[Northern Light]

First, my sympathy to those affected by ignorant enforcement.

Most of us have faced it over something, somewhere, sometime, about parking or other minor issues, or at least we know someone who has.

That said.

Might I suggest that a smile goes a long way to making a ticket go away.

Especially of the parking variety.

I know this for a fact.

I explained the situation in a case to staff at one of the offices ...(parking related)

After a polite chat....the ticket was voided (all legal); staff have discretion to do that. I just got a sweet smile.....and "don't do that again...."

Coming in guns blazing, so to speak, gets peoples backs up, and then they do have it in for you, even if they didn't before.

Just a passing observation.

Now if that solution doesn't work, you can formally contest a ticket.

If you do, by the way, it almost never goes to a hearing....if you don't want it too. Once you file your appeal, you get a court date and a number for the prosecutor handling your file.

You give them a friendly call, and if you have had no trouble w/the system in the past, chances are your ticket is gone, or at least reduced (maybe no demerits) that type of thing.

They would much rather plead you down in most cases, than have to face the trouble of getting officers in to court to testify......especially since if the officer no shows, you win free and clear.

For a $30 parking ticket, I don't see them even bothering. But I can't speak for them, not my department! Just my experience from folks I know.

 

[whatever]

Coming in guns blazing, so to speak, gets peoples backs up, and then they do have it in for you, even if they didn't before.

I had forgotten about this thread. When I got dragged out of Metro Hall I hadn't started out looking for a confrontation. I started out by calling the office and explaining the situation. They suggested that I go in person with the Visa statement and the ticket, and explain it at the wicket. I did that. The lady at the desk freaked out on me, told me that it wasn't her problem, that my choices were to either pay the ticket or take it to court, and told me to not waste her time. (She insisted that it was not within her discretion to void tickets.) I had no intention of going to court because I wasn't going to lose a day's pay to fight a ticket, so I decided to pay the ticket... in pennies.

I went home, grabbed my backpack, visited three banks, and got $10 of pennies from each (they won't give you more than $10 of pennies at a time). I then went back to Metro Hall, went to the same wicket, and deposited 7.05kg of pennies on the counter. That was approximately when security got called.

Incidentally, this approach is not recommended because technically that many pennies aren't considered legal tender and they don't have to accept it. I got away with it because the clerk (the same one that had freaked out on me earlier that day) stamped and processed my ticket while I was shuffling through my backpack. I left the pennies but grabbed the ticket, so I was able to fax in a copy of the validated ticket.

If the clerk had at least been polite about it I probably would've just begrudgingly paid the ticket and accepted the situation as an instance of bureaucratic injustice, but to have to deal with a rude clerk on top of everything else just put me over.

Not the most mature thing I've ever done, and it still cost me $30 and the better part of a day (I had been rained out at work so it didn't cost me any wages), but at least I ended up with a story to tell and a small feeling of satisfaction.

 

[Ramako]

^^^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URWkNslcxPM

 

[whatever]

Yeah, a very different situation. I guess the laws in Florida (or maybe the US) define legal tender differently. In Canada any payment that includes more than 25 pennies is not considered legal tender (which makes me wonder why banks work with 50c rolls of pennies, not that that's a real urgent issue or anything).

I do think it's a bit unusual for the government to be able to say that it won't accept its own coinage (in any quantity) as payment, but then there are clearly practical reasons for the rule. Actually, it's probably stranger that in Florida the law says that the business has to accept it.