Your Honor,
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my case. It is a privilege to exercise today my right granted by the constitution originating in the English Common-law tradition, to present my case before my esteemed opposition and before yourself. It is a hallmark of our judicial system that cases are heard not by bureaucrats or legalists, but by judges. Persons who are specially trained to consider not only the letter of the law, but also the circumstances and conditions around which a violation of the law occurred and to adjust the sentence accordingly within reason and precedence.
The charge leveled against me is the charge of speeding; going 46mph in a 25mph road. I ask your honor to consider that I as a student am limited in the type of defense that I can offer. I cannot mount a legal defense since I am neither a trained lawyer nor am I familiar with Virginia traffic law. I am also not qualified to challenge the evidence presented against me. I do not know what radar is used by the police department to capture the speed of vehicles nor how accurate such equipment is. The only kind of defense I can mount is to explain as best I can the conditions and circumstances around the ticket in order to present a more complete picture of the events of that day for your honor’s consideration.
In my view, the justness of this charge rests on two questions
- What were the circumstances around which the infraction occurred?
- Is the fine and expenses associated with the ticket well fitted to the severity of the crime?
To answer the first question, I should note that receiving such a ticket is highly uncharacteristic of me. Friends and family can attest that I am an extremely safe and cautious driver. This fact is also reflected in my driving record. My record which extends back 7 years to when I first began driving is completely spotless with no history of speeding tickets or accidents. The question is then, why was it that on September 9th at 12:55pm I was behaving in a way that was out of character for me?
The first thing to note is that I am currently a graduate student in the physics department taking full time courses. On Thursdays, the day of the week on which my ticket occurred, I have classes from 12:30 in the afternoon to 3:30. On a typical Thursday, I head out of my apartment at Eagle’s Landing around noon, park on Jefferson Park Avenue, and walk from there to class. On the day of the ticket however, I was getting my car serviced earlier in the day in a completely different part of Charlottesville. Unfortunately, servicing the car on that day took longer than expected and none of my classmates were able to pick me up from the Toyota Dealership to take me to class. As a result, I left the dealership around 12:45pm, late for class and traveling through unfamiliar roads. Looking at the route that I took that day shows that most of the journey was on route 250 where the speed is 45mph. I traveled down 250 before turning on more residential roads where the speed is 25mph. These are the circumstances in which I received the ticket. I was late for class and traveling though roads which were unfamiliar to me, I remember being uncertain on that day whether the speed limit was 25 or 35mph on Rugby Road.
Secondly, we must consider the fine associated with this ticket and see whether it is proportional to the severity of the infraction. As mentioned previously, I am a graduate student earning just $xx,xxx annually. After taxes this amount to $x,xxx a month. After paying for rent, car payments, car insurance, and other fixed payments, I am usually left with only $xxx-$xxx of disposable income to spend on necessities such as food and gas. This month, my expenses are likely to be higher than normal since I must cover payments for an emergency room visit for an episode of heartbeat irregularity and fainting which I suffered two weeks ago. The ticket, as it stands now, would include a fine of $178, this does not include the inevitable spike in car insurance premiums that would accompany this ticket. These fees and expense would eat up significantly into my budget for necessities and would threaten my basic food security. In my opinion such fines are completely out of proportion to the severity of the infraction.
To conclude, I would like to reiterate that I am a safe driver and have demonstrated this by my excellent driving record. The circumstances around which I received the ticket were anomalous and do not reflect my normal driving behavior on the road. Furthermore, the fines and expenses associated with the ticket will have an oversized negative effect on me financially, an effect which I do not believe is merited by my infraction. Therefore, taking all this in mind, I plead ‘not guilty’. I do not believe that it serves the interest of the state to uphold these charges against me.
I resign myself to your honor’s judgment and rest my case.