[ale] OT: Court tomorrow

[Jeff Hubbs]

Having not seen what actually happened, all I can offer is this: 
"Following too closely" is indeed a catch-all and is typically tossed at
anyone who rear-ends anyone else.  However, the logic behind that is
that you should be able to get your car stopped without hitting anyone
even if the car in front of you pulls the worst-case scenario, i.e, the
car comes to an immediate dead stop right in front of you.  You can
deflect the charge only if you can show - or at least persuasively
assert - that something about the circumstances would have worked
against a reasonable person with a fast foot *and* a sufficient stopping
distance.  For instance, if the car didn't have working brake lights,
costing you some time to react, or if the car had been to the front and
side of you and then *became* too close in front of you because it
changed lanes and you didn't have time to drop back before it tried to
stop/turn/etc.

Other standard disclaimers:  Only address the judge and do so
pleasantly.  I don't *really* believe that a judge has only the
"interest of his employer" to look after.  There's no reason to expect
that he will try to be anything but fair.  If you assert that the woman
didn't signal the turn, you *may* get the benefit of the doubt unless,
of course, you come off as a jerk.

Jeff

On Sun, 2004-11-14 at 17:56, Christopher Fowler wrote:
> I have a date with Gwinnett county traffic court tomorrow.  I was
> charged under 40-6-49(a) but should have been charged under (d).  Does 
> anyone know if that will make a difference in my defense of a 
> "following too closely" charge?
> 
> (d) seems to be the catchall and (a) does not even apply to the
> accident.  I was never following the car I hit in the first place.
> I also remember not seeing a turn signal.  After we got out of the car
> she asked me if her turn signal was working.  The cop refused to even
> check after I mentioned this.  Could that be grounds for her not taking
> a "lawful turn" and get me out of (d)?  I haev used grep on the GA code
> I downloaded and can not find a definition for a "lawful turn"  If
> someone knows the code for that then I will be better prepared tomorrow
> afternoon.  
> 
> Normally I would not fight this but the Solicitor pissed me off.  I
> offered him to dismiss it or I would plead not-guilty and he wanted to
> do a NOLO with no fine,  That sounded good but that should be saved for
> something really horrible like speeding.  Not hitting someone in the
> rear.  My concern is this is a bench trial.  I'm basically letting my
> case be heard but someone who could be considered as "Judge Dredd"  He
> is the jury too and IMO he has the interest of his employeer to look
> after.  I could be paranoid in this thinking.  In a Jury trial you can
> argue a case in the spirit rather than in the letter so I'm not sure if
> in the spirit is the right way to go with a bench trial.
> 
> Any pointers?
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
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