There are a few a shore side vacation spots within an hour drive from where I live. My family and I love to visit one specific town a few times a year in the summer to go on the beach and walk the board walk just as I had done as a kid with my family many times. If planned well we can head down to the shore early in the morning and return home in the evening and have a full day of fun and sun at the shore.
I know plenty of people that have shore homes or others that get a weekly rental and relax at the beach with a place to stay. But I'm not to keen on the cost and planning when I can drive to the shore anytime I like. But when you drive down for the day you will need to contend with parking. It can be impossible to find somewhere to park near where you want to be. Or you have use a pricey parking lot or feed the street meter. There is free parking but will require more walking.
We never had problems before but I recently received a parking ticket. Paying $6 for metered parking got more expensive that the $20 parking lots when you add in the $30 fine for an expired parking meter. You see, I used an app to pay for parking. The parking meter doesn't have a way to know you used the app. So when the meter checker comes about they are supposed to verify that your license plate number doesn't come back as having a valid parking session for that zone. I would have set the info needed in the app and verified before I paid for my parking. I was understandably upset. And I tried to figure out how I can get this resolved. If I tried to fight this in court, the court costs would cost me more than the fine itself. If I was wrong I could be paying double.
After looking at the info multiple times I realized my mistake. I had entered my license plate incorrectly into the app. Effectively I paid for someone else to park in my spot. I put my tail between my legs, corrected the error in the app for next time and paid my fine online.
If the error had been on the part of the meter checker/parking authority this would have been a different rant. If I was right and took this to court to prove it I may not have to pay a $30 fine but I would instead have to pay $33 court cost instead, more than the fine. I would still get penalized for defending my right not to pay an unfair fine. In the title of the parking ticket it states it is a complaint. Does this mean someone could take advantage of the system to make a complaint just to cause grief out of spite? So if the municipality took advantage of this most people would pay the fine and if they came to fight the ticket in court the system gets paid anyway. Seems like an easy win for the legal system. I would think there should be a better system. Why should I have to pay to be in the right?
This isn't the only time I've had a situation like this. That is why I see these holes in a legal system that has no way to be fair but plenty of ways it can be taken advantage of. My wife received a ticket for going through a red light in the mail one day. The ticket didn't come as a result of a traffic light camera or a police officer. It came as a result as a citizen that witnessed the incident, got my wife's license plate, and then made a trip to the local police to file the complaint that resulted in a ticket. We did not know this was possible.
The truth is my wife did go through a red light. Not a light that just turned red but having a bad day, wasn't paying attention and drove straight though a red light. Not a good situation. My wife had realized what had happened, pulled over and called me so I could meet her and drive her to her destination as she was not in a good frame of mind to continue driving. We thought we were fortune enough that she didn't get pulled over by a cop that day.
We contacted a lawyer and explained our situation. He defended us in court. His strategy was to require the defendant to identify us in a crowded courtroom or else the ticket would need to be thrown out. Since it was unlikely that this person got a good look at my wife this was a good strategy. My wife didn't disguise herself but she did her hair a bit different than her normal and put on her full makeup as she would if we were going for a night out (I don't like makeup on my wife so she doesn't normally wear makeup like on the day of the incident). It worked and we did not have to pay the fine. But after paying the lawyer and court costs we felt like we still got penalized. Although the alternative would also include points on my wife's license and in our state we could also be required to pay a surcharge for those points (which I don't understand). This could also affect our insurance premium. That is why most people in my state fight moving traffic violations that asses points. Even if you were in the wrong, you don't want points. You are better off making a deal with the prosecutor for a violation with a bigger fine but no points.
My point is if anybody can make a complaint, then anybody that has a beef with you can make a complaint even if you are not guilty just to be antagonistic, a weaponized legal system. At the end of our time in court we paid our court fees at the clerk window and we watched our accuser walk past us and walk down the street to her home without anything further being required of her. I would think half of the court fees should have been paid by her for her to have her day in court. She was the one who initiated this course of action. We only chose to be there to minimize the damage this would have on our life.
I already know this happens. A friend of mine was a contractor. After doing work for a wealthy man the wealthy man decided he didn't want to pay for it. My friend took every legal action to recover his money that was owed for the work he did. The wealthy man probably spent more money and effort to fight my friend in court than what he owed but my friend never received a penny for the work. Most likely the wealthy man refused to pay to prove he could.
But when a person can make small complaints that cost them nothing more than some time and will cost the other person no matter the outcome, it shows how the legal system can be used antagonistically.