About 10 years ago I received in the mail a parking ticket from city of Chicago. The plate on the ticket was for a 32 foot long grain truck on my farm. I called the phone number and informed them as how difficult it would be to park my truck on Rush street so they had the number wrong. Was informed that they never made mistakes and pay the ticket or they would come and arrest me. Told them see you in court and the judge asked me why I traveled 80 miles to dispute a $50 parking ticket. Explained why and presented my evidence. Ticket was dismissed shortly after that it was discovered the the traffic division was sitting in coffee shops and just writing tickets and making up license plate numbers.
I got a camara speeding letter from Ohio, I live nowhere near Ohio. It was not a ticket, more like a letter asking me in kind of a confusing way for money for speeding. I ignored it. Then i started getting calls and letters from a collection company. I ignored them. Then i got a letter saying someone had won a lawsuit against me and was entitled to take my car. I ignored it. A few months went by and i got a visit from a guy with a tow truck looking to pick up my car. I pointed at the car parked in front. He picked it up and left. A few days later i got a visit from the police asking me if i saw anything since my Nabor's car had been stolen. I gave them the name of the towing company who i saw take the car. I don't own a car.
So what happens if the tow truck driver explains that you identified that car as the one he was there to pick up? Sounds to me like YOU stole the neighbor's car by proxy.
They used to have red light cameras where I live, but they had to remove them. Someone would find out the make, model, and license plate numbers of some city council members. Then rent the same kind of vehicle, and altar the plates. Then they would run red lights at the same time council members would be going to and from work. It was actually quite funny.
Yep, theyre all on the same team. And you aint on it. I had a judge say to me verbatim: "you callin my officer a liar?!" Simply for saying/pleading "Not Guilty, your honor."
My favorite bureaucratic nonsense is when the government sends you something that can be contested, but the deadline to contest is earlier than the date when they send the notice.
Those are easytoet dismissed. I fixed a letter asking if they fraudulently put the date on and said I would be filing suit for fraud and also filing with postmaster General for wire fraud. I actually got the state involved and faced the guy in administrative hearing where I had the right to dress the bastard down in front of my attorney.he had to sit there and take it.i told him if he ever tried it again I'd get him fired and sue him in his personal capacity.very satisfying
@@billgillette2859 I love when people exert their rights. Nice one! I think too many departments operate on the shotgun principle, and most people don't push back, even when it is clearly an error. I would never not push back. No chance I am paying for something I didn't do. - Cheers
What convinced me the legal system was corrupt and immoral was when I actually paid a lawyer $500 to beat a speeding ticket after North Plains retired judge rubber stamped it. My lawyer moved the trial to another judge that he was friends with and brought the fact that they cited me for speeding in a rural area instead of just basic speed, but couldn't show on a map any place in Oregon that legally qualified as a "rural area". North plains apparently financed their police department by posting their city cop on the highway that ran though a corner of the city limits... as if people driving a few miles an hour over the speed limit on a restricted access highway were endangering the residents of the city.
Yes, you called it right, legal system. A system where people juggle around with words to make profit off of innocent victims, and sadly not a justice system, where justice is served and aggressors are punished and victims compensated.
Had a co-worker get a ticket for avoiding tolls on the San Rafael / Richmond bridge. He was on vacation in Hawaii at the date and time. The picture of his motorcycle was just black smuge. The bridge authority said it was his motorcycle and someone in his house had " borrowed " his motorcycle. He wrote that it unlikly that his 95 year old mother " borrowed " his motorcycle. The bridge authority dropped the claim !
The insanity that can arise from mistaken identity can sometimes be hilarious. A coworker of mine, many years ago(before he was even a coworker), was once served a paternity suit out of Oklahoma(I'm in Ohio, for the record), where he'd never been, from a woman who's name he'd never heard of. He noticed IMMEDIATELY that the suit was intended to be served to someone in Oklahoma who's name, street number, and street name happened to the be the same, but obviously the city, state, and zip code were different. He contacted an attorney in Oklahoma who notified the court of the error, but the court basically said, "no, it's not wrong, you need to show up." So he did. And the lady who filed the suit is completely confused about who this person it. Her attorney spends an hour trying to convince her it's the man she's alleging to be the father of her child, even though she claims she's never seen my coworker before. Their case gets called, and the attorney actively stops her from telling the judge that the wrong man has been served! It isn't until my coworker's attorney gets his chance to speak that shit hits the fan. When he tells the judge basically, "Look, my client's willing to take a paternity test to end this, but we could end it a lot quicker just by letting the plaintiff herself speak." Long story short, the attorney tried to stop her from speaking, but she finally spoke anyway, telling the judge that this is NOT the person who had intended to file suit against. Judge goes over the data, looks at my coworker's driver's license, and EXPLODES at plaintiff's attorney for trying to continue despite being informed about the discrepancy. He dismisses the suit, tells the plaintiff she'll need to refile "with competent counsel" against the correct plaintiff and apologizes to her for having to have the situation dragged out. Plaintiff was incredibly nice and cracked a couple of good jokes outside the courtroom with coworker before he headed home. Two months later he gets served papers out of Oklahoma AGAIN. Did new attorney make the same fuckup? NOPE! Original attorney is suing my coworker AND his original client, for "embarrassing" him - he accused his former client and my coworker of conspiring to humiliate him before a judge. He and the woman's new attorney got it thrown out VERY fast - though he did find out through the OK attorney(he never had to show up for anything this time - lawyer handled it all) three things: 1) The woman did get the correct person served second time around(and he apparently made no effort to resist the claim and became actively involved with his child), 2) The attorney never even checked to see if he had the right person because when he found someone with the same name and street number/name in Ohio he assumed there must have simply been an error in the last known address, and there was no possible way it could be a different person. 3) The one that will likely surprise nobody, the original attorney was damn near fresh out of law school, it was only the second case he had ever filed himself, and he was a childhood friend of the plaintiff, but that friendship is definitely dead now. The legal world is insane.
Hah, not quite as bad, but someone with my name had a warrant in OK, same name, but one letter spelled wrong and different middle name and birth date. They tried to extradite me, I told the cops, "You are fucking stupid. I was in sixth grade when this was issued."
Goes along with ordering police to "stand down" & refuse federal law enforcement assistance all while the city burned & people were being injured in 2020.
Same thing happens with child support were men are forced to pay for a kid that's not theirs. The system is flawed yes but it's those who work in the system that are corrupt.
It’s so annoying and frustrating when the system SCREWS US over they require us to prove our innocence. I’m just minding my own business over here staying out of trouble and when some idiot decides to pick on me, suddenly I have to defend myself? No. That’s not how this should work.
I got a DUI in AZ and wasn't drinking. The cop was an azz. I was arrested, blew a 0.00 and they took me for a blood test. They eventually dropped the charges but not before I paid for the tow, impound, bail, a lawyer .... The country has become hopelessly corrupt.
I worked with a guy who drove a red 1985 crew cab dually Chevy truck. One day he got a red light ticket from a town about an hour away. The ticket had his license plate number but the picture of the car that accompanied it was a silver Honda Civic. The picture was taken on a sunny day and the license plate was perfectly clear. The car that ran the light had an 8 where his truck tag had a 6. He thought it would be a simple matter to clear up and gave them a call. He explained the situation and they said he had to bring his truck to their police department to verify he still owned the truck and the correct license plate was indeed on it. He asked if they had access to the picture of the car that ran the red light. They said yes, I'm looking at the picture and video right now. He said ok, what license plate number do you see on that car? They read the number correctly. He then said ok now what license plate number was the ticket issued to? They read his number correctly. He said ok so you can clearly see the ticket is issued to the wrong tag number. They said yes it looks like a 6 was entered where an 8 should have been. He said good, so we're good then? They said no you still have to pay the fine, bring your truck and license plate to the police department for verification or show up in court. He said ma'am you're looking at the license plate you agree isn't mine on a car I could probably fit in the bed of the truck the ticket is for. Why does anyone need to see my truck? They said you have to prove the tag and the truck are still in your possession and the tag is attached to your truck. He was baffled and said you're looking at the proof that someone ran a red light in a car I don't own with a license plate that isn't mine. You just said you can see it was a mistake. Why do I have to make a round trip of over 100 miles in a truck that gets 8 mpg to prove what you already know? They said how do we know you didn't switch tags? He said because it isn't my tag! How hard is it to understand. No amount of arguing would change their mind so he had to take a day off and drive there. When he told them he was supposed to show them his truck and officer came out and looked at the ticket. Without even looking at the truck he said oh they entered the wrong number. We'll take care of that. You could have just called.
Something similar happened to me in Chicago around 10 years ago. I purchased a BMW from an impound lot in Minnesota. It had Minnesota plates with current license tabs when I got the car so I left those plates on the car and transferred the title. Shortly after I received 3 tickets from Chicago with pictures of the car that I just purchased, with the same plates going through toll booths. Because all of the tickets were from a year prior, they had added on late charges and fees. So 3 tolls that were around $1 each were now around $250 total. I had never taken this car outside of Minnesota. I sent them copies of all of my paperwork paperwork showing that I had purchased the car around a year after these toll violation happened, so they were obviously from the previous owner. They didn't care. They wrote back saying that was not proof and I still had to pay them. Guess what? I did not pay them. So now I avoid Illinois whenever possible so they are not getting any of my tax dollars from now on either.
My main concern is that we can never recover our costs to defend ourselves against this crap that starts with THEIR mistakes! It's very wrong that we have to pay for other people's mistakes and it's perfectly legal that we can't recover.
Back in 1995 rented a car for a few days while mine was in the shop for a recall. 7 months later I recieved a letter stating I owed $2500 in damages to the rental. I still had the rental return paperwork the employee had checked the box for no damage. It went to court, the car dealer I had rented from lost, two main reasons the paperwork I had and the photo of the damage. The car in the picture was blue, the one I had rented was tan.
@@gsojohn5079 Good habit! I infrequently rent trailers from U-Haul (4 or so times per year) and do the same thing. I don't want charges for dings, dents and damage that was already there.
@@gsojohn5079 I do like that U-Haul's pick-up process for equipment lets you take pre-rental pictures. Even has guides on how to frame it and lets you mark pre-existing damage. They also do the same for an after-hours return. But I take photos and a video walk-around for myself.
I loved this one; because a state got in touch with me in California by use of my name, from a state I had never been in at all, telling me I had to pay a fee for a boat I did not own at all and what kind of boat it is the fee was not that much , so after telling them I had never been in their state any time in my life , I asked so if I pay this fee is the boat legally mine then and I can come and get it , they said no the boat is worth more than that , I said I know it would be and would see that as one real good deal; but they said it not your boat how could we let you have it for the fee cost? end of disputed ownership right then ! this was some years back, but this story brought it back to mind !...
"I have the right to address my accuser, per the 6th Amendment. I request the 'witness' to the accusations appear before the Court." That's all that needs to be said.
@@robertsmith2956 No. Chicago has no gun zones in all municipal buildings. I also believe they have metal detectors at the doors to all courts. Sorry to hear of your insecurity complex that requires you to wear a gun to make your penis bigger.
There was a man down near Cincinnati who got a ticket from Chicago on his boat trailer. He hadn't been to Chicago, and certainly didn't tow his boat there. A local attorney, who also served as the attorney for the local municipality, called up the folks in Chicago, explained the situation, and was told, "He's just got to pay it. That's how things are done here." In response, the attorney said to the guy in Chicago, "On behalf of the City of [city name], we know you were down here speeding, and I'm going to send you your ticket. That's how we do things down here." There was a bit more back and forth, but ultimately the guy on the other end of the phone in Chicago dismissed the ticket on the boat trailer.
Cincinnati also has a habit of dinging people with out of state plates with BS charges. $75 tickets for following too close. Too small for most to make the trip but big enough to make a profit. They never hit in state vehicles.
This happens routinely with chicago and you'd have a hard time convincing me it's accidental. Three separate times in the past I've gotten parking tickets mailed to me from the city of chicago. All three times the supposedly offending car that was listed was not a car I owned, let alone had driven to chicago. Luckily when I called in to point out that I did not own the vehicle in question which would be easily verified by checking the state's own records they dropped the ticket all three times. I didn't have to go through the added frustration of them insisting I pay the tickets anyway and having to fight them on that. But I'm convinced that this kind of thing is an intentional scheme. They just send out tickets counting on the fact that the vast majority of people are just going to pay the ticket and not bother even looking at the details.
When I was a little guy, Granddad explained the Scales of Justice to me this way: "Each side piles money on the scales, and the bigger pile of money wins." He wasn't wrong.
@@ostlandr That is not exactly true. Just having money means you are a prey for the legal system. You need power. And when you got power, getting money is an easy part.
I remember when my mom, who is handicapped, got a ticket for not having a handicapped decal on her license plate. She had the mirror placard on though, but the parking enforcer had "already started writing the ticket". So, she took the ticket to this clerk inside the police station along with her handicap placard. Ticket Dismissed.
@@ianbattles7290 Indeed, I hate this double standard. If you or I were to knowingly and admittedly put false information onto an official documents such as a citation we would get charged for filing false official documents.... There is absolutely no fucking good reason why that same standard should not apply to the officer.
I remember when I got a ticket for parking in Chicago, and I didn't have a Chicago city sticker on my windshield. I didn't even live in the same county. I was just in the city for a couple of hours that day. Running the license plate would have revealed this. And on the Civil side, I had a homeowner's insurance claim. Severe storms took out several trees in the neighborhood. I was even without power for 5 days. I had multiple shingles torn off my roof In the storm. So I found a company to do the repair, and filed the claim. About six weeks after the claim, I received a letter from the insurance company saying that I did not take adequate steps to protect my house from the storm. I guess they wanted me standing on the roof with an umbrella. It said that if I wish to appeal their decision, I had to respond within 30 days of the rejection. The rejection happened within a week of the claim. But the date written on the top of this letter was 28 days after the date of the rejection. The post mark on the letter was three days after the date on the letter. So it had zero chance of making it to me before that 30 day window was closed. I won't say the name of the company, but lets just say that I wasn't in good hands...
"finding funding for one's favorite public golf course/club..." Edit (that was snark, if that wasn't clear...I actually overheard this type of statement @ a golf club 🎯)
@@tommyb6611 Watch the video before you comment. As Steve himself mentioned in the video, this was most likely caused by failing to follow the correct procedure.
I could see it being easier to prevail given the defendant isn’t there to challenge any claims they make but I’ve heard of cases that even if you took a basic look at the evidence couldn’t support a case being won on default. That shouldn’t happen. They should present their evidence and if there’s an obvious problem like the judge looks at the picture and it doesn’t match the person you’re suing it’s dismissed.
This happens because in many states traffic violations are not criminal offenses, but rather regulatory offenses. So you don't really get the same level of protection. Frankly I like my state better, here traffic violations are petite misdemeanors. It does mean there is the potentiality to be arrested for a traffic violation. But it also means you afforded the constitutional protections in the process that come with criminal accusations. There's not defaulting because a notice was lost in the mail, at the time of the offense the citing officer has to provide the specific time and date of the court, and any change requires certified notice.
I had a situation when visiting friends in Oakland and I parked on the street. The neighbor wanted more room around his driveway, so illegally painted a section of the the curb red to mimic a no parking zone. Legal red zones had a different color red, plus stenciled letters of the city department of police and traffic. All the neighbors knew it was an illegal red zone, and ignored it, so I did too by parking two feet into his six foot red zone. And then I got a ticket. I tried to fight it, but the city was not going to budge. Since the time and hassle involved in going to court for something I might not win was not worth it, especially when two hours of my labor could pay the ticket, I just paid it off. Thinking back on it, I should have taken the neighbor to small claims court for reimbursement.
Many years ago I got a letter from an insurance company demanding I pay for damages to a gas pump at a station on a particular day (driven off with pump still in car and destroyed the bowser). Only thing was I lived in a different city and was sitting an exam at the time I had supposedly done this. Took two years to clear it - I ended up being summonsed to court (despite two different people at the insurance company promising to sort this out). So I thought F-it. I wanted to go to that city anyway so I went to court. Jude laughed them out of the place and I got all my costs covered. That included my hotel room and food for the trip.
My personal favourite instance with stuff like this is when you get sent that court notice in such a way that it's too late to respond by the time it actually arrives in your mailbox, which has only gotten worse as the postal service continues to lose money.
You have 30 days from the date of this letter to respond. Letter is dated 25 days before the postmark. Yep, they know how to work the system in their favor.
At least they got the ticket in the mail. I was trying to get the title for my truck and they would not send it to me because of an unpaid ticket. I had no idea about this ticket. It was a speeding camera and I never received the ticket. I could not recall if I had even been in the area at the time and never even saw the photos. I just paid the 90.00 because it was easier to do to get my title. Complete BS.
I had something by similar happen. I got a parking ticket in the mail or rather a notice of “unpaid” ticket. They were saying I’d received a ticket on such and such date and because I hadn’t paid it within x days, it had now gone up. Thing is, this was the first I’d ever heard of this parking ticket. Conveniently, I had 10 days to appeal and the notice was sent out just after the 10 days lapsed. Oh, and if I didn’t pay it within another 10 days, it goes up again and the letter arrived only 2 days before the next increase. I really wanted to fight it since I had proof I paid (it was one of these smartphone app based parking lots) but was as much as told I would lose because they “have proof” they put a ticket on the car and I hadn’t appealed in time.
@@gringofett3944 I paid a traffic ticket. while I am sure I still had the receipt, it was two years later that they sent me a notice to pay. I had no idea where the receipt was. So I paid it twice - with interest. Sigh.
My uncle received a past due parking ticket from New York City. This was in the early 2000's. We live 170 miles from NYC. My uncle informed them that the last time he was in or near NYC he was coming home from a little thing called WWll .
I got a parking ticket in NYC as well, that I wanted to dispute. i called, and they were willing to cut the fine in half. At that point, you've got to realize, the cost of taking the buss to NYC to go to court, would take 4 hours of my day and would cost me $20 less then paying the new adjusted price of the ticket. I paid the ticket.
I live in Chicago, what I hate is getting a red light or parking ticket or tollway violation. The fine is usually due in two weeks otherwise it doubles, but to appeal in person they give you a date a month away and if you lose the appeal you now owe double. I also think the tollway targets out-of-state plates with bogus tolls hoping the driver pays out of fear. I helped my brother move from Wisconsin to Alabama we went through four tolls, paid them all online the next day and kept the confirmation number. A month later my brother got a notice from the tollway authority claiming he owed $190+ and had two weeks to pay. They add on $20 per violation plus the original toll fee. He sent me a pic of the notice and immediately i saw the four tolls I knew we went threw (and paid) but they added five more for a completely different date in a part of the state we've never been through. I called the tollway, and after speaking to three different people and talking on the phone for two hours, I got all nine violations removed. The first four removed obviously because I had the email confirmation of payment. The other five because the vehicle and plates on their video didn't match my brother's truck. They couldn't even explain to me how my brother was sent five violations for the wrong plates. I asked if I could get some kind of confirmation or letter to prove that the violations were removed and the outstanding balance was zero and they told me they don't do that. Illinois is a total scam.
It's amazing the judgements you can find out. I ended up being cited, served, convicted, and fined for trash on my lawn... all while I was on deployment. I found out when the City of Virginia Beach asked me how I wanted to pay. Had to get a letter, printed on command letterhead, and bring it to the judge, just to request a hearing to overturn my conviction. The thing that pissed me off is that Code Enforcement actually tried to fight it! They were fine with trying me in absentia. They only changed their tune when I asked who flew out to Crete to serve me (because trash on your lawn can carry jail time in Va Beach, they are required to serve me in person). I asked to see passports and tickets showing their flight. Basically, Virginia Beach is the reason I changed my residency the moment my truck hit Jacksonville.
My ex-wife wanted to take me to court to get more child support. Problem was I was deployed (Saudi Arabia-1st Gulf War). My ex-wife's sister (new paralegal) told her that if I didn't show up in court she would win by default. Judge put everything on hold until my deployment was completed. I then had to fly from Germany (was stationed at Rhein Main) to attend the court hearing. Judge set the new amount of child support based on a formula that considered both of our incomes (legally hers was zero) which turned out to be less than I was voluntarily paying since the divorce (Divorce Decree never set an amount I was supposed to pay). A month after returning to Germany, she tried to get me to come back to court in an effort to raise the child support to the amount that I was voluntarily paying rather than the amount the court decreed, and to pay her lawyer fees. Luckily the lawyer that I used in the first court appearance agreed to represent me again (for free this time) and had the court deny the child support increase all without me being present in the courtroom (I was deployed to Operation Provide Comfort or "Relief Effort for the Kurds" at the time). It was also decided that I was not responsible to pay her lawyer. Judge actually admonished the ex during the procedure when she made the claim that she should have won by default (stating her para legal sisters' claim) since I wasn't present for the second hearing. My lawyer also told me that the lawyer my ex used confessed to her that she was embarrassed to represent the ex.
I got a parking ticket in Chicago. I appealed the same night it was issued. It took over 2 years for me to be cleared. The receipt I had showing I paid for time during the time the meter maid said I violated clearly showed I was not guilty.
Steve, I am fairly certain that red light tickets in Chicago are heard by administrative law judges. Those courts are the textbook example of a kangaroo Court. When I used to work for the insurance company, our insureds dealt with those all the time. You could bring in indisputable documentary proof that your motor vehicle had been totaled in an accident 90 days before the ticket, and these judges will simply ignore and rule guilty. And don’t even mention about getting towed in Chicago!
Ignoring evidence to the extent described is judicial misconduct (aka falsifying), which unfortunately has < 1% chance of the judge even getting to the point of being investigated IIRC.
It’s a bit of a nuclear option, but city, county and state judges are not immune to arrest for federal crimes, even while sitting on the bench with court in session. A citizen’s arrest for a federal felony - such as a conspiracy to deny someone their right to due process of law - is lawful everywhere in the USA except NC an GA, according to a US Supreme Court ruling from back in 1948 (US v. Di Re).
Luckily in NC, red light tickets are unenforceable. They can’t prove who was driving because no officer was there so red light tickets are basically just a quick money grab. I have gotten like 3 red light camera tickets and I haven’t paid a single one and nothing has happened. Just a lot of what goes on with police, they send you a letter making it sound like you have to pay it but you really don’t.
I had this happen a while back - got a letter in the mail from a debt collector claiming I owed them money. Come to find out they claim I have an unpaid parking ticket. Got details on it, requested a hearing, and had to inform the commissioner that I have never owned a Dodge SUV nor have I ever lived in North Carolina, and I wasn't even in that city the month the ticket was issued. I think parking enforcement ran the plate, got a name, and it was close enough to mine that they paired them and said 'good enough.' Fortunately the commissioner threw the ticket out after my testimony.
Why did the judge rule against them. Many traffic court judges rule against everyone and if you want to fight it you have to appeal. The judges often will not allow a defense, they take the position that if the government says you are guilty, you are guilty. Some judges will hear your defense but assume you are lying and the government is credible. In many courts, the judge has so many cases there is no time for people that claim innocence, there is only time for people to plead guilty. It's set up that way.
I appeared for an arraignment for a traffic violation. The judge addressed the court, saying "Everybody in my court pleads guilty. No exceptions." I pleaded not guilty, and he got so angry he turned purple and told me "I SAID everybody pleads guilty!" I asked him if he was denying me my right to plead not guilty at my arraignment. He looked at the court recorder and said "No. you can plead not guilty if you want to but you're guilty and you should save everybody some trouble and plead guilty." I beat that charge at trial.
Seems like a nice alibi of you were also committing murder. Look Mr. Judge, I can't have murdered that person in Florida, I got a speeding ticket that day in Washington State!
@@phlodel I seriously doubt that happened. If so, it would have been reported to the State Judicial Council or whatever supervisory board looks into these things. No judge may tell someone to plead guilty or intimidate someone who doesn't.
I had a similar experience I learned about investigating a significant insurance rate increase. Was told I ran a red light in another state in a town I never visited. Was ignored when I challenged. I then contacted my local assemblyman whose office inquriry got a bit more respect and response. Turned out it was someone of same name, but in a different "I" state. Illinois, while I live in Indiana. Whoever did data entry defaulted to first "I" state that popped up in their database. Issue soon resolved, but took a few days and long hours to resolve.
I was checking the mail at my fathers house last December….Red light camera ticket! I was shocked! Opened it and their it is.. bold letters… his plate. Would ask my pops about it , but I don’t have an Ouija board! Mom and pops passed in 2015! The picture was an old Ford truck. They never owned one. OMG…someone has his plate I thought in a panic! After blowing up the picture… the plate was weathered …the “F” was actually an “E”. I immediately took it to DMV … saw the Judge dismissed it. 😃 I happened to be off that day and got it done.
This is very similar to something that happened to me in the early 2000s. I received a court summons for a parking violation in Scottsdale, AZ. At the time, I had just moved to Tucson and had never been to Scottsdale. While my car's license plate was listed on the summons, the description of the car (red something or other) did not match my white car (different make and model). Fortunately, I was able to mail in a copy of my car's registration that showed the car registered to the plate listed was not the same in the description of the summons. The case was then dropped, much to my poor, just-out-of-college, relief.
I went through a similar situation with the state of Maryland two years ago. I live in West Virginia, but part of my work took me across the western border with Maryland. I received a citation for crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at a time in which I was provably elsewhere. The photo provided was of a different vehicle with a similar plate number - but a strap was partially obscuring one number. The citation offered no means of contesting it, and the local DMV office couldn't figure out how to handle it, either. Contacting the state-level people was a bureaucratic nightmare, and I eventually was told that I would have to contact a district court and fight the $6 payment in person. I decided to pay it and never forget.
Never played Ascend but the original Tribes is still one of my favourite shooters, Sierra (Dynamix was one of their subsidiaries so now controlled by Actision) released way too many decent games that are largely gone now.
How about file a civil suit to go after them for filing false reports, this is blatantly wrong. The Chicago machine is designed to protect their revenue by all means!
All big cities are like that. I got a parking ticket in San Franshithole years ago for blocking a sidewalk when I was clearly parked in my driveway. I took pictures before I moved my car and there was more than 12 inches of space before the sidewalk and they tried to uphold the ticket. I demanded a jury trial and they were astonished and said, "Over this!?" They dropped the ticket instead of having a jury trial over a parking citation.
@@robert5 need a mass of people to rise up against this-legally, possibly a class action. Maybe there’s an opportunity for the Institute for Justice . The government officials are not held accountable. It’s a joke to think you can simply vote people in or out and a big joke is on the taxpayers who pay for the governments, strong arm defense on this!
As just explained, you lost. You failed to respond in time. Courts consider 21 days to be a reasonable length of time to file a response. 30 days is even nicer. You can not appeal a lost decision through a different court, such as later suing a Traffic Court decision in Small Claims Court or a State Court decision in Federal Court. . Nor can you sue a political entity out of their state. So Chicago can only be sued in Illinois. (See Article IV and State Sovereignty - you may only sue an Illinois government in Illinois. Also Art. IVth Full Faith and Credit Clause - every State is obliged to accept the judicial decisions of another State (unless it conflicts with their laws)) Your only avenue and appeal is through the system's courts and appeal system. If that means your traffic offense must be appealed to a desk jockey before hitting the traffic court then so be it. You may appeal that to a higher court, but your complaint will end up tossed if you didn't follow the proper route, including all administrative appeals. It may feel wrong if someone is innocent but gets dinged. But even the innocent must challenge their guilt in court. And to note that I don't like that the system is designed for lawyers and run by lawyers. It sucks. But then remember that when you talk to your elected representatives.
What's to stop a government division from sending out random tickets? It's exactly how the scam callers from India work. Also, having to hire a lawyer, pay money for "court filing fees," or even paying for a certified letter means the government is still robbing you. I'm rooting for the people vandalizing these red light cameras or other government property. Always puts a smile on my face even if I won't personally do it 😊
Basically you get caught more easily, and the government is not hiding from justice (or media) in India. Also, the ones writing the tickets get way less personal gain than Indian scammers get for scamming, so there's less incentive.
Rather than vandalizing automatic speed cameras, I always thought it would be fun to go visit one with a tuning fork cut to produce 95 mph or so, and put it in front of the radar gun when a ice cream truck, funeral procession or street sweeper or any city vehicle came by. Maybe take 3 or 4 different forks so they didnt all show the same speed. See these people pointing out that their car cant GO 95.
There were definitely times in my child/teen years that I’d been accused of actions that I did not commit, and even lost friends over it. Quite bitter memories indeed. People being fined or charged for actions they didn’t commit, definitely strikes a sore spot with me. I’d probably wind up in jail for contempt if I ended up on the wrong end.
I can't imagine receiving a legal notice alerting me I've been sued, or have been assessed legal fees for some sort of traffic (or other) infraction and just ignoring it because "it's not me." Jeezus! If you're getting the summons or notice or demand for payment, then SOMEONE in the legal system somewhere thinks YOU did it. At the very least, CALL IN AND FIND OUT MORE!
Ed Zachary! Sure, its incorrect, but the longer you ignore it, the deeper its going to get and at some point it may no longer be fixable. Ignoring it doesnt make them stop thinking YOU did something.Just dont go into their jurisdiction during the process.
Cases like this are part of why I believe judges and prosecutors should be criminally liable. Both in this case belong in prison. They are either evil or they are evil. They is no other alternative here. No reasonable person could see these facts and rule against or even continue to prosecute the defendants. The initial prosecution maybe, maybe could be legitimate as a reasonable mistake. After that? No. Criminal negligence at best, outright intentional and malicious rights violations and therefore treason.
When I got a red light ticket for making a right turn at a light a split second after it turned red, it was reviewed by a real live motorcycle cop who was a decent human being. I went to court to fight it, but when shown all the evidence, decided I should just pay it. The point is, they had a HUMAN BEING review the pictures and match the picture of my face to my license. (The red light cameras have a strobe so they can take a picture of your face at night.)
I actually had this occur while I was driving a rental from Nationwide while my personal car was being worked on for hail damage. The rental had MA plates. I was in VERY rural Iowa on a church retreat with my husband. I haven't been to NY State in over 30 years. You can bet I still got charged for a parking ticket on my rental WHILE I WAS IN THE WOODS IN IOWA. It was still a simple fix. I called the City of White Plains and explained the situation. The guy on the other end was good natured and promised he'd look into it for me. It was a $100 parking ticket so no way I was going to pay it. He contacted me back and let me know they were going to pull back the charge. Never found out what REALLY happened. This is how these things SHOULD resolve themselves.
1:30 I had the exact same thing happen to me a few months ago with a toll from Maryland. The camera system misread a clear Y on the license plate as a T, which made the ticket match a plate I had surrendered in 2019, even though the toll was processed in the summer of 2022. After chatting with the toll agency's people they verified the info was incorrect and got rid of the toll request. This sounded great until a few weeks later when I got the same toll bill again, apparently them removing it from my "account" just put it back into the system for processing at which point the faulty plate reading occurred again. I chatted with another agent and insisted they manually apply it to the correct plate so it didn't get kicked back to me a third time... so far I have not received another bill.
I worked for the EZpass system years ago, and some of the flaws, were from bad corporate compensation structure. The company that caused the error, has an incentive, not to fix their problem, because fixing the problem reduces their revenue. Even when a manual reading was requested, which likely happened the second time thur the system, the company that caused the error, got paid to fix the error.
I'm waiting for a story about a vehicle that speeds over a hill so fast that they get airborne for a second, and the owner gets ticketed for being an unlicensed pilot.
Exactly, if I can be legally obligated to spend thousands of dollars I don't have defending myself, someone owes me that money back if I get acquitted.
This video may have been posted a minute ago but I've already watched the whole 19 min vid so I'm qualified to mention that red light cameras are a scam.
they're usually run by a private business, setting up the system for free in return for 80% of the fines....the "judge" in this case was likely the business owner, not the legal system
@@johnclements6614 Exactly, they need to be used by people not computers. Its fine if the computer flags something for people to look at though. Problem is fatigue may set in from constantly staring at the same things... and they may just click the 'guilty' button instead of 'next' since the majority of them may possibly be 'guilty'.
I received a seat belt violation in Irving, TX many years ago. At the time, I was driving a Silver Lincoln Mark IIV. The officer wrote on the ticket that I was driving a Gold Mercury Cougar. The prosecution would not dismiss during a pretrial hearing. I went to court, provided pictures to the court and to the Prosecutor. The judge reduced the fine, but didn't dismiss the case. The Prosecutor even asked the Judge, "what about his pictures?' The Judge said, "I don't care." I hate the City of Irving TX.
Was sent a speeding ticket from a speed camera that was not my license plate number nor a vehicle that I have ever owned. 05 Mustang looks nothing like an Expedition. The last 3 of my plate was MIY.. whereas the Expedition last 3 were MIX. What's crazy the Expedition had a Florida plate and mine was Indiana but somehow I received the ticket. I got it straightened out but how it came back to an Indiana plate is beyond me.
I received a fine from Florida tpk. But the fuzzy pic looked to be a different state with a different number on a different color and company of car. I called about it and had to send a pic of my car. I called them 2months later and was advised they agreed withe but they're policy ( private contracted company)
We all pay for crimes we don't commit. I pay thousands of dollars every year to help criminals commit crimes both violent and non-violent. It's not because I want to, I'm extorted into it by threat of violence. These criminals then use the money they take from me to bully and harass me and handing it out to those who hate me and want me dead simply for my want to be left alone. Oh, look, it's almost April 15. Guess I gotta give 'the man' that has a gun stuck in my back my wallet again.
About 2 years ago, my mother, a 71 year old retiree received a letter saying she had a lawsuit against her. The lawsuit was filed in a country she had not lived in for 20 years. It was for a credit dispute. Saying she owed money. At first, I thought it was a scam, trying to get money from an elderly woman. But I followed up - it was a legitimate lawsuit, about a credit card that my father had - allegedly - gotten, and used credit on, and never paid off. My father has been dead for almost ten years now. It was a long process of early mornings calling countries with different time zones - useless banks that wanted information in person - when we're halfway around the world, and having to hire attorneys internationally. However, the case was dismissed: Any statute of limitations had long passed - it would have to have been a claim over 20 years old. And they had not filed anything to claim money from the estate. Honestly I was amazed that this even happened.
In Columbus, OH, a Redflex executive bribed a city council member and put in the cameras. In the end the Redflex executive was convicted of bribery and ultimately the cameras were removed. The council member then spent the bribe money campaigning for mayor and won the office. Great place.
About a year or so ago, I received a toll violation from the FDOT. They posted the license plate on my scooter. It was taken at the entrance to the Florida Turnpike. The scooter is a 50 cc engine. I have barely been out of the neighborhood with this scooter. looking at the photo taken at the time, you can clearly see that the vehicle was an actual motorcycle. So, I took the registration for the scooter, a photo of the license plate on the scooter and the violation with the photo to the local Sunpass office. Presented my evidence and they looked into the data base and realized that the license reader at the toll misread the plate number. It was off by one symbol, number of letter. Found the correct vehicle after enlarging the photo to make it more clear what they were looking at and found the corresponding motorcycle. Wiped the violation and toll from my scooter registration and never had it happen again.
Affordable Care Act: "It's not a tax. Unless it legally has to be a tax, in which case it's a tax, otherwise it's a user fee, unless it can't be a user fee, in which case. . ."
My< sister once received a ticket for parking in a lot reserved for disabled persons, and swore not to have done it. We had a look at the map (still made of paper), and found that the parking lot belonged to a gym. She never visited a gym for all her life. So we called the police and asked why she received this ticket. And what the two letters meant at the side of her license number. Turned out, the letters were an abbreciation for the car brand. Which was a totally different one. We asked them to look up which car was licensed under this number, and the police agreed that there was a mismatch. Turned out, the person who entered the ticket into the system, had hit the letter A twice instead of once, and so the ticket got sent to my sister. They dropped the case instantly.
It seems crazy to me that the government or even anyone can disrupt another’s life simply by filing charges or a lawsuit grounded in clear and obvious falsehoods. And then, because the accused will almost certainly need legal counsel, someone in the legal system is going to make money off of the allegations. Overall, it’s a system ripe for abuse.
This happened to me in Pittsburgh PA. I drive a Chevy Cobalt & the car was an suv. My plate had an "R" & the offending suv had an "K". There was all kinds of threatening language in this letter.
I once had a parking ticket for parking in a municipal public lot (major city in southern Ontario) without paying. I had paid, but when I went to put the receipt on the dash, I wasnt careful and it landed below the steering wheel. I do not blame the issuing officer for the ticket, but i had 14 (15?) days to appeal, including an online option. It took them until the last day of the appeal period to even post my ticket online for me to initiate the appeal, where I included pictures of the parking receipt and my credit card statement and the ticket was annulled. Needless to say I included a polite but firm commentary on how the appeal window almost expired because of inaction on their end in my appeal as well.
I live in Chicago and i had a bumper sticker that said "Ban redlight cameras " I got a lot of honks and thumbs up...even by a cop. I bought a new car so I'll have to order another one. Just google "ban redlight cameras - bumper sticker" snd they pop up...I can't remember the company who sells them.
My relative died and the family sold his car. They kept on getting tickets from these stupid cameras even though they had the Bill of Sale and it was no longer their car! I told them to contact their STATE Congressperson or STATE Senator, they have office staff who will go to bat for you and straighten this out. It worked!
Once upon a time, I received a letter from Los Angeles saying an arrest warrant was issued for not paying a parking ticket. I immediately sent a letter because I had proof that my car was with a mechanic in another state at the time the ticket was issued and my car didn’t match the description on the ticket photocopy.
@@ianbattles7290 another time, I got a ticket for up to 10 over in Chicago, while I lived north of Seattle. The cop entered the ticket into the computer as 11-20 over so the fine I paid wasn’t sufficient to cover what the system saris I owed, and I received notice of a warrant on a Friday afternoon. The judges were all out until Monday, but I was planning a trip to Vancouver that weekend. Part of me wished I had made that day trip to Canada to see what would have happened. If arrested, I wonder if I would have had a good lawsuit against the city or police.
@@ianbattles7290 far too many when you realise just how many are convicted for crimes they didn't commit, it's part of why organisations like the Innocence Project exist.
The (system) is relying on the fact that many people make over 500 dollars per day in their job. They are not going to take off work/use vacation time or whatever to fight a 100 dollar ticket. They are counting on that you will just pay it. Same as Civil Asset Forfeiture, it costs more to fight it than to walk away !!!
The US postal system has been exposed. Photos of mail are sent to my email. Three times in 2023, my mail has been lost, including a bank statement. I would estimate that between 1 and 3 percent of mail lost. Three times within the last year, I received mail that wasn't mine! My point is that this could result in many warrants unfairly issued. Certified mail should be required before a warrant is issued!!!
I had a parking ticket at a meter. The meter was not closed, however there was a closure bag over every third meter but not mine. On top of that none of the bags were in place until after I parked and walked away. I went to court and the judge wouldn't listen to anything I had to say and he found me guilty.
Pretty much tells you how it is when you have to take a photo of your car showing where it's parked and a photo of the meter showing the time left on it when you are leaving.
Friend fought with Canada for 6 months over a bill he got for an automated toll road. Said he was never in Canada during that time frame. He was telling the story when his brother-in-law sheepishly said.....uh, remember when you let me borrow your pick-up truck during that time frame? Well, I used it to go to Canada to pick up some stuff....... I give him credit, he immediately called them and said..."my bad" and sent in his money.
Was it in the Toronto area? If so my friend drove the same toll road about 15 years ago. A couple months later he got a bill from Canada that explained he went down an electric toll road and owed them like $5. I forget. He called the number on the bill to find out whats up. He told the person, "I'm not paying that." The person he talked to told him it's easy, they could take his payment over the phone, and if he didn't pay, he could be caught at the border the next time he comes to Canada. He told them "no you don't understand, I'm not paying. I have no need to ever go to Canada again. I live in New York and if you want your money bad enough come and get it." He never heard from them again.
@@jplum7708 Likely the 407 in Ontario. Its a toll road that reads your license plate, or a transponder. If we don't pay, they can deny your plate renewal and send it to collections. Out of province, good luck! I can't see the border guys caring, its just an outstanding fine, thats it.
I recently got a bill from the 407 toll highway near me for a boat trailer I had sold some years back. I contacted them and explained and they said they would reverse the charge. Next billing cycle I get another bill for another trip. I was curious how they were tracking it back to me, as I kept the plate when I sold the trailer, and only one plate exists with that combo on it. I went to Service Ontario and turned in the plate. Finally got an answer from the toll-road admin, seems that 2 months in a row the camera system had mis-read the plate and sent me the bill. Turns out it wasn't even my trailer, so I didn't really need to turn in the plate.
@@VC-Toronto 407 - biggest boondoggle in Canadian history. Sell something that will reap billions in perpetuity for a couple of two-fours. The kick-backs must have been enormous.
The problem with the "respond in time" mentality is that the process is the penalty. For many people the time and annoyance of dealing with nonsense such as this is as bad as the fine they shouldn't be asked to pay. At a minimum the state should have to compensate anyone they falsely accuse for all the time they spent dealing with the issue at a rate equal to what that person earns in their regular job. There should also be consequences for the officials who made the "mistake", at least they should have the amount paid to the victim deducted from their paycheck.
As a single long-haul trucker, I am gone for 2 to 3 months at a time, so I have my sister collect my mail, and she has permission to open it especially anything involving the government just for situations like this and other things that could come up, it would be very easy for me to miss a deadline otherwise. 😊
Serioulsy, a warrant task force in (I think) LA sent notices to people with outstanding warrants that they had won some kind of prize, and told them to show up at X place and time to collect. And believe it or not, it worked like a charm!
My college had the perfect ticket system. Whether it was parking or any other public safety issued fine you could not file an appeal until 2 weeks after course registration for the following semester. You could not register for courses if you had an unpaid ticket. Paying a ticket waved your right to appeal.
@Dee It gets even better. To contest a parking ticket you had to mark on a printout of a map, which was a good 15 years out of date, the exact spot where you were issued the ticket. As you can guess they only issued illegitimate tickets in parking areas added since the map they used was created.
You should look into Louis rossman's warrant case from New York. Him in about 400 others had warrants put out against them for not paying a 2014 or 16 tax
a lemon law laywer will cover that case only after the case is finalized. He does not know the details - that is part of the problem with Rossman case or rather NYC - and it is not his area of expertise for hypothetical.
Some of the legal jurisdictions send you documents that are purposefully vague and they don't have a number call I'd you have trouble. I'm a resident of Florida, born and raised. The state of Kentucky was looking for someone with my name. They sent some document to my mother's home. She forwarded me the letter a few years ago. I don't remember the particulars, but it didn't have my SSN and I've never lived, rented, own property, or worked in Kentucky. They had the wrong person. MY POINT. There was nothing on that document that would let me contact anyone to inform them that they had the wrong guy. No return address, email, or telephone number was on the document. I tried the find a website, but it was useless as well. I think they do this on purpose so the person who actually knows what the document is can't respond in time.
Actually you are lucky you couldn't reach them. When an honest person contacts the govt. (or any other debt collector) explaining why you are the wrong person, what they do is delete the original info on the ticket or bill and replace it with your info, like your correct SSN or whatever, and then proceed to harass you for the rest of your life over something you didn't do/owe. Been there and done that several times. Now I make sure to say nothing except NOT ME.
@@coop5329 I remember having that "debt collector" problem when I got my first telephone line in my name. The previous person with that phone number had a collection on her. Like a responsible idiot, I called them back but since I had no information other than I'm not Deborah and this is my phone number now, nothing changed. They called every day for about six months and then stopped. I always found it weird that when you called back the number they gave, you didn't reach the person with the case file.
Prosecutor's who refuse to prosecte law enforcement officers criminal behavior should be fired and prosecuted for corruption as well as the police officer.
On the flip side, I went to court one time, the judge asked if anyone was there to make a motion to dismiss a dui due to a late notice. A half dozen people raised their hands, he sent them to a clerk to get the details. Turned out there had been a hiccup with the court's notification system for dui hearings, a whole bunch of people who knew about it got off.
What frustrates me more than anything is that you have no one to turn to. No one will do anything. Even lawyers aren't interested because there's no money in it. There's a chance the media could help but they also expect you to appear on camera to give them a story and I have zero desire to do that. No matter which way you turn the onus is 100% on you to fix the problem if you even can.
Surprisingly, I was able to contest a Los Angeles parking ticket when I lived in Texas given to me by a corrupt meter maid a-hole who saw that I had a rental car and threw a false ticket on it. I know for a fact that I was parked legally because I parked in that area 2 times a month in my commutes to LA and was very cognizant of the signs. I contested (via their online process) demanding they show proof that I was parked illegally. The rescinded the ticket.
I got a ticket in Chicago for running a red light when I turned right with a yield signal. I called a lawyer about it and was told "Just pay the ticket we can't win even if you had proof of it." Gotta love IL
I went to my nieces graduation from Chico college. I was driving back to my hotel room when a CHP came around a corner coming right at me. When he passed by my car he hit his lights. Pulled a u-turn catching up to me. I pulled over. He wrote me a ticket for 80 in a 55. I told him he was nuts. I was on active cruise control. If I was doing 80 so was the guy in front of me! He wrote me a 400 dollar ticket. I made sure that he put the time of day down on the ticket. When I got home. I wrote the court a notification that they had a bad 👮♀️ cop working for them. He just saw a very expensive car and figured I was at the graduation and I lived far away from his county in-which he worked. He had a pretty good chance that I would just pay the ticket… When I got back to the city in which I lived I took my car in and had the navigation system pulled on it and the active cruise control system pulled up on it. Then I had them pull up 10 minutes before down to 10 minutes after on both of those systems. I presented the results to the judge. Never was I doing 80 mph less more doing 80 mph according to my cars GPS or active cruise control. The judge had a few words for the cop that wrote me the ticket. He threw the ticket out. Apologized and let me go. Active cruise control is where you pull up to a vehicle an he is doing the speed limit. You activate your vehicles cruise control and your vehicle will automatically keep that exact speed and distance behind that vehicle. Your car will speed up and slow down automatically. Staying right behind that vehicle. The judge threw out the ticket!!!
20+ yrs ago i got a speeding ticket in upstate ny, and just recently got a letter saying that i could not renew my license because the ticket was never paid. i submitted the ticket saying yes i was speeding, but didn't get a fine back. Since i was in the military i thought that they might have sent the fine to my home of record, which was the address on my license at that time. So I informed my parents that if it shows up to pay from my account. So a few weeks ago i learned why I never recieved the fine that was sent out. The Address on the court documents didn't have the correct military information on it to actually have it actually get to me. It had FT Drum correct but the street of which my barracks was on, not correct nor was the information of what unit I was with.
Just like Louis Rossmann and his NY state experience. See what you can do to sue for the harm done to you. Is clearly many "someones" there do things like this on purpose for a long time in different departments.
There are scams where scammers pretend to be law enforcement accusing people of crimes. They demand you travel to another state to defend it, or pay a fine to get rid of it. In those cases, you HAVE to ignore them. People need to develop some common sense about what it legitimate.
Had a ticket overturned for circumstance. Got sick on the court date and they said it was still not in (kept trying to get it taken care of ASAP) so I didn’t go in. Fast forward 3 months and I have a letter saying I owe. They said I could write the judges a letter asking to be heard, and I explained my circumstances. Also pointed out that as I wrote the letter, I noticed the ticket had my first and last names misspelled. Judge dropped it.
A politician in Italy was shown in a light cam pic with his girlfriend. The papers found it and published it. That was the end of stop light cameras there!
Chicago can be ridiculous. I tried to dispute a parking ticket once and showed up on the court date after having my written claim denied. I took off work, showed up, and the city asked for a continuance and everyone that showed up had to show up on another date.
I've heard a lot of the "judges" on camera tickets are just a low level administrative assistants with no law training who is told to reject almost all appeals.
