.”

@poisonedantidote (cool name!)—futhermore, if you actually contested it, the cop who gave you the ticket would show up and ID you as the person s/he gave the ticket to.

I’d just pay it and then go the Pedestrian School to keep it off my record.

If you want to get it reduced you can go to court and say, “guilty with an explanation.” Give your explanation and ask for the fine to be reduced. It’s up to the mercy of the judge at that point.

Ask Jay Leno.

@Judi I had to walk in the middle of the street to get to the other side ;)

@grumpyfish

well, bit of a strawman argument there.

“your hunour, i contend that the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to demonstrate and prove that the person in question was actually me and that the ID was not a fake. you can not expect citizens to demonstrate their innocence on demand for any charge you care to make, you need evidence and proof that i have done wrong in order to penalize me. so i ask, is a piece of paper with some symbols on it really solid proof that i am guilty. would you hang a man with the same amount of evidence? justice is not justice unless its the same rules for everyone”

@poisonedantidote Have you tried that one with a speeding ticket, or any other charge?

I mean, I’ve seen the Columbo where they establish an alibi by wearing a mask and running a redlight, but I’ve never heard of it working the other way.

@grumpyfish i dont drive, and if that does not work you can always go on to make other arguments.

but personally i would fight this to the bitter end, and would rather do jail time than pay it. people should be able to walk wherever they want, and this kind of ticket is as close as you can get to demanding that people carry a ’‘walking license’’, i think its just ridiculous.

plus i really dont like government of any kind at the best of times.

but no, i have never tried that exact argument.

@poisonedantidote That makes more sense now =)

The problem is, at least in the US, that the judicial cannot decide based on the fact that someone doesn’t like a law. Your best bet is to start lobbying your congressfolks to repeal jaywalking laws. There are often supreme court rulings that essentially say “This law sucks, but we have to rule this way, congress needs to fix it however.”

Simply coming up with ridiculous claims is not going to get you out of it. (Which are generally easily refuted, either by eyewitness testimony—and for your murder example, yes, if the cop says you shot someone, you’re likely going to get convicted)

Just pay it and be done with it.