Here's a little post I made a few months back to a mailing list I'm on, describing the experience I had just had that I alluded to a few blogs back... Posted here for posterity.

What a trip. I feel totally put through the wringer.

Today I went to court to contest a $25 parking ticket. I honestly
thought this was going to be like traffic court, where you just
describe what happened, and the judge makes a decision. Instead,
I found myself having to improvise my best Perry Mason.

I found myself scheduled in the BIG courtroom, intimidating
enough in itself. And, pleading not guilty, I was immediately
offered a choice: proceed without a lawyer and have the judge
decide, or schedule a JURY TRIAL. Over a parking ticket. Huhwhat?
I decided to just go for it without the jury, since by the time
they would've scheduled that, I would be out of the country...

They gave me a ticket on a street where there was NO indication
of "no parking" until well past where I parked. So I had taken
a series of pictures showing the layout of the street. But I
had NO idea how to submit them as evidence, and the prosecutor
jumped all over me for trying to do it at a time when I was
supposed to be cross-examining the officer. I still sat there
and questioned the officer for about ten minutes, with a whole
lot of hemming and hawing. I had some notes attached to the
photos, which the prosecutor also objected to, and I had to remove
them. Can you tell I was in over my head? The judge took some
sympathy to my deer-in-the-headlights look and gave me some
nudges in the right direction. There was still at least five
or six times that the prosecutor objected.

Bottom line was, the officer lied through his teeth about where I was
parked, and I couldn't contradict him, so I was eventually found
guilty. They waived my fine, though (I think out of sympathy).

Considering all the time I spent getting the court date, taking
the pictures, and going to the trial today, it was far from worth
it financially. But dammit, what's money without experience?
Today was an EXPERIENCE.

Phew. I need a drink.