Are They Still Going to Fix Tickets?

I guess you heard that we’ve got a new District Attorney. She takes office in January. She’s already made plans to get rid of a lot of wood in the office, dead or otherwise.

So I’m going to ask the question that every other El Pasoan wants to know the answer to: Are we still going to be able to get our traffic tickets fixed?

You know. In El Paso if you get a speeding ticket, you don’t have to pay it. You just take that ticket to one of many lawyers who tout their credentials as Traffic Ticket Attorneys and you drop off the ticket and $50 to $100, and somehow that ticket gets taken care of. Usually you don’t even have to talk to the attorney. You can just lay the ticket and the bread down with the receptionist.

I don’t know how it works. Like sausage making, it’s probably better not to ask. I imagine you have some lawyers who have very cozy relationships with Municipal Judges, and/or traffic cops.

The system they have, or had, in Mexico is better. You cut the judges and attorneys out of it, and pay your fine directly to the nice police officer issuing you the ticket.

Some of my friends say that the Mexican system of direct payment of traffic fines supports corruption. That petty graft is indicative of bigger corruption in the system. Like the famous Jewish philosopher said, “If I can’t trust you with the little things, how can I trust you with the big things?”

Well thank God we don’t have any problems like that here in El Paso. Thank God there’s no bigger corruption higher up the legal system. That it all stops right there in traffic court.

I don’t get traffic tickets anymore. When I used to, I availed myself of the useful services of the members of the bar. I don’t get tickets anymore because I’m not in that much of a hurry these days. Which is curious, because, being older, I obviously have less time left to waste in traffic.

Of course, it’s just traffic tickets, and the only people who are probably really hurt are the insurance companies, and no one sheds any tears for insurance companies.

Unless, maybe, the person who is driving isn’t facing the deterrent of escalating insurance costs, and keeps speeding until someone gets killed.

So how about it? Are we still going to be able to fix tickets now that we have a new D.A.?