Traffic Court

St Thomas. 340-774-6680.

Better off paying the ticket. If it goes south, let me know and I'll try and bring you some smokes.

I fought a citation! Backed into a car that was parked in a No Parking zone when I came out of my garage in Christiansted. Had pictures of car I hit in No Parking zone and a diagram printed. I WON MY CASE! This was in '96. If you are in the right, fight it! Who wants more points on their insurance rate?

Yes, but you weren't in the right. Just because a car is parked illegally doesn't mean that you were in the right. Like the old saying says, two wrongs never make a right. You still BACKED into a parked car, so you were negligent. It's just the judge that you got on that particular day felt that there were exigent circumstances involved like the car being parked in a no parking zone, which contributed to the accident and since you went through the extra effort with the diagram and photos he threw you a bone. hahahahahahaha

Better off paying the ticket. If it goes south, let me know and I'll try and bring you some smokes.

I recently paid a fine for a violation (not an accident case) because I was in the wrong and knew it but twice in the past I've pleaded my case when I knew I was right and I prevailed. Ergo I'd never tell anyone just to "pay up".

I'll agree that if a person has time on their hands to kill and won't accept the situation then go for it. Who knows you might get lucky. I have written hundreds if not thousands of traffic tickets in 20 plus years and not a single person felt that they deserved the ticket even though some actually knew what they had done wrong, but they felt that they should have been given a warning. Some even went to court to fight the ticket on that premise.

So yes, if you got nothing better to do, go for it, who knows the judge might have gotten lucky the night before or got up early enough that particular morning to have that second cup of coffee that put them in a good sympathetic, compassionate, forgiving mood. The judge may at the very least withhold adjudication and just have the person pay the fine without any points being assessed on their license.:)

Either way, good luck with your efforts,
Mike

I went to court on those two occasions not because (a) I had time to spare/waste or (b) because I hoped the judge would be in a good mood having eaten his Wheaties for breakfast but (c) because the tickets were totally unjustified. It's called "sticking up for what's right", no more and no less. Probably the same reason (one hopes) that you've given out hundreds of traffic citations over the years. A matter of principle.

No doubt there are some who go to court to fight a ticket which they were justifiably given and that is a waste of time - everybody's.

Like I said, NO BODY thinks they deserve a ticket. But if you found a sympathetic judge then good for you.

Mike, are you actually living in the VI now?

Like I said, NO BODY thinks they deserve a ticket. But if you found a sympathetic judge then good for you.

Well obviously I do if I paid a ticket the other week for a violation when I knew I was in the wrong. Of course I deserved it. In neither case when I prevailed was it a question of finding "a sympathetic judge".

In one of the incidents, scores of people (and I knew half a dozen personally) paid tickets for the same "offense" because they couldn't take time off from their businesses to go to court to fight it. The day when I appeared a young man in front of me stood when his name was called and the judge exasperatedly said to the clerk, "Is this ANOTHER one of those unlicersed vehicle cases?". When she responded in the affirmative he immediately said, "dismissed" and exactly the same happened when I was called next in line. It turned out that the tickets which the police officers had been zealously writing for the same thing a few months beforehand had finally reached court that previous day and when the judge heard what it was all about he was furious with the VIPD for having wasted everybody's time and let them know it in open court.

I don't see how insulting someone's intelligence makes your point or even really what your point is. Only The Shadow ...