I'm royally pissed. ROYALLY! So if you don't want to read about how angry I am, and all the vile epitaths I will likely spew in this missive, please click onto the next blog....

Have I cleared out the people who aren't interested??

oh. ok - I'll wait for you to leave too...

**taps foot expectedly**

Great!

Let's begin now... shall we? I'm so fed up with the legal system at this time that I could just IMPLODE. I feel like SCREAMING! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHH! Ok. I feel much better. What's this about? Oh nothing big - just a $1000 dollar traffic ticket. Yeah. $1000 and no, it's not a DUI. Or a DWI. Whatever you want to call it nowadays. It's called a speeding ticket with an expired drivers license, no proof of insurance, and expired registration.... all in a construction zone. I didn't get this ticket. My HUSBAND got this ticket. I'm not mad at him for getting the ticket. I was with him when we got it. What infuriates me is the circumstance surrounding this ticket.

The Bubba Cop that pulled us over wrote on the ticket that we were in a construction zone. When my husband went to go take care of the ticket today, he was informed that the Court will dismiss the charges of Expired Drivers License, Expired Registration, and Insurance, since he could prove we do in fact, have all of those. That was great news!! Brought the total of the ticket down to $247. BUT, apparently - the Bubba Cop is a filthy, vile, dirty dawg liar that wrote constructions workers were present at the time of the violation, and therefore - we cannot get this ticket dismissed by my husband taking Defensive Driving. Aaaaaannddd... Since the constructions workers were present - the fine is now doubled.. $494... will that be cash or check?

So now we want to contest this ticket, but every frickin' lawyer that we talked to said that they can't help us. It's our word against the cops, and the court always defers to the law officer. WHAT THE FUCK? So - the court won't recognize that they might, just *might* have a crooked lying piece of shit patrolling the highways, raking in traffic fines in order to make money for their cheesy ass poor county? I'm so pisssssed!! What the hell can we do? It would cost more money for us to get a lawyer on this. And - get this - the Justice of the Peace that my husband talked to today said that he could go to court over it - but that if he's found 'guilty' all fines will be considered, and we would have to end up paying the $1000.

You know, if it was just a speeding fine, I would tell him, "Pay the ticket" or do defensive driving, but this is so clearly WRONG WRONG WRONG. And this is not the first time we've had to deal with the legal system and it's ineffectiveness.

When we bought this house we're living in, we were ecstatic. It was a dream come true. We'd been saving 7 years to buy a house, and get out of an apartment. We bought a house in a neighborhood that was good, close to the schools, and pushing the very top of our budget. We wanted a house that we'd be in for awhile, so we opted for a more expensive house, expecting that we were making an investment, and it could only appreciate in value. We got the disclosure on the house, no problems noted, got the inspection done on the house, no problems noted. Closed on the house and moved in. That's when the problems started. Ever seen the movie "The Money Pit"? Well - I think that movie was based on our house. The minute we moved in, everything started falling to shit. We had no hot water, well - we had hot water, it was just leaking out under our slab. The air conditioner was leaking all over the crawl space upstairs, and apparently we had a huge gas leak. When the various repair men would come in - they would tell us that nothing would be covered under the home warranty that came with our house, because everything was broken due to 'incorrect installation'. In my first week in my house, I had 5 men tunneling under the concrete slab, 2 men jackhammering into the foundation in the back room, 1 man replacing the gas line, another plumber telling me I needed a new sewage line and one guy telling me that I needed a new garbage disposal. I think the garbage disposal threw me over the edge...

We gathered up all the bills and headed to a lawyer for help. We were out $23,000. And not one single lawyer would help us, because there was not enough money in it for them. We had proof, we had witnesses, we had a signed contract stating that there was NOTHING WRONG WITH THE HOUSE. But no one would help us. Not enough money in it for them. Isn't that sweet? This whole ordeal was a fricking nightmare. It's been 4 years now, and we are JUST NOW getting back on our feet after losing our asses like that. And I guess it's just rubbing me the wrong way that we're mired up with the legal system yet again, and I feel so fucking helpless. Isn't the legal system supposed to help the PEOPLE??? NOT the lawmakers?

Yeah - I know it's only $494, but it pisses me off because it's WRONG!!! IT'S A LIE! It should be HALF that amount, and the only thing we did wrong was speed. OOOOOOO I'm so pissed again. This CAN'T be right.... it can't be allowed!! I need some suggestions now, because right now I'm wallowing in the "poor-pitiful-us-getting-kicked-around-by-the-law-and-legal-system again" thing. I'm not thinking straight.

Anybody have any advice on how we can take this to court... and WIN?? Because I'll fight it to the bitter end...