A bit about the fines:
When I was studying in Santa Barbara, I was in court once for a traffic violation. Standard student, as the beautiful policewoman told me: speeding, not stopping at the STOP sign (I've "rolled over", instead of stopping completely, full stop) and one more thing, let's say half of my rear brake light doesn't light up. I tried to play the sketch of a stupid foreigner who has just landed in the promised land, I shout I'm flying from Europe, she shouts yes, you just flew, at that speed, it was fun.
This commented on "Facebook" Emil Koshlukov.
The total bill came to $300, which was a lot of money at the time, one month's rent. I asked if I could appeal, she said yes, within two weeks. And I went to court, where it is said that I will plead with the judge, whatever happens. The colleagues with experience - after all, this is a university, not a technical school for drivers, everyone regularly caught them for something, and in Santa Barbara the police were dying of boredom, their only joy was stalking drunken students of humanities majors, how they stop at 100 m. before the traffic lights - I was given advice: put on a shirt and jacket, do my best European accent, plead guilty and be super polite and respectful that the judge can let you go or send you to jail as he pleases. The judges there are a crazy job, they don't care about anyone, everyone looks them in the eye and doesn't dare to bark, like in the movies.
I go to the court, and there are convoys of bandits in orange overalls, tied with chains, I call to myself, dear mother, run quickly, you will eat three months of Chinese and knock out the money, they take them all to prison, and you are in in the hall, and they put you in these three slave chains, a terrible job.
It turned out that this was another court, for traffic fines there was a separate hall and a judge, I wiped the sweat and entered. The room was 50% Mexican and the other 50% had an average age of 82. The judge calls out how you plead, but I already know, if I say not guilty, they schedule a jury trial, it costs the state a lot of money and they get angry, and they crack hard. I call them guilty, Your Honor, he gives me the floor to explain and I, in the best English from the Plovdiv high school, formally ask for leniency. The man awarded me $100 and three months to pay it, I bowed to the thrice-honorable court and immediately rang the avers because I had already forgiven the other two hundred, and now they were available to water the event.
So, a speedy and fair trial is his mother, as well as serious but inevitable fines. Then I drove like a fly, I had no more fines.
P.S. A fellow from Indiana didn't pay the fine, said it was only in that state, and he wouldn't set foot in stupid California again, he had one semester left and was coming back to them. After a month, they entered the apartment in the middle of the night, arrested him because there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest that he had not paid. He spent two days in the local jail and was released. Pay again.