[tm1100s]

JJ, rough calcs. In fact, the vast majority were not actually court cases, but judgements by the traffic court judge taking pleas and issuing average fines of $325-350. There were taken 10 at a time and each had his/her say before the fine (bail) amounts were issued. Yup, I saw 10 at a time take less than 15 minutes, sometimes faster. So 30 per hour x 8 hrs x $300 avg fine x roughly 300 court days (probably less due to holidays) comes to about $21 million. Less than half actually go to fight the ticket and just pay up, the other $20 million. Sure I've made some assumptions just sitting there a listening, but regardless, this is big business not petty cash. And now, the state, county and locals are fighting about who gets what. The numbers are not a justification for anything, just trivia.

But just as an aside, IF there was a referendum to limit traffic violation fines to, say, $50, would more or less tickets be written? And if the tickets were kept local, no points or records, how much would the insurance companies forfeit?

Just askin'.