Texas is definitely more unfriendly than Washington is, that's for sure! But still, $212 for going only 9 mph over the limit is definitely excessive.
So, in Texas, when an officer writes up a citation what options does the driver have? I would be surprised (and hopefully Texas is progressive enough) if there was not at least the option of appearing before the court, and contesting the ticket. Based on the description, it states that he was "tried before a jury of his peers and found guilty", and thus one might assume that he did actually contest it, and went before the judge (and the jury, although that seems to be a HUGE waste of taxpayers' funds).
And, as for paying by cash/coins, note that the law passed by the Texas legislature says "However the Texas legislature passed a law that says the courts do not have to accept coins in payment of a fine" (bold emphasis added by me). Thus, the clerk does have the option to accept coins fro payment, and thus did nothing wrong. Again, given that 4 hours later, after counting the money, an individual from that office called the individual and left him a pleasant message about over payment, everything seemed OK.
To me, I'm glad he did it! If the judicial system in Texas is that dictatorial, more power to the folks. As I mentioned above, circumstances are WAY MORE reasonable in Washington with such relatively "minor" matters (again, we don't know the circumstances regarding his driving record, but all indications are that is not an issue). The example I gave above about the "bogus" citation my wife received more than 2 years ago is a perfect example of that. I'm sure glad we are not in Texas, or else the "bogus" ticket would have remained!
Last edited by honestone; 05/30/16 07:43 PM.
