It is going to happen sooner or later. You are going to get a ticket for something. Kyle is a small town and Kyle's finest is out keeping the streets safe. I will admit this is the Municipal Court. It is expected that the ratings are not going to be very high, no one likes dealing with Judges or cops in a Court setting. I had gotten a ticket and taken Defensive Driving for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. I could have argued that the cop really could not see me in the direction he was facing because it was dark and he had a bunch of trees blocking his vision. I did not have the time to take off work and go fight the ticket, so I opted for Defensive Driving. I pretty much completed everything within 5 days and was done.
I found myself being pulled over for speeding a few months later. I have taken Defensive Driving already, I opted for Deferred Adjudication. I feared the fine was going to break the bank being that I am trying to recover from Christmas and my kid's birthday. You can go to the office and enter your plea but you can not ask for a payment plan. They give you 30 days to pay off the fine. I was given a court date and showed up 20 minutes early. This place was already packed with people. I signed in and was the 13th person to sign in. The judge came in 30 minutes later. I had figured if I got their early and was one of the first few people in line, I might have a better chance getting cut a break on the fine and I could pay it the same day. It was over two hours before it was my turn. I made my plea and asked the judge if they could cut me a break on the fine so I could pay it the same day. You figure the City of Kyle would want their money immediately. The Judge gave me 6 months to pay it off and turned me over the Court Clerk. I wrote them a check and left.
The system they have in place is a nightmare. If you go in early to plead No Contest or Guilty, you can not get a payment plan. You can request Defensive Driving; but, you still have to pay the fine in full or within 30 days. It would be much easier to have the Court Clerks be able to forward your plea to a Legal Assistant or even a Judge for them to sign off on it and offer payment plans. For those who wish to speak to a Judge, they should be able to do during their court date. I know the big problem with that is Kyle brings their District Attorney's and Judges in from other cities. If the City of Kyle could streamline the process, it would make things go much smoother. Who wants to sit in Municipal Court for over 2 hours after being there 20 minutes early when this all could have been handled way before the court date? There are some that would say, "Well do not get a ticket." This is Kyle. You are bound to get pulled over eventually.
A suggestion of either a kiosk where you could enter your plea, request payment plans and pay fines would be awesome. Of course, this all costs money to the City. You have to figure how much money we spend in bringing in a Judge, holding court, paying the Kyle cop who is also in the court. If you could stream line the process it would be a savings all the way around. Kyle is going to get their money and to those people who maybe can not get off work in time or have time restrictions because of family, There was a time where the DA would call you in, offer you a deal and you were done. There were many times where they could cut you a break on fines and you could pay them the same day.
Kyle is in the top 5 fastest growing cities in Texas. It went from a sleepy 5,000 person town to over 30,000 people. It is only going to get worse if the system does not get streamlined. read more