FYI, unless california has changed their laws since I last got a ticket, you have to pay court costs if you don’t fight the ticket or fight it and lose. That way, court costs are not a deterrent to fighting the ticket. The process of fighting one can be though, but that is a different story.
As to the being more to the story, its like once in my youth, I got a ticket for an “unsafe lane change”. The cop was going to write it for “illegal” lane change until I pointed out that I did give a signal. He just felt that I made the lane change too quickly. Now for page 4, the rest of the story. He had observed me street racing another car, he hadn’t been able to clock me (85 in a 30).