Traffic Court best practices...

[Acura604]

hey everyone,

I am contesting a ticket for the first time in my life! Next week!!

Anyways, i'm not too worried as I do have a solid case but I'd like to know some best practices/advice while at the Court.

i.e.

obviously don't dress like a scrub.

in the case of addressing the judge, is it 'your honour', 'your worship'..etc etc?

for anyone who has experienced it, please post up some advice.

Thanks...i'll share details of my case AFTER my victory!!!

[SumAznGuy]

Call them "your worship" as they are JP's and not actual judges.
So when you go there, look for your courtroom and be outside the door early.
the officer that issued you the ticket might be there and they may want to talk to you about having you plead guilty to a lesser ticket.
Once the time comes, the door is unlocked and everyone enters the courtroom where they will do a roll call.
Everything is pretty straight forward.

[6o4__boi]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Call them "your whorship"

he's going to traffic court, not a strip club

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by 6o4__boi

he's going to traffic court, not a strip club

[fliptuner]

Could never bring myself to address someone like that. Sir or ma'am should suffice.

[Acura604]

Ticket dismissed. Cop was a no show.

[6o4__boi]

pics of the celebratory strip club visit to whorships pls

[Acura604]

Yup. I whoreshipped it up!

"So you'd like to dismiss the ticket due to the constables absence from these proceedings?"

" YES your whoreship!"

" ok done. You're free to go"

[MG1]

Originally Posted by fliptuner

Could never bring myself to address someone like that. Sir or ma'am should suffice.

They went to law school, licked boots, and kissed ass for years.......... to hear people worship them. Bwahahahaha.......

Out of the courtroom, the are just another brick in the wall.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by MG1

They went to law school

Judges may have, but JP's didn't. They just worked their way up at the court houses.
Some don't even have a university degree.

[Verdasco]

going to two differnt court cases , one for cellphone and one for insurance (which i plead guilty but I am going to pay $350 or so instead of $700)

worried as fuck too be honest but I am a confident mother fucker and hope they dont come LOL

[swiftshift]

Originally Posted by Acura604

Ticket dismissed. Cop was a no show.

[DGN23]

Where's the details of the ticket damn it? We were promised details.

[Acura604]

FINE. here were the details of my ticket:

DATE/TIME: APRIL 25 2015 / 14:13 (24HR TIME)

Driving along hwy 91 in left lane heading southbound from the queensborough bridge.

In the left lane, i was forced to do 60 in a 80 due to a slow moving van... this van was driving erratically - constantly braking and swerving into the other lane.

SEE PIX BELOW.

I decided to pass this van on the right and accelerated sharply from 60 to 80 to get up to highway speed. the unmarked police SUV was in front of me and turned on the lights to pull me over. here is the official transcript as recorded by my dashcam:

ME: Hi

Officer: Hi, can I have your drivers license?

ME: here you go

Officer:Whats your name?

ME: xxx

Officer: and your last name?

ME: xxx

Officer: whats your date of birth?

ME: Oct 10 xxxx

Officer: October what?

ME: 10, xxx

Officer: whats your address?

ME: xxx

Officer: and your postal code?

ME: xxx

Officer: perfect
Officer: can I see the insurance papers for the vehicle?
Officer: perfect
Officer: ah, you’ve been, I believe ah, I’m just seeing your identification but the officer that’s giving you the ticket witnesses some driving behavior that I’m not aware of I think ah. Were you speeding?

ME:ah, not that I’m aware of

Officer: yah you were speeding like um, she was saying ‘holy look at this guy coming up’ but I couldn’t
turn.. she measured it so I don’t know.. you’re most likely getting a ticket so just wait here.

[ 10 minutes later ]

Officer: ok , I want you to turn your left turn signal on

ME: left turn signal?

Officer: yah, start your engine or put it in accessory mode and I want to see your left turn signal
Officer: left turn signal… is it on?

ME: Yes sir

Officer: right turn signal

ME: should be on

Officer: just wait there for a second

[ officer proceeds to walk to rear and front of vehicle to confirm signal operation ]

Officer: alright, all of your turn signals are functional but you weren’t using them. She witnessed you
made the lane change without using your signal.

ME: I did sir, I always change lanes with my signal

Officer: well you…

ME: I always do

Officer: she watched and you didn’t. you were speeding but she didn’t give you that ticket anyways but
she saw it. But she certainly saw you speeding and clocked you so you’re getting…

ME: I need to know what speed I was going sir

Officer: well, um you’ll have to bring it to court. You’re getting a ticket for the lowest speed charge. All
we have to do is prove is 1km/hr over the speed limit. So 81km/hr is ah…

ME: but I didn’t pass you, I was behind you.

Officer: youi’ll have to bring it to court.. I .. I didn’t even witness it, she did. I’m serving you the ticket
that’s all I’m doing. Um it dangerous for her to get out of the vehicle with traffic rushing past her that’s
why I’m issuing the ticket.

ME: I understand

Officer: but she witnessed you speeding so she has an idea of what speed you were going. You’re going
well over 80 according to her so you’ll have to bring it to court. I cant talk about it but that I didn’t see it
alright? She has to prove that you were going 81…1km/hour over. So here’s the ticket and if you want
to dispute it contact this address within 30 days okay and if you want to um, pay the fine you get $25 off
if you pay within 30 days.

ME: I’m sorry Officer but I cant accept this ticket and will contest it

Officer: ok just dispute it then. Alright.

MY Wife: that other car was going so slow , the van and he had to pass him

ME: you guys should have pulled him over, he was going 60km/hr on the highway

Officer: bring that to court then.


NOTES:
1. Officer was in front of my vehicle and most likely made a judgement error as I increased my
acceleration from 60km/hr to 80km/hr to get to hwy speed. I had NOT passed this officers
vehicle which was also going 80km/hr. The officers vehicle turned on its lights when I was still
behind them at 80km/hr. The officer mentioned that his partner clocked me but upon me
asking for proof of speed, he was unable to provide that proof at time of issuing ticket. In fact,
there was no radar or measured clock speed with an instrument. The officer insinuates that in a
matter of a few seconds, my vehicle jumped from 60km/hr to “well over 80” which is just not
possible with 4 persons in the car. It is not a high performance vehicle. (LOL..its a TL Type S 6MT hahahaha)

Also, the officers vehicle
had very dark tint on rear glass close to limo tint of 5%...coupled with my observation that she
was wearing sunglasses. That combination of tint and sunglasses is proven to reduce visibility.
Not to mention, she would be driving facing the road ahead and not constantly viewing her rear
view mirror.
2. The slow moving vehicle in the left lane was driving erratically at 60km/hr. braking as well as
swerving into the right lane. The van almost side swiped the officers vehicle and when I passed ,
it also swerved into my lane. I was doing my due diligence to avoid a possible accident and
accelerated to the posted speed limit of 80km/hr whilst watching this van drift into my lane.

photos:

pix of slow moving van: (note the speed on dashcam footage)




NOTE the unmarked police SUV passing me and the van. look how the van swerves into the lane of the police SUV.




so i began my pass on the right and had to speed up from 60 to 80.




you can see the police SUV way up in front of me... once i hit about 80, they put on the lights and let me pass to pull me over.

Dashcam was great at recording the entire event!!! i was ready to go to trial but knew the cop had NO case!! sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

[fliptuner]

what a waste of fucking time.

[SumAznGuy]

You'd think they would have pulled the van over for trying to share the same lane as the police SUV.

This is total crap and a waste of time.

[jeedee]

sounds like the cop had to hit their ticket quota

glad you didn't have to pay the ticket OP. Sounded like complete bs

[Acura604]

I guess the thing here is... do we have time to WASTE going to court in the middle of the afternoon during a work day. luckily I have a pretty flexible job that allowed me to do so.

BUT... in any case, you should ALWAYS contest your ticket...you may not win but you WILL most likely get your fine reduced. use whatever sob story you have - the judge and officer seem to be willing to cut a deal... unless you act like an idiot - just be nice to them and they will be nice to you. I saw fines being reduced up to 50%.

[meme405]

OP I'm glad you had your BS ticket thrown out.

But then you gotta go and say some stupid shit like this:

Originally Posted by Acura604

BUT... in any case, you should ALWAYS contest your ticket...you may not win but you WILL most likely get your fine reduced. use whatever sob story you have - the judge and officer seem to be willing to cut a deal... unless you act like an idiot - just be nice to them and they will be nice to you. I saw fines being reduced up to 50%.

Fuck that, you were speeding 120 in a hundred zone and you got caught. Why should some SOB story about needing your license for work, or BS about being a broke student get you a reduced fine?

It says right on the ticket, if you dispute and are found guilty it's an extra 25 bucks. WTF WHY AREN'T THE COURTS ENFORCING THIS?

Dispute every ticket? Even when you are in the wrong? Nah fuck that, take it on the chin like a man; do the crime, do the time.

Buncha Beta ass bitches.

[Acura604]

^^ i know...that's why I put in the 'act like an idiot' at time of offense or at court. if its something stupid like excessive speeding... just pay it.

the cases i saw were mostly CVSE related to truck drivers. some with improper inspection logs, etc. or loads unsecured. the fines were pretty high.. over $600 reduced to around $380.

[meme405]

Originally Posted by Acura604

^^ i know...that's why I put in the 'act like an idiot' at time of offense or at court. if its something stupid like excessive speeding... just pay it.

the cases i saw were mostly CVSE related to truck drivers. some with improper inspection logs, etc. or loads unsecured. the fines were pretty high.. over $600 reduced to around $380.

Fuck that. The charge for wasting the courts time should be way higher than 25 bucks. They should make it like 100, or whatever it needs to be to cover the cost of the people working in the courts on these matters.

If someone showed up in my courtroom and said, "yeah I am guilty, but I was hoping to have a reduced fine, because I'm irresponsible and didn't take into account how my actions would affect me", I would literally give the person a bigger penalty for being an idiot, and wasting everyone's time.

Also I don't understand why they just throw out cases when the cop doesn't show up. They should swear the person in, and as them point blank: "Did you run that stop sign", that way atleast the person will think twice before perjuring themselves over a 120 dollar ticket.

So many guilty people going to court for bullshit, just to try and get off, or get reduced fines, meanwhile the court system is so fucking backed up that it's a major pain for people with real problems.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by meme405

So many guilty people going to court for bullshit, just to try and get off, or get reduced fines, meanwhile the court system is so fucking backed up that it's a major pain for people with real problems.

You do realize that traffic court and criminal court are 2 seperate entities right?
Judges who sit in criminal court went to school and worked many years as lawyers before being appointed to be judges where as Justice of the Peace are the people that sit in traffic court. These people just worked their way up through the court system. A lot of them have been lifers that started in the court system straight out of high school and have limited education.

So if you had a court and would fuck over the drivers for wasting court time, what would you do to the police officer in OP's case since they wrote up a bogus ticket and no showed the court date.
You do know that the officer has the right to cancel the ticket once the dispute was put in motion to not waste court time, JCM time to set up the court dates, and court clerk's time for processing the ticket as well as OP's time even if he didn't have a 9 - 5 job.

It goes both ways.

[sho_bc]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Judges may have, but JP's didn't. They just worked their way up at the court houses.
Some don't even have a university degree.

The majority of JPs currently on the bench have at least 5 years of practical law before applying to be a JP. There are only a few left who are from the "old days" when you didn't need to be a lawyer first.

[smoothie.]

There needs to be some sort of reimbursement for time off to fight a bullshit ticket.

My dispute, cop showed up tried to convince me to plead guilty with no evidence - plead not guilty and cop withdrew charges instantly with lack of evidence.

I had to take half a day off, pay for parking, and spend some time on my own end to plan out what I would say and rationale etc.

Meanwhile cop gets paid to cruise to dt from burnaby, fart around with all his buddies in the court halls.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by sho_bc

The majority of JPs currently on the bench have at least 5 years of practical law before applying to be a JP. There are only a few left who are from the "old days" when you didn't need to be a lawyer first.

Which sucks cause JP's don't get paid all that well.
In some of the smaller court houses, court clerks do double duty and do some of the JP duties.
I just know all the JP's I know in 2 Vancouver court houses all have no practical law experience and only a few have university education in non law fields.