Hearings start at 1pm, you'll meet with the prosecutor who will hear you out and might allow an extension. If you have a lawyer he almost definitely will. Judge comes in about 45 min later and when your case is called, the prosecutor will make his recommendation based on your conversation and if you are rescheduling the judge will provide a new date. Then again, your excuses seem flimsy. The money excuse is bs. The judge might bring up the potential cost of the injury lawsuit if someone had tripped. If you own, you have to find money some way to keep your place up regarding public safety. Regarding weather, if you were supposed to have this done by Jan, you were probably issued the summons in Dec. the weather has been 38 degrees plus more often than not since December and the ground only really froze for a couple of days.

We have been summoned for a hearing at the Municipal Court (at 365 Summit Ave) in regards to our sidewalk - which is uneven due to a big tree and it's roots. We were given a deadline initially to get it repaired (by ripping up the sidewalk, then having the city come to trim the root, and then putting back a new sidewalk).

However, we were not able to finish the repair in time due to (1) not enough money to do the work - which has now been collected and is no longer an issue; and (2) weather - we were advised by our contractor that we should not pour/cure cement when it's too cold, so we weren't able to finish the work by end of Jan (original deadline).

So I have two questions and is wondering if someone here can provide some comments / experience:

1. We were given a specific date and time for the court appearance (e.g. 3/1 at 1pm). Does anyone know if the time stated is my actual time to meet with the judge, or if that's the start time for all hearing that day - and therefore my actual time in front of the judge would be anytime between 1pm and end of day that day?

We are planning to go and meet the judge and ask for an extension to the deadline (maybe a month or two when the weather is warm enough) - is this usually granted without penalties?

2. I've seen a lot of uneven sidewalks in JC, and some of them pretty bad (e.g. a big difference in elevation between the 2 adjoining slabs). I've also seen some of these "smoothed over" - some cement / concrete poured over the "gap", and smoothed over so the transition is smooth (like the corner of the sidewalks for the strollers to cross).
Does anyone know if these types of "smooth over" are accepted repairs, or just a temporary fix in the eyes of the city?

Other advice would be much appreciated too!