I was in traffic court this morning in Long Beach, good old 415 West Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802. No big surprise there, Im a traffic lawyer so I go to the various Los Angeles traffic courts almost every day. But what made today noteworthy was the tremendous line for the traffic clerk’s office. And I’m not just talking about your standard “stand in line for an hour to get broken off” LA traffic court line. This looked like about a 3 hour job. The clerk’s office of course decided that this was a good time to have 2 of 8 windows open. The GC Services clerk was kind enough to walk up and down the line to let people know that they could come right in and skip the line if they were ready to hand over the outrageous fees requested by GC Services.
Keep in mind that once you get to the front of this 3 hour line all you get is a chance to pay. No opportunity to explain your situation or clear up a false charge, no explanation of your legal rights, no reduction in the fees. If you want to do anything with the ticket other than plea guilty and pay, you are getting nothing more than a future court date to return and wait hours again till it’s finally your 10 seconds to be heard in the little trailer out back they call Department 12. By the time most people reach that point they are so frustrated that they simply end up entering a guilty plea and wondering why they just wasted two days of their life for something they could have done online or by mail. It’s a perfect example of how the traffic court system works in general, frustrate people until they just hand over the money.
Our traffic court system is a mess. And the Long Beach traffic court is just one fine example. To get results in traffic court you need to know how the game is played. Send me an email at attorneygallagher@gmail.com or call met at 800-797-8406 with your traffic court nightmare and we can explain how to make it go away as fast as possible and as cheaply as possible.
