A couple of months ago I was pulled over and given a ticket for a light being out. I didn’t have the money to pay for it at the time, so I split the cost with my dad, who told me he would take care of it.
An hour ago, I checked the mail and found a letter from my New Jersey municipal court stating that there was a warrant out for my arrest on charges of contempt of court for not paying the ticket in time, and that I should go to the police department in order to post a $114 bail to avoid the “embarrassment and inconvenience” of arrest.
I’m on my way to do that right now, but I am scared absolutely witless. Could I possibly be rescinded?
Just go and pay and then find out how this will affect your record. Moving violations are serious enough to take care of promptly; however, you have obviously learned that lesson. Then check the terms of your admission - a misdemeanor offense is likely no big deal but missing court might have bumped it up to something more serious.
Prediction: this will impact your insurance rates more than you admission status. Good luck to you!
When I lived in Hyde Park we would park wherever we could - even if it was illegal. Everyone got their share of parking tickets which no one bothered paying. One of my friends had his glovebox stuffed with dozens of them. He got pulled over for a moving violation and in reaching over for his insurance card, he opened the box and out they tumbled. Fortunately for him, the cop wasn’t peering in at that moment. Lucky guy. In those days, they didn’t - or couldn’t - run your plate for parking tickets, but that’s gotta be different now, especially given how cash hungry the city is and how most of these sites are set up for easy payment using credit card or Pay Pal. So pay all your fines when incurred - it buys you peace of mind.
I bought a car the year I lived in South Shore while doing my M.A. Within a week of driving I got two tickets - one for speeding on the Dan Ryan and one for making a prohibited left turn across the train tracks that run through South Shore. On both occasions I was sorely tempted to do what I had been told to do by many - slide a five dollar bill under your drivers license when you hand it to the kind officer. He would inspect your documents and return them to you without comment minus the peace offering and bid you be on your way and drive carefully. So it was said, but I lacked the chutzpah to put that theoretical knowledge into practice. For the second violation I was immediately taken down to the station house and given the choice of paying up or spending the night on the premises. I guess all this had its sobering effect. I never got another ticket for the balance of my driving life in Chicago. I always wondered about the trick with the five dollar bill, however. (In 1967 that was not as servile an offering as it would be today.) Would it have worked as it was said to - or been ignored, or a higher offering requested…or resulted in a charge of attempted bribery? One of history’s great unknowns.
@hwaetwe By the time you arrive at the University for O-week this experience of yours will have become a valuable commodity - a story you can tell (embellishment permitted) to all your new friends. A lot of life’s embarrassing or even painful events have a second life as ornamental stories. Something like that must have got Homer started on the Iliad.
@marlowe1 a $5 might not have done it in 1967. However, bribing the fine public servants of Chicago was a time-honored tradition up until the later 1980’s. Operation Greylord changed much of that for the little guy - I’m sure those of significant power and influence can still buy themselves a clean record
It’s true! “The story of how I almost got rescinded” is a good one, and will surely make you a lot more popular than popular firstie favorites, “the story of how I got a good SAT score” or “the story of how everyone in my high school thinks I’m really great.”
All joking aside, you may be surprised how many of your peers got weirdly close to getting rescinding. Nearly everyone seems to have one of those stories. And yet people seem to rarely actually get rescinded…
