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