Traffic court
Just got back from traffic court. I’ve had a number of problems with all the legalities of driving lately. First, I was in a wreck on May 10th. Totally not my fault, but dammit, I didn’t have my insurance card. Then I was out of town on my court date and totally forgot about it. I didn’t check my mail for weeks; it was all just bills, and I pay all of them online, and I was feeling kinda down and in no mood to leave my apartment so I just let it stack up. Of course one piece of mail was a notice that my license was suspended for not showing up with proof of insurance.
On top of that I hadn’t paid for new registration tags since April. I’m unemployed, I’m broke, I’m disorganized, and like to procrastinate. Add it all up and you get late payment of your motor vehicle taxes. So I got pulled over for the tags about a month ago, was informed my license was now revoked, and that I’d have to get a new one. On top of that, it was a three point ticket so I stood a good chance of losing my license (I had a massive speeding/reckless driving ticket last year… no need to go into that here, but here’s the post on that horrible traffic court session).
So in the last month (with much prodding from Beth. Thanks Beth!) I paid the no-proof-of-insurance thing, proved I was insured to the DMV, got a new license, and bought new tags for my car. All I had left was a walk before the judge.
And that ended up being a real cakewalk! I was terrified, of course, and it didn’t make it better when the judge (a magistrate, actually, since it was night court) informed me that it was really a twelve point violation. Then she said I’d have to talk to the city attorney, and I saw a glimmer of hope. He immediately told me they were dropping everything and giving me a false plates charge as that involved zero points. The city of Denver didn’t want me to lose my license! Thanks, guys!
So I paid the fine, which I don’t think was as high as it could’ve been. The judge seemed to base the fines on your previous record and she got distracted while she was tallying up my spotty past. So the fine was only seventy-five bucks plus court costs.
To top it off, I got my real license in the mail today. I was walking around with the paper temp license that they give you at the DMV office. It used to be they printed up the actual license onsite, but I think they must have had some security problems. I vaguely recall a story about a fake license scandal a couple of years ago, perhaps they changed their procedures in response to that?
Now I’m totally in the clear, and if I can manage to remain ticket free this month those first eight points get erased off my driving record. If I stay clean for two years then my sky high insurance rates will be cut nearly in half. I can hardly wait.
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I’m Makin’ My O Face…
Yeah, y’all know where that comes from, don’t you? The letter of the day is O. Oh. O is for…
Oh how funny – it’s so much like my life lately. I needed a DMV report for a certification I’m trying to get and low and behold, my license was suspended for a “failure to appear” charge for expired plates, about 2 years ago. I had to pay the charge (only $60 – a bargain, I thought, especially for Denver) and get a new license and I just got mine in the mail today TOO!
And oh my god lordy lordy it’s the worst license picture I’ve ever had!
(Oh, and I heard that the reason they mail it to you now is from people trying to get ID’s with fake addresses for purposes of skirting around school district boundaries, among other things.)
My picture is pretty bad, too. The camera was set so that I had to look down at it, so now I look like I have a double chin, even with the twenty-five pounds I’ve lost.
Oh, no! lol. My last one was so nice cause I had you know, prepared for it. A little makeup, a little swoosh of the hair. Bah. This one I have no makeup on and my hair is pulled back. So I look like a really ugly bald woman.
The thing is, I did prepare. Did my hair up nice, wore a nice shirt, even shaved. But then I was two inches too tall for that damn camera.
Oh, and that’s a crappy reason to mail the cards. I had to provide proof of address when I first got my license, and they asked me if I had another mailing address when I got this one. So I assume you could ask for a card with a Denver address and then have it mailed to, say, Longmont.
Maybe the reason Denver wants you to keep your license is so you can get a job and stop leeching off the state, you Patchouli-stinkin’ hippie.
I stopped leaching off the state weeks ago. And I’ve never smelt of patchouli.
Rocky Mountain Blog Roundup!
Yeehaw, it’s the premier edition. Save it, it’ll be a collector’s item. Much thanks to the bloggers who participated. Here’s what they sent, in order of receipt. Recently revived blogger Matthew Edgar (um, that’s his blog that was revived)…
yeah SUCK DICK man…go fuck yourself:D