[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by NJblue

Not all judges are that way - in fact, from my limited experience in a non-criminal courtroom, the judges are the biggest jerks who love to throw their weight around. I once was sent a fine for not renewing my dog's license in time. I knew that I had sent it in on time so I challenged it in court - just for the principle of the matter. After spending all night long waiting for justice to be done, the judge finally called my case. Before doing so, he noted that his docket was filled with people like myself. It became readily apparent that whomever was in charge of processing the dog licenses sat on the applications until after the deadline and then issued summons for all of us. I had my canceled check with the date that I wrote it as proof that it was written well before the deadline. The judge's response to that was I could have put in any date - which is true, but given a courtroom filled with people all taking their time to "get justice", one would have to think that these people may be telling the truth and the township bureaucrat had screwed up. Not this judge - he believed the absent bureaucrat and found us all guilty. As the old saying goes, you can't fight city hall and it is wasted effort to even try.

I have to say I was a bit luckier. Once back in the early 70's I appeared before a judge (different one) on a charge of failure to keep right. He permitted me to plea guilty with extenuating circumstances. I won't bother you with the circumstances but I was truthful in my explaination and the judge threw the charge out after hearing it! There are good judges out there there are bad, and making things even worse there are activist judges out there, and that's not good for any of us!