my best friend doesn’t have a car so i have to drive everywhere when we go somewhere and i dont mind because she gives me gas money sometimes. So every once in a while i ask her to drive for me and today i asked her to drive us to a restaurant. We come to an intersection and she takes a yellow light that turns red and the camera flashes.

Right away she says “oh my goodness i’ll pay for it don’t worry!” but then later she says “dude it wasn’t my fault you were the one who made me drive!”

Now i think this ticket is coming up to be around a $351 fine.

Do I get in trouble if someone else was driving my car?

Do I have to go to court or is there a way to avoid it?

I don’t want my parents to find out about this, is there a way I could go to the dmv and ask for the ticket to divert it from being mailed to my house?

It’s my first offense/moving violation, is the penalty softer?

Who should pay for the ticket, or how should the payment be taken care of?
Is it law that the ticket isn’t valid unless both license plate AND face of driver were taken?

This took place in California btw

She’s a close friend; but we call every other night, but we’re both in our 20s, have careers and quite busy…usually only hanging out once a month. We do this thing where we take turns paying for dinners at highend restaurants. I was at her house a few days ago, just hanging out watching a movie and helping her younger sister (16) with her English work. I am leaving for a short trip around the world on Thursday morning. She has a speech tonight (Wednesday), but she’ll be done at 9pm; her sister joked that I better be there to support and not just have dinner, that the younger sister will be there as well.

It’s also come to my attention that it’s the younger sister’s 17th bday this Friday. Do you think it would be a good idea to invite the younger sister to dinner as well? This restaurant is one of the top in the city; we’ll be getting there at closing, but the chef is a old university friend, and he’ll stay on, not just as our cook, but also server and sommelier. I am not sure how my friend will react…do you think she’ll take this as a good idea or bad idea to invite her younger sister. Her sister has expressed quite an interest in going to nice restaurants before, but my friend doesn’t think she’ll appreciate it. Good idea or bad?

When we’re in Florida, we’ll be taking a friend out to dinner. I want a restaurant that’s not expensive, but has decent ambience. We prefer ethnic — maybe Indian — but we’re certainly flexible.

My friend doesn’t go out much, so I want a restaurant she’ll enjoy, but again, that’s not over-priced.

I appreciate your suggestions. (Please, no lists - restaurants you’ve actually been to.)