this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
269 points (98.6% liked)

News

23648 readers
2696 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Fenton, population 226, brings in over $1 million per year through its mayor’s court, an unusual justice system in which the mayor can serve as judge even though he’s responsible for town finances.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah…. Uhm…. Seems like that’s a fairly easy thing to appeal?

[–] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I assume that for many people the time and effort to try and appeal shit like this is way more than the original fine is worth.

That is why it keeps happening.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yup. But, I imagine a half-decent lawyer could turn that into a class action and make bank.

[–] canthidium@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dunno the success of any suits against these towns, but they exist all over the country. They count on you passing through and not being able to come back for court.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which is perhaps why a class action might be the best way to go, rather than just appealing it.

But part of due process is a free and impartial trial. I suspect there’s other forms of corruption, as well, though. It’s the kind of thing that festers

[–] Usul_00_@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But you have to have $$ for it be worth a lawsuit. Notice in this case they don't even keep records, so it's likely hard to even fight them using their own papers. Better would be to contest in federal court using the Supreme Court opinion imo

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

90+% of the victims of these towns lives far enough away that it's cheaper to just pay the damn ticket than drive 400 miles to show up for court.