Should my wife contest a parking ticket in court?
I did this exact same thing. I parked in an unfamilar stripmall on a dark and rainy night. It wasn’t even the closest spots or row to the door. There was no post designating it as a handicapped space, or on the stalls on either side. I spent not even ten minutes in the store and came back to an envelope on my windshield. I was absolutely flabbergasted it was a ticket. I backed my car out of the stall and reparked, walked over the stall and could not see a wheelchair logo or any sign otherwise it was a handicapped spot. The sheriff’s deputy was still parked down the row from me, so I started walking toward her. She looked right at me, knew exactly what I was going to say to her and drove away. It turned out her husband worked at that store and she knew that spot was a handicapped spot, I’m guessing it was kind of the “speed trap” of parking. I did go to court armed with photos taken that night, and ones taken the next day in daylight, the painted wheelchair symbol was in about four inch
In Georgia, if your ticket is a county citation, there is a chance — however slim — that going to court might result in no fine at all. The chance depends entirely on the attendance (or rather, the lack thereof) of your citing officer. On the county level, no officer in court means no fine. Of course, your officer might just love showing up on court day …
No offense taken, spaceman… I was just saying that it wasn’t intentional. While, of course, I don’t want to get into a “fight” here, this was at a class reunion. I don’t think anybody else was using the facility at that night, so there was a 95% probability that the offender and offendee were in the same room for much of the night. If the person who needed the wheelchair would have asked the DJ or somebody to make an announcement, she could have easily moved her car. This is what I would have done in this situation, especially if it was ambiguous. If it was clearly marked and it really looked like some ass who did it (I would probably go off the type of car.. this is an Element which is bedecked with enough paraphenalia to identify it as a family car rather than some punk kid) then I might have called the cops. I would probably err on the side of “they have more important things to do” rather than bothering them. I suppose, though, if that was the only option, then so be it. I guess
