In May, I got sideswiped by a bus...and got the ticket for it.
Today I had my court appearance for the stop light. I'm happy to report that the only way it could've gone any better was if the cop didn't show up.
He did, but the whole thing didn't even take five minutes. The magistrate was a super-nice guy. He asked what I did for a living and I explained that I have two jobs. He perked up and zeroed in on that, asked me a few questions about the plant I work at, then just went right into how I had a clean driving record up to that point, that my last ticket was six years ago and he thought that was a really long time to go without a ticket. He asked the officer how I was during the stop, and he said I was totally fine, admitted what I did wrong right away, etc. The magistrate said that he had no problem just letting me pay the fine, he was knocking it down to "impeding traffic," which won't even go on my driving record at all, just don't do it again, and have a nice weekend.
So, when I go to court for the bus thing in two weeks, this is SO going to help me out, because there won't be this ticket on my record. Keeping my fingers crossed that it goes this well next time, too.
