Another joins

[judgedredd]

Hi,

My Name is Christopher and I found myself in need of all things legal for driving without a 'valid license' in Illinois last September 2007.

I had a Pre-Paid legal subscription membership but found that they did not help at all. After searching the net for a number of days I found Marc's site and ordered his book. I also found another legal self-help site at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lawyerdude.8m.com">http://www.lawyerdude.8m.com</a><!-- m -->. After paying $300 he provided me with a motion to dismiss, which can be seen here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.lawyerdude.netfirms.com/8922.html">http://www.lawyerdude.netfirms.com/8922.html</a><!-- m --> ,  I found that it was full of spelling errors, wrong case and ticket number, etc. I spent about 6 hours correcting it, finishing it just in time to file it the day before I was due in court. Note the 'interesting' language used! Well, I became increasingly uncomfortable with this motion especially when I was told on more than 7 occasions that he would write a Writ of Mandate when the court did not provide a Court Reporter. By the time the 8th April came around (my third appearance was on the 10th April) I still had no Writ of Mandate.

So I got in touch with Marc (Marc you should print your web address on your books!) and eventually had a consultation with him. I had the motion that he provided filled out within a couple of hours. This is the one where you can download (for $25) and fill in the stuff from the provided case list page. 3 pages as opposed to 28 from Lawyerdude.

I cut off Lawyer Dude and have not had any communication with him since I got back from court on the 10th April. My next court date is 5th June, and am now starting the process of upgrading my motion provided from Marc.

I must say that going through this experience is very debilitating. What makes it worse is that one never knows what is going to happen as the rules are bent or ignored to extract the money/time from you any which way.

In England, where all this crap stems from, they are very civil and are very fair in comparison to what goes on here. There are no cops in the 'chambers' (yes they still call it that which is the room where your case is heard), which they have here. There are always three judges (magistrates is what we call them), they wear the full regalia (wigs and gowns), and they always tend to favor the defendant in traffic cases. So any proof that one has in one's favor ends up more often than not in the charges being dismissed. It happened to me when I had the wrong type of motorcycle insurance. I stated that I was a courier. The insurance company didn't ask what type (they thought I was a airline courier not a motorcycle courier). The policeman who stopped me and gave me the ticket was very pissed.

Anyway, I digress. I do find it very daunting dealing with this stuff especially when it says in the Constitution that one has the right to travel freely. It is very stressful to not knowing what the hell is going to happen.

If any of you can help in providing case law of actual cases that have been dismissed for not having a license, please post here. Meanwhile I will be updating and building on what I already have.

By the way, any difference between being Pro Se as opposed to being Pro Per?

[eye2i2hear]

Hi Christopher.  I'm looking forward to reading your post when time permits, but meanwhile jus wanted to stick my head in the cyber door and say "hi"... thanx for posting.