Reply to "Speeding Defense?"

David, sorry I hadn't seen this article before you closed the books on it - however, maybe this advice can help others.

I came across a good article on the web some time ago when I was helping someone that was a bit stressed out about a ticket - it is Ontario centric, but I'm sure a lot of it applies to other jurisdictions.

The net of it is, you have the right to disclosure from the prosecution, by sending a written request for a boat-load of information prior to the court date, if they don't send it, you have every right to request the case be thrown out, they will likely just give you a date in the future, and very often that date (because it is given on the spur of the moment) does not coincide with a date the officer will be scheduled to spend the day in court - if he doesn't show up, the case is dismissed - if they don't provide the required documentation prior to the second court date, you are very likely to get the case dismissed - or if they try to drag it out even further, it can be dismissed as the courts may agree that they have violated your right to be tried within a reasonable amount of time.

Net, for the person I was helping out, they went with one of the traffic ticket specialists (OTT I think), made sure that they defined up-front that a 'win' would be the case dismissed (if you say getting rid of the points is fine, then that's all they'll try to do). I think it cost $200 all said and done - no need to go to court, and the case was finally thrown out.

Here's the article for you do-it-yourselfers in the crowd...

http://www.magma.ca/~fyst/

Last thought - I have a coworker who received a ticket that had an error on it (wrong location) - when he went to court, they acknowledged their error and 'innocently' asked if they could change it, he said NO, and that he was not at the location identified on the ticket at the time and date indicated - the case was immediately thrown out. If he had said 'yes', they would have had him.