Love & Traffic Court

Today's Miami Herald has a cute Valentine's Day story about a Broward County couple finding love in traffic court.

When I went to traffic court a couple of weeks ago, all I got was my ticket dismissed. And as the cop didn't show up, I didn't even get to explain why the ticket — supposedly for stopping several inches beyond the line at a stop sign but in fact for behaving legally in a manner not enjoyed by a police officer — was an outrage. So much for my first pro se appearance in court…

Note to self: if you wear a tie to traffic court in Miami, they all think you are a lawyer representing someone else.

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6 Responses to Love & Traffic Court

  1. P Mueller says:

    Ah yes, the tie.
    I had to appear in court after a fender bender (my fault) to plead for supervision so that the incident would not go on my record (and to get my licesne back so that I could drive a rental car on an upcoming vacation).
    The court was very kind to push up my case to preceed my departure date but it fell on a minor crimes day rather than a traiffc court day.
    I showed up in suit and tie – the majority of my fellow evil doers looked as if they were headed to an Oakalnd Raiders game.
    I was mistaken for a lawyer. They took me first.
    Maybe they would have anyway. But the court granted my request (after appropriate fines).
    Always wear a tie to court.

  2. wcw says:

    It can backfire. I wore a tie to my court date (for jaywalking, which I did, but which appearance I expected the cop to skip, which he did). The judge assumed I was a lawyer for someone else, not who I was, and didn’t dismiss me as he should have as soon as the police officer failed to show. I did get to watch some entertaining amateur representation, not that mine would have been any better.

  3. I hate to admit that I am currently working in traffic court, in Chicago. For the record, we do a considerable volume of cases. I imagine it is no more or less than most large cities, but when you seen close to 100 cases per day in one court room, the entropy of such a situation means anything can happen, even love. Though, I doubt I would ever see love blossom in traffic court here, even though some of our prosecutors get hit on in the missed connections section of Craig’s list.

  4. Sue Ann says:

    When my son was in high school he was hit (kicked actually)in the face and had his nose broken by a drop out who was on school property. We went to juvenile court. I made my son wear his Sunday clothes, i.e. suit and tie, as did my husband and I wore appropriate Sunday church clothing as well. Several police officers came up to us and said that my son was “obviously” not there for a hearing because no “kid” who committed a crime in Miami would show up dressed that way.
    But neither my husband nor I were mistaken for lawyers (although we were dressed better than some I saw.)

  5. Michael says:

    Maybe it was the file and the notepad in addition to the tie…

  6. Adam says:

    they all think you are a lawyer representing someone else.

    But…you are a lawyer, and isn’t there a joke that implies you had an idiot for a client? Clearly, you’re not an idiot, QED you were representing someone else. 🙂

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