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I get this impression too, have since the first services of this type appeared around 2 years ago. Yes, it can be used to easily dispute bad parking tickets. B

I get this impression too, have since the first services of this type appeared around 2 years ago. Yes, it can be used to easily dispute bad parking tickets. But the reason it works is that an office somewhere is pumping out boilerplate with your name on it at a faster rate than the courts have time to deal with it — this is the reason so many tickets get dismissed, because our court system is already so overtaxed that it must decide rather peremptorily on minor topics like this. In other words they're basically doing a paper denial-of-service attack on the courts, which as they do not have the capacity to do all these hearings, simply default to halving or nixing the ticket. Personally, I think it is vile.

toomuchtodo 13y ago
> In other words they're basically doing a paper denial-of-service attack on the courts, which as they do not have the capacity to do all these hearings, simply default to halving or nixing the ticket. Personally, I think it is vile. As someone who has had to deal with both illegitimately issued traffic and parking citations, I think its brilliant. Traffic tickets and parking tickets, for the most part, are for revenue and not safety. If they were for safety or actual enforcement, the punishments wouldn't be so heavily weighted towards fines. Anytime technology can stick a wrench in poor government, be it incompetent civil servants, or poor policy, I'm all for it. If you don't have the capacity to provide hearings that are allowed by law, don't issue the citations.
- javert 13y ago
  > If they were for safety or actual enforcement, the punishments wouldn't be so heavily weighted towards fines. I don't disagree with your conclusion, but I disagree with your argument. Any punishment other than a fine for parking or speeding violations would be draconian, except for repeat offenders. It's not OK to throw someone in jail or suspend their license (potentially removing their ability to get to work) for a minor speeding violation.
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    > It's not OK to throw someone in jail or suspend their license (potentially removing their ability to get to work) for a minor speeding violation. Agreed. At the same time, this would entail correcting law enforcement of speed limits to be more realistic, with other traffic citations directing you to remedial training/driving school that is affordable and not profit driven. Self-driving cars make all this moot though. The sooner they get here, the better.
  - MadManE 13y ago
    I would argue that having laws against things that are easily deterred simply by money is evil. Anything that is worth outlawing should carry a significant penalty with it. Otherwise, we encourage legislation outlawing things for revenue instead of because they are actually wrong.

toomuchtodo 13y ago

> In other words they're basically doing a paper denial-of-service attack on the courts, which as they do not have the capacity to do all these hearings, simply default to halving or nixing the ticket. Personally, I think it is vile. As someone who has had to deal with both illegitimately issued traffic and parking citations, I think its brilliant. Traffic tickets and parking tickets, for the most part, are for revenue and not safety. If they were for safety or actual enforcement, the punishments wouldn't be so heavily weighted towards fines. Anytime technology can stick a wrench in poor government, be it incompetent civil servants, or poor policy, I'm all for it. If you don't have the capacity to provide hearings that are allowed by law, don't issue the citations.

javert 13y ago
> If they were for safety or actual enforcement, the punishments wouldn't be so heavily weighted towards fines. I don't disagree with your conclusion, but I disagree with your argument. Any punishment other than a fine for parking or speeding violations would be draconian, except for repeat offenders. It's not OK to throw someone in jail or suspend their license (potentially removing their ability to get to work) for a minor speeding violation.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  > It's not OK to throw someone in jail or suspend their license (potentially removing their ability to get to work) for a minor speeding violation. Agreed. At the same time, this would entail correcting law enforcement of speed limits to be more realistic, with other traffic citations directing you to remedial training/driving school that is affordable and not profit driven. Self-driving cars make all this moot though. The sooner they get here, the better.
- MadManE 13y ago
  I would argue that having laws against things that are easily deterred simply by money is evil. Anything that is worth outlawing should carry a significant penalty with it. Otherwise, we encourage legislation outlawing things for revenue instead of because they are actually wrong.