Thursday, April 28, 2011

Los Angeles Superior (Inferior) Court - 21 days to process scam

I recently got a seatbelt ticket, a ridiculous law that will be the subject of another post, but something odd happened when I tried to pay the ticket.

The Superior Court said the ticket cannot be paid or processed until 21 days after ticket issuance. They also say you MAY receive a courtesy notice in the mail, but make it a point to say "this notice may NOT come." So what the "F" is the point of this courtesy notice system in the first place?

Now the court date for the ticket is approximately 40 days after the date of ticket issuance. So I started thinking about what is happening here. Why would it take 21 days before a ticket can be paid when it must be paid by 40 days  or so to avoid an arrest warrant and fines starting at $480.

Then it dawned on me. The ticket is entered into the system that night by the officer (Leach), at the very worst it is entered within a day or two. But if they allowed me to pay it straight away, it would be done and they would have zero chance to collect heavy fines worth 10x or more the face value of the ticket. So they tell you it cannot be paid until 21 days after issuance. Leaving you only a 2 week or so window in which to pay the thing. Adding to the odds that it'll slip your mind, and/or the ticket will get lost.

What a scumbag way to do business. But thats the US and State Gov's in a nutshell. they plot and scheme different ways to leach additional money from tax payers out of their "Post tax" income.

I am writing a letter to the court system accusing them of such malfeasance, I will update my Bog with the response, should i get one.