hey fam, wondering if anybody has any experience with what i'm going through right now.
i got pulled over on my bike(bicycle) last year for not having a light. it was a 25 dollar ticket, i forgot about it, then later learned that i missed my court date and that i might have to pay up to 850(!) bucks when i show up for court again. well, that was today, and i plead not guilty and the judge said "60 dollars bail, go see the cashier"... cool, 60 bucks!! when i get to the booth she says it's 60 bucks for the bail but a total of 669 bucks cuz i missed that date. i flipped out and told her i wanna come back and try to fight this. so i got a slip saying i can come back next week (5/20) to try and fight it again. there is no way i can pay that kind of money, and i'd do community service but i'm supposed to be out of this place and moved to seattle with my girl in june. otherwise i have nowhere to go. anybody have any advice or success stories involving this kind of shit? i own nothing but some clothes and a couple of drum machines. i'm basically fucking over both me and my girlfriend because of something so stupid. and she can't afford to help me with this. what the hell do i do?

Bummer Kel. You could just stay out of trouble and move. That kind of thing should have a statute of limitations, so it will eventually go away. Even if you are issued a bench warrant I dont think they will extradite you from seattle for some bs like that. You can talk to a lawyer, they all have free consultations, and ask what your options are.
Hope this helps

i would def take care of it... there is a saying dont mess with texas and for the most part its true.. i know people who got tickets for like 7 over the speed limit in another city (not state) and got taken to jail on the next offense (skating at a church and a cop came).. even if you cant get them to lower the fine most of the time they will put you on a payment plan and you can pay it off over time.. not totally out of it but paying it off slowly and not 100% up front... be lucky you didnt have to go to jail even for the night.. shit sucks..

that's some wack-ass shit alright
hope everything goes well, i don't really have any experience with that so can't help much

best of luck when it comes time to fight it again. you might need to get some kind of documentation as to why u couldn't make it for your first court date.. like a doctors note or something saying you sick or whatever.

all i can say is just research up on the situation and try your best to fix it

shit story kel...
somr years ago, when i lived between france and italy, i received different mulcts (fines) in france with my car, i never payed, and they send them to my italian address, but nobody payed for it, so after 1 year all those shits went in prescription...
but i think that maybe this is different from your case and also justice is different from france and usa...
who knows...

this is one of the biggest rules in life...NEVER MISS A COURT DATE!


foreal, instant warrant...most of the time you get released on your own bail but you will have huge fines, and sometimes be embarrassed getting cuffed in front of family and friends or people you don't know

seriously..and when you go to court wear a nice button up shirt tucked in, slacks, etc.

I've got a 1000 stories to tell but they're much better in person after a few drinks

hehe thanks alot guys. yeah i'm not tryna go to jail....i was really stressed but i'm going to try and sell my truck (and have a yard sale this weekend) and it'll be all good. anybody in seattle? can't wait to get the fuck outta here!!!!!!

So true. I've had so many friends get locked up for months over stupid shit just because they didn't show up for court. I myself had to pay up thousands for missing court for a DUI years ago.

Take care of that shit, Kel, if you don't it'll catch up to you sooner or later. I'm sure there's some forums on the interwebs where people can give you some legit legal advise. Start asking around.

Thats fux ups mans!

They did the same shit to me, judge issued a surcharge of $45 to be paid for drinking in public, then when I go to pay it at the cashier, they hit me with $175 in total. I was kicking and yelling too. This was back in '94 though but, yeah, as someone mentioned you can pay it over time.

So work that out with the law and ask for a postal address so you can send them checks from where ever you and your girl plan to move to.

you should talk to a lawyer, something about this doesnt seem right... in my experiance when you a miss a court date for something like this its basically just like pleading guilty and you get a bill in the mail thats a little bit more than you would have paid if you fought and lost. unless the 600 odd dollars is the maximum amount they can fine you for not having a light on your bike, (a no show in court at this level garners you a guilty/maximum fine) something is totally messed up, i would talk to a lawyer, def appeal the case and give a really really good reason why you missed the first court date and cant pay the maximum fine. PEACE!

You just gotta talk to the right people man. My last offense was a hit n run + no license/insurance (I drove away cuz 3 ppl wanted to beat my ass & I was a bit tipsy). There was no damage to either car cuz it was in a taco bell drive thru. I went to court and settled for $180 and 30hrs community service. They dropped all charges and I got to keep my car and Ish. Like everybody else has said just go talk to a lawyer for free and get some professional advice. Any reasonable judge will reason with you like a human being. Tell them your situation and see what you can work out. Dress nice. be presentable and act humble in front of the law. When it comes down to it they basically wanna clear stuff up as fast as you do.

Last little bit of info. The person I talked to was like a middle man. I told them what I was doing with my time/life and they had a settlement thing I had to sign. There were dates that I had to finish all my stuff by which was like 6 months and we went back and talked to the judge. The judge explained that if I didn't comply to the contract I would be worse off and if I didn't meet the deadlines the judge would personally have to contact me (something she hated to do).

change your name

yeah its fucked.. theyre always tryin to lock you down..]

I missed a fortnightly $20 payment on a fine and the slapped me with an extra $190 to the fine for being 2 days late on one payment.

buncha bull shit homie! good luck bro