ChitownLiving | Chicago Real Estate + Life

It seems the busier I get, the more traffic tickets I rack up.  Comes with being an urban Chicago real estate agent, just another cost of doing business.  The past couple of months were particularly bad as I received a couple parking tickets and a ticket for allegedly not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign.  In Illinois, receiving a moving violation comes with a mandatory visit to traffic court. Off to traffic court I went on the assigned date.  Having never been before, it was kind of an adventure.  I entered the court room where about 75 other traffic violators sat in bench seats before the judge’s stand.  The judge entered and started the proceedings off with an explanation of the process.  There are basically two options…

1. Admit fault and escape with a minor fine and without a blemish on your driving record.
2. Fight the charge which means waiting around the courtroom, located in the bowels of the Daley Center, all day to receive a trial after all other cases have been heard, which most likely will lead to a “you’re guilty” verdict from the judge.

As luck would have it, the judge called my name after only about 10 other folks.  I approached the bench.  And then a bizarre coincidence occurred.  The conversation went like this… The judge asked, “Do you wish to plead guilty?”  To which I replied, “I do.” She then looked more closely at my paperwork and said… “Mr. Kerr, you’re not going to believe this, but you are living in my old house.  Don’t you just love that house?  I rehabbed it.  Did you purchase from the young couple with two young kids?” To which I replied… “Yes we did, great house.  We really enjoy it.”  I’m saved I thought.  I continued… “Soooooo does this help my case?”  The court erupts in laughter. Laughing, the judge continued… “Let me show you just how impartial I am, $55 fine, you can pick your paperwork up from the clerk, and pay the cashier on the way out.”  The court erupts in even louder laughter.  She continues… “Oh, and your neighbors have done a fantastic job renovating that graystone.” Of all the cases and courts in a city as big as Chicago, what are the chances that I would be assigned to a real estate loving judge who owned and rehabbed my house?  Amazing.  Any statistics buffs out there, I would love to know the odds. Just goes to prove that real estate and life’s events collide in the most unusual places.