That's ridiculous. What if the person isn't nice? What if you didn't have your phone with you in the first place? Or it got damaged or lost? How did this even work before mobile phones that stored contact lists, which really isn't that long ago?

What should any of that matter as to whether you get justice or not?

I swear, with this stuff, the plea bargaining, juries, "expensive lawyers", sometimes I get the idea that the US justice system is designed to provide plot devices for TV series of police/justice procedurals, and everything else is an afterthought. How often do people say, after dealing with police/justice, "I felt like I was in a bad movie"?

If the person isn't nice you are SOL. I got arrested once during a commute for an unpaid parking ticket from college, cue cop placing cuffs on me tightly, slamming me against the squad car, searching the vehicle, then hauling me off to county for booking. They refused to let me look up numbers on my phone and I was left to call my parents 3 hours away to come pay the cash only bond.

It was a pretty eye opening experience. Especially on the arresting officer's part because they get no clue as to why they are arresting you beyond "FAILURE TO APPEAR" that shows on their screen, so they assume the worst.

Failure to Appear is failure to comply with a court summons, not failure to pay a parking ticket. There is definitely more to this story.

Get a ticket, you get a choice between paying the fine and appearing in court to contest it. Guess what happens when you do neither.

In the US? You get a court summons delivered by mail. Then you should probably go to court.

Problem there is now they're in your phone.