At the risk of sounding like a cheapskate or a whiner... Here's my story.
I ride the Dallas Transit rail (DART) to work every morning. I have done so for 2+ years, buying monthly passes through work. Last July, I did not buy a monthly pass because I was out for more than a week, so I decided it would be better to simply buy daily passes.
Last week, I purchased a pass for August. Seeing as it was the end of the month, I did not purchase a daily pass those days. At 6:00, on Friday (July 29) my ticket was checked. I produced my August pass, but she asked to see a July pass. I told her that I did not have a July pass, but that I had just purchased my August pass a couple of days prior. I explained to her why I did not purchase a July pass, and even showed my June pass to back up my claim that I buy passes every month.
Nonetheless, I was issued a ticket. The frustrating thing about it all is that I rarely see tickets issued. Typically, people are asked to get off at the next stop and purchase a one-way ticket. Or they are simply given a warning. Unfortunately, neither of these options was offered to me.
I asked her, as well as her superior on the phone today, if there was any sort of standard for whether an officer issues a Warning or a Citation. Basically it comes down to the whim of the officer (not surprisingly). Her supervisor seemed sympathetic, but told me he could not reverse the citation. (Whether it's "can't" or "won't," I'm not sure.)
So my option is to settle it within the next 30 days, or take it to court. I don't really feel I have a case if I take it to court, since I really didn't (technically) have a fare. The court fee (of course) is higher than the cost of paying the fine.
I'm pretty fed up with the DART. My car has been broken in to twice in the last 8 months, and now I'm having to pay for fare evasion. And they don't return phone calls or emails. So this isn't so much me trying to save a hundred bucks... It's more of a "last straw" that has me really enfuriated.
Besides using this space to vent... I was wondering if anyone has ever actually fought a traffic ticket or anything like this, and whether or not this is a hopeless cause. A possible loophole might be that the officer checked "No Fare" instead of "Invalid Fare" on the ticket, but I don't know if that would fly.
that to me seems like your only chance of gettign this dismissed.... and even that too me seems like a long shot.A possible loophole might be that the officer checked "No Fare" instead of "Invalid Fare" on the ticket, but I don't know if that would fly.
If it was me I'd just pay it.
sucks tho.
Sounds like you are screwed. Sorry man, but like Obiwan said, it sounds like you should just pay it.
I'm not too familiar with that transit system, but it sounds to me that they have more of a case than you. If it was in fact July 29, and you in fact did not have a July pass then you in fact did not have fare. I would think that was clear. Again, I might be mistaken, I'm just assesing through the facts you've stated.
You did not have a valid fare for the day in question. You got busted & have no case.
I'm not saying that she shouldn't have cut you some slack. But you have no case.
I agree with everyone else. It the luck of the draw, sometimes it works for you sometimes against. Yes, a nicer person would have probably let it slide but she has every right not too. Sorry, it does suck but you don't have a case.
If you want to fight it just for the principle of the matter, you might have a chance depending on how cool the judge is. If I were you, I'd bring in proof of all your past passes and whatever daily ones you had for July and say when you bought the pass, you thought it was good for a month starting that day. If you bring in like a year's worth of passes, plus a pass that was bought for August before you got this ticket ... you might have a chance. To top it off you can then show the "no fare" and "invalid fare" mistake.
Chances are slim, but if you show you are a loyal DART customer and illustrate it as an honest mistake, you could get pity from the judge.
Yeah, I only have two - June and August... I didn't keep my daily passes.
Do the officers usually show up in court? If they don't, is the case dismissed?
(I'm probably going to pay it, but I'm entertaining a Fight-the-System Fantasy right now...)
What is the court situation like? Is the ticket like a regular citation where you go before judge? It could depend on the leniency of the judge or the prosecutor. They might cut you a break on the charges.
Don't really know, I've never had one before.
Dude, I'd fight it. In exactly the way LJ says above. I hate the way people just roll over and take whatever is handed to them in this manner as illustrated by this thread.
Fight it. Yes, if she doesn't show up (the officer) it will more than likely get dismissed.
How did you pay for the daily passes? Did you use cash or another form of payment where there might be a record (debit/credit card).
I've fought traffic tickets and won, and I know several people who have.
I can tell Manny wasn't lying when he said he worked for an insurance company.
The daily passes were cash, and I kept them in my pocket so I always threw them away at the end of the day.
Basically you're hosed. However, if this is treated like a traffic ticket you might get the amount of the fine reduced if you go to court.
I hope we can get the same transit system here SA.
The transit system itself is great. The DART Police are horrible though. What I failed to mention is that this was the first time all month I had been checked for a ticket. You would think the trains would have been swarming with cops last month...I hope we can get the same transit system here SA.
Ah ha. You got had by a cop trying to fill their end of the month quota. That explains a lot of it.
I asked her supervisor if that was it and he said quotas were illegal, so they didn't practice them.
Still find that hard to believe, but what're ya gonna do?
You employed some common sense, took a small gamble, and then got stung. You should fight it. If the judge is a hardass, whitebread Dallas.
Having official quotas are "illegal". But believe me, a cop would get re-assigned if they were put on that duty and didn't live up to a certain number of issued tickets per month.
Maybe that's a case then. Perhaps I would be offered leniency on su ion of quotas.
Speaking of the DART in Big D.... I was in Dallas back in April. Drove around downtown in a rental car. Apparently I ended up driving in a pedestrian area around one of the train depots or whatever. Got stopped by a DART cop. Got a warning, but then the bas gave me like 4 different sets of directions to get where I wanted to go. It was as if he was trying to get me into making another mistake. After I left I saw him following me from like a block back. Anyways, I feel your pain.
I think that if he just wants to get his money back then maybe he should fight the fine, but if your intention is to prove that they were wrong, then no, you've got no case at all. My suggestion is pay the fine, since you've already stated that the littigation fee is more than the actual fine, that would be the most sensible thing to do.
I hate the way municipalities treat these violations as an extra source of income. It really pisses me off, because they don't want to stop the "crime", they want to profit from it.
The daily passes were cash, and I kept them in my pocket so I always threw them away at the end of the day.
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