Deb and I ventured into the Halls of Justice today, getting our day in traffic court. (Deb got a parking ticket for parking out in front of The Manse in the midst of a snowstorm last February. She couldn't make it into the driveway after getting home from work after midnight.) Yes, the wheels of justice do grind slowly, but we still got our day in court.
Deb wanted to fight the ticket on principle as she felt there was no way she should have gotten a ticket for that.
We arrived at the local court house, waited until we could meet with the police officer from our local PD (they often act as prosecutors for traffic court), going over the facts of the case. There were two things that helped us out: the officer was quite familiar with our part of town, understanding the problems we deal with in regards to the effects of winter weather on our roads and driveways; he and I were well acquainted.
After reviewing the facts of the case he simply said “This is dumb. There's no way a citation should have been issued. A warning would have sufficed under the circumstances.” And just that quickly we were done, other than a brief appearance before the presiding judge to get his blessings on the resolution of our case.
The advice the officer gave before we left: “If you have to park where you did the last time due to the weather, give the PD a call and let them know you're leaving the vehicle there. There should be no problem.”
And so ended our latest venture into the legal system of the state of New Hampshire.
