Court closed on my appearance date

[inslee]

I got a speeding ticket a few weeks ago and wanted to appear in person to explain to a judge why it happened and hopefully be shown some leniency given my driving record. The appearance date on the ticket was yesterday (which happened to be Columbus day) and the court (like most non-critical government offices) was closed.

The court is an hour's drive away so I definitely wasn't happy about seeing it closed and to make matters stranger, nobody is picking up either of the phone numbers listed there even today!

There's no way to leave a message on the phone and I even found an email address for the judge of the court (it's a small one) online and still haven't heard back.

I don't want to have to drive all the way out there again if they're just going to reschedule me for another day (meaning another trip) so I'm wondering what my next move should be...

Anyone have experience with something like this?

[Roger Dat]

WEll its now tuesday so why havent you just called the court?

[inslee]

I did call today. Twice. On two different numbers. Nobody picked up. There's no voicemail either. I even emailed the judge, no response yet.

[Kimble]

Not sure what to tell you. Some small governments are just as good as bigger ones, others have piss-poor management and rampant corruption (of course, the largest county in my home state is plagued with the same problems). I'd imagine that if a court system isn't together enough to have people working on a normal work day (much less a voicemail for after hours), it's possibly the latter, in which case you may have no choice but to keep calling, or ultimately if that doesn't work after a couple days, make a trip there again.

[PapaBear]

Most traffic violations are cited for a specific date that you must answer to ON or BEFORE. Since the 12th was a holiday, that is your error. You must now try to make amends by immediately contacting the court to ask atone for your error before a warrant is issued for your arrest.

:sleep:

[Creeker]

Once again, a poster has not revealed even an inkling of his location to help us ascertain effective information.

In my state, the only Government offices closed on Columbus Day is the Federal Government. I can't speak for others, but in my state, your statement is faulty.