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All the advices apart, it was me who had to face the court so I went. After going from counter to counter, I headed upstairs to the courtrooms and saw my name proudly displayed on the court records bulletin board. I was in Division II Courtroom. An officer was generously offering his advice to the multitude of law-breakers assembled in the narrow confines of the corridor. Exactly 10 minutes before 2pm, we were herded into our respective divisional courtrooms. Then began the barrage of instructions on the strict protocol for the court’s orderly proceedings. The point emphasized over and over was that we are not supposed to wear any “head-gear” in court…is deemed contempt of court. I didn’t know that. In addition to that, if your cell phone rang in midst of the court proceedings, Judge Judy could slam your ass in jail for 2 days. Damn, that would be the most embarrasing ring of all your cellular usage. But sitting there, I hardly could find anything funny with my mind still racing..plead guilty or not ? Then like manna from heaven, the baliff announced that if you wanna pay up the fine today, the court will not add points to your driving history and as a special bonus, your misdemenours would not be reported to your insurance company. This sounded too good to be true and I was one of the first to grab that offer. All I was worried about was the blotch on my driving record and the subsequent hike in my auto insurance. The fine? I would have to pay that anyways, considering I myself thought I was guilty. If I was not, then the story would have been different. The principle of fight till the end would apply.
I finally paid up the fine (a whopping $155) but not before standing in the queue for couple of hours. I finally understood that it wasn’t the fine that was the major deterrent, it is the opportunity cost of your precious time spent in the extremely makes-you-feel- guilty environs of the courtroom that makes your obey the law. I drove my car home…within the speed limit, for a change.
by Patrix | on Monday, July 14th, 2003 at 4:30 pm | 
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