<p>Howdy parents of college confidential. I’m a senior in high school who drives to school everyday. Our parking situation is HORRENDOUS, with not nearly enough spots in our school’s lot. Anyways, I didn’t get to school early enough to get a spot in the parking lot (my AP test was at 8am, my school starts at 740), hence I had to park on the street. The streets surrounding my school are all 2 hr parking, and I knew I was going into a 3 hour test, but I had to run the risk otherwise I’d be walking a good mile to school and miss it. Anyways, after my exam, I walked outside to discover a nice ticket in my windshield wipers for 25.00 (2.5 hrs in 2 hr zone). Anyways, I hear parking tickets are dismissed a lot of the time if you plead not guilty and have a legitimate reason. Is mine a legitimate one, and should I try fighting it?</p>
<p>If you have the evening available to wait around at the courthouse until your case is heard, I’d say go try.</p>
<p>I always ask myself, “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Worst is, you’ve wasted an evening. If you lose the case, don’t get steamed over it.
Bring a book for the wait-around.</p>
<p>THe best is, you might get it cut in half or dismissed. But it can’t be made any worse, after all, by the judge.</p>
<p>If I were the judge, though, I’d be asking you, if you knew this about your school, why didn’t you arrive earlier that day for the parking lot or to walk the mile? </p>
<p>Judges are more about getting people to think in terms of following the law, rather than explaining why their circumstances made it inconvenient or harder to follow the law.</p>
<p>But if you get a softie judge who remembers when s/he took the SAT’s, then that memory might cause him/her to feel these are “extenuating circumstances” and reduce or toss out the ticket.</p>
<p>Be contrite and take responsibility for what you did wrong. You really did violate the parking regs, and you’re sorry (if you are) but here’s what happened. Be matter-of-fact, not whiney. </p>
<p>Whatever happens, chalk it up to a learning experience.</p>
<p>OH, and, OUCH! I’m sorry if you have to pay this. It bites.</p>
<p>I don’t know about parking tickets, but around here if you contest a ticket for speeding, going through a red light, or similar moving violations and you lose, you have to pay court costs which you would not have paid if you plead guilty and just sent in the payment. Usually the way it works (for speeding tickets, etc.) is that if you go to court, the prosecutor will reduce the charge so that you won’t get any or as many points on your license, but you pay the court costs so the municipality makes more money.</p>
<p>This may not work the same way for parking tickets, however.</p>
<p>So perhaps call the courthouse and find out if those moving violations, as described by MotherOfTwo, are handled the same way as parking tickets.
Maybe your GC will know; easier than calling a courthouse.</p>
<p>this is on the other theard, but I would think legitimate excuses are childbirth, dead car, hurt animal, and the like…when there was no way to get back to the car and had no choice but to put it there</p>
<p>a test, eh, you could have gotten a ride or walked it</p>
<p>my city, you would have to pay</p>
<p>I mean, $25.00 isn’t the end of the world, but as a senior in all AP courses, my course load lightens significantly after next week. Thus, I can afford an evening waiting around for the hearing. I’ll also check up about those court fees. Thanks everyone for your advice!</p>
<p>Just pay it.</p>
<p>Your evening should be worth more to you than $25.</p>
<p>If you really want to, though, you can try to make the case that the public school is responsible for providing enough parking. That’s not really the case since school bus service is free, though.</p>
<p>Driving is a privilege, not a right…^</p>
<p>Well if you have time go for it. Otherwise, pay the ticket. It doesn’t go on your record or anything…</p>
<p>Pay the $25 and move on. It’s not that much. The time and worry spent trying to eliminate the fine, with no guarantee you’ll be excused (unlikely since you knew how long the test was going to take, and how long the meter allowed), isn’t worth it imo.</p>
<p>In some states you can get “points” added to your driving record for pleading guilty or being found guilty of any traffic violation. Get enough points and the state will suspend or revoke your license. Also, some insurance companies will raise your rates when you have a certain number of points. You might want to find out if your state does this, whether parking violations count, and check with your insurance company. The penalties may be more severe if you’re under 18.</p>
<p>Just pay it. You knew you were risking a ticket by parking where you weren’t supposed to.</p>
<p>with regards to what over30 said, parking wouldn’t count, because anyone could have parked the car…i could say my mom parked the car…parking tickets are not parking violations, they get you with that by not allowing you to register the car if you haven’t paid the tickets</p>
<p>in SF, with my husbands business, we try our best to park properlly, but parking tickers are sometimes just the cost of doing business</p>
<p>Pay it and forget it.</p>
<p>Pay the ticket. You didn’t arrive early enough to get a space. There was no emergency; you knew when the test was and when the parking lot filled. You have no excuse.</p>
<p>And parking tickets are not moving violations which add points to the license; they don’t even have your drivers license number.</p>
<p>not worth the trouble for a 25 dollar ticket.</p>
<p>I agree with paying3tuitions. I’d fight the ticket. Be very polite in court and follow the rules. The experience with the court system may come in handy someday if you should ever get a more serious kind of ticket or problem.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t bother to fight it…you won’t win…and it wastes everyone’s time for something that was obviouslly your fault</p>
<p>what exactly would the argument or defense be?</p>
<p>um, I was to lazy to walk, and I had an optional test to take…</p>
<p>I got a $20 parking ticket today because I was hanging out too long at lunch with my friends. When I got to my car the policeman was right in front of it and he told me he had already ticketed my car. I asked him how long I had now and he replied as long as I wanted, so I hung out with my friends for another hour. So I kind of wasted 75 cents because I am going to end up paying $20.75 for parking when I could have gotten the same deal for just $20.00. </p>
<p>At our hs they really pick on the kids who park in the neighborhood. The neighbors complain and the police always issue tickets. Last year my kid got a ticket for parking the wrong way, ie he parked with the drivers side next to the curb. It was a $53 parking ticket!</p>
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<p>If the rules were followed in the first place - they wouldn’t be in this situation. Just be accountable and pay the ticket.</p>
<p>How did you do on the test? If you did well enough to get credit, then an extra $25 is still a pretty good deal.
You took a calculated risk. You knew your time away would exceed the allowable parking time, opted to be on time for the test, and it ran you a little extra money. Just chalk it up to, as CGM says, the “cost of business”.
I wouldn’t go to court. Had it been an exam that was estimated to take under 2 hours and you went over, then you might have an argument to make. However, knowing that it was 3 hours in advance is the deal breaker IMO.
Good luck and congrats on your accomplishments!</p>