I was involved in a wreck this past January. I don't know that I even mentioned it here, as I was so stressed over it that every time I talked about it I could feel my blood boiling. Long story short, I was hit by someone pulling out of a driveway, making a left hand turn, but I received a ticket at the time because the officer said that I was driving in the turning lane. [In my whining 3 year old voice, "I was not!"]. Well, Monday morning I get to go to court to dispute my ticket and try to get it taken off my driving record. If I can get it dismissed, my insurance company will subrogate against the other party involved for the damages.
I live in a big city that has lots of bad drivers and lots of criminals (the traffic court division is in the same building as the jail house). I have never, ever been to this building for anything. I am scared! I feel like I should be using my 3 year old voice because I feel the need to hide under my bed. Don't get me wrong - I am not weak or easily intimidated, but the stories that I have heard from people going to the courthouse are really horrible.
UPDATE 03/18/09: I really thought that I finished this post and, well, posted it. But, as I sit here I noticed that it never went anywhere. So to update you on things... I went to the courthouse on Monday. The court time on my ticket was 9:00 AM. I got there at 7:30! I am always early, people. Maybe not always this early, but I am always early. After paying the $10 to park across the street from the courthouse, the plan was to scope it out and see where I needed to be and go back and sit in the car for a while to prepare myself.
When I went through the metal detectors (2 in the same hallway), found my way upstairs to the court rooms (I almost went to the visiting section of the jail!), and then found Division 2 (Honorable Tarik Sugarmon), I found that people were already waiting to get in. WOW! I was not first for once! I wanted to get everything over as quickly as possible so I decided to stand in line rather than going to sit in the car.
I am so glad I did! As 9:00 got closer, the chatter got louder. Employees started showing up for work, lawyers started looking for their clients, people wandered around looking for the correct court room... I looked around and noticed that I was standing in a hallway with, literally, several hundred other people.
Finally, the clerk came around and handed me a piece of paper with my name, date of birth, and the charges against me and I marched into the court room to face the judge (which I was told by friends that I would not have to do...). He asked me questions about what happened and then quickly told me that he was going to dismiss my case. Yay!
The whole experience was intimidating, but quick. Once things started moving it probably only took about 10 minutes! Nobody set themselves on fire in my presence and I found the courage to talk to the judge in a grown up voice - not a shaky 3 year old.
To make a long story short, my insurance company is going to pay for my damages and the other party's insurance is going to pay for her damages. Some 50/50 law crap. I don't get my deductible back but I don't have to pay for her damages. Basically, my insurance will go up, just not as much as I had feared.
Yay justice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment