Federal Tickets, The Good and the Bad
Apr 11th, 2008 by Alex
I must have been really out of it this morning because I chose the first available space when parking in a federal lot. Despite being in unfamiliar territory, it didn’t even occur to me to look along the fence for any restriction signs. I recall seeing a lot of similar looking vehicles in the row, such as the Ford Contour and the Dodge Stratus. That should have been a big hint but none of that registered this morning, either.
The United States District Court Violation Notice I found this afternoon registered.
Oops.
Stuck under my windshield wiper, it’s a $75 lesson to pay more attention. For the record, parking in a space reserved for a government vehicle is a $50 offense. On top of that is a $25 processing fee, which I think is crap although — knowing that this is a government operation — it may very well cost the Central Violations Bureau that much money to process and store the ticket for eternity. Also for the record, federal tickets are no different when it comes to reading illegible handwriting or 3rd/4th-hand carbon copies.
That’s all the bad news. The good news is that the officer opted to slide the ticket into a sealed (and seemingly waterproof) plastic bag. As irked as I am about having to pay, that’s good procedure there.
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“Processing Fees” are just another way of adding to the pain…they’re a ripoff, everyone who can get away with it levies them, and there’s not really much we can do about it. You can bet the nice waterproof plastic bag didn’t cost $25.