Last Sat. I got pulled over for speeding @ 136 on 100 zone @ 401W London area.

I was in Left lane and cop was sitting in parked car in the emergency lane (space between the left lane and divider of 401E). After passing the cop's car, cop start driving and came in to the left lane and followed me and pulled me over.

I am pretty sure, I was not driving on 136 at that time. There were other cars too in left lane. I don't know how he spotted me, as he was sitting ahead of me and recorded reading, back (I don't know how far he spotted me) that accurate. He didn't show me the radar and I know, he don't have to.

I was driving the rental car. So, I told the cop about brand new car and have hard time to control the gas pedal.

Anybody has any suggestions about this matter, please help me out. Also, I am not from London and I have to go in London court only. So, anybody has any experience about London court?

Thanking you,

Do I fight for this ticket or is it worth to go with lawyer?

thanks

Hi-I'm not a lawyer, but I have a little bit of experience with tickets.

Your decision with hiring a lawyer depends on several factors.

1. How much experience you have with traffic tickets and going to court;

2. What's the status of your license and how will this ticket affect your insurance;

3. Do you feel you have a strong case and its worth fighting and spending several hundred on it with a lawyer.

If you have a few points on your license already, and adding this ticket would bring it to 9 points, you could be called in for an interview, and they would decide whether to suspend your license or not at that time.

Then your insurance rates would most likely go up. You might seriously consider a lawyer in this scenerio.

If your license is in good shape, you may try it on your own. Did the officer say he lowered the speed for you? Often it would have an "R" somewhere on the ticket, meaning it was reduced. But if he did not reduce it, there is a very good chance the prosecuter would lower it, if you plead guilty to a lesser charge. To do this, you should book a "first attendance" meeting ASAP, and when you go see the prosecuter work out a deal . He or she will probably offer you plead to lesser charge of going 129km in a 100km zone, which would lower to 3 points, and about half the cost of the original ticket ( I would guess this scenerio is about 80 % )

If you go with a lawyer, you have a slight chance they may find a problem within the officer's notes or his handling of the radar/ticket, and you could get off completely or even reduce it to 0 points and very little cost of ticket. I would guess this scenerio is about 10 %)

Its up to you to decide, because it depends on your situation.

Ultralyte wrote:

I was driving the rental car. So, I told the cop about brand new car and have hard time to control the gas pedal.

Just be aware, speeding is an absolute liability offence, so unfamiliarity with the vehicle or it's controls isn't a valid defence. You basically have to show reasonable doubt that you actually committed the offence; in other words it wasn't you that was speeding or there was an error with the speed measuring device. I would say speeding is a somewhat more difficult charge to represent yourself on, and if you're fighting it outright it may be worth hiring someone. That being said, the Crown would quite likely be willing to offer you a reduced charge for a lower speed, and if you're satisfied with a lower fine/points that skip the legal representation and take a deal.

I also had a 136km/h speeding ticket on the 401 (100km/h zone) just south of London, ON in ELGIN County on Sept. 11, 2009.

The officer in this instance pulled over 2 cars - one being me - at the same time.

I decided to follow option 3 and then met with a prosecutor, *edited*

He would not lower the charge to 0-15km/h over the limit with no points - which is what I wanted. He said he would only lower it to 129km/h and save me a single point.

I refused and after that began the process of getting disclosure (or the evidence against me) ... when I received nothing at all.

I continued to fax and call about it but received nothing.

Unfortunately I had not yet found this website, but I did do some minor research.

I took the day off work and drove down to St. Thomas where the courthouse was. *edited*

I was however, quite nervous as I had never been to court and only 23 years old, therefore very inexperienced with the system.

Basically had no plan, just to go in and say the cop pulled over 2 vehicles at once.

I'm not sure, but I was told a rule is: ONE COP ONE CAR - this was my defense.

They called my name and I entered the courtroom. *edited* I was one of the first up.

I took my place as the bailiff pointed out for me where to stand. The Crown Prosecutor then said they didn't have sufficient evidence and ask that the case be thrown out. The Justice of the Peace then dismissed me.

I couldn't believe it. My eyes must have light up and I began to salivate. I won. *edited* . Everyone immediately wants to know what happened. I told them the cop didn't show and I won.

*edited* Nothing feels better than a win in court. *edited*

Edits by HTA Forum Moderator

legalize-it wrote:

I was told a rule is: ONE COP ONE CAR - this was my defense.

For the record that's not the case. An officer can pull over multiple vehicles at once.

Hey all,

I already filed the trial for request and waiting for the letter for trial date, in London court. Its about 5 week now. I am just wondering that due to the post strike if I couldn't get the trial date letter than what should I do? Should I have to keep calling them for the date?

Please advise.

Thanks

No, just wait. Then request a disclosure. Maybe the letter will never come. It happened to me before and i never seen anything related to this ticket again, clean MTO record.

I also heard that it is possible to transfer a ticket somehow, anyone knows?

I would contact the Court office by telephone to find out what arrangements they've made to notify people of Court dates during the strike.

As I've said in other threads, what I've observed in provincial offences court recently is that they JPs are not allowing anyone to use the postal strike as an excuse. They are saying that the onus is still on you to determine dates and do things on time. I would not suggest ignoring the lack of a letter.

Finally for the disclosure I got the call from prosecutor and she said its ready to pick up and for radar manual said me "they don't have one and tell me to find one from from your local police station".

So, is it ok or they have to provide me the manual? Should i ask for further disclosure?

Thanks for reading my post.

I personally don't think that sounds reasonable. It's the Crown's duty to provide disclosure, not send you around town looking for it. The Crown should be obtaining a copy of the manual anyway since there will obviously be future disclosure requests for it with other cases.

Hi everybody,

I got the disclosure as below:

1) Officer's copy of ticket

2) Typed version of hand written notes

3) one page of manual for radar test that has type of test -- Display test, circuitry test, speed simulation test and road test.( few lines description for each test)

Officer's note is as below:

Radar G2S 27988

Tested 1. 0810 , 2. 1720

sun dry str

401 wb against

bend @ 500 m

3 lanes into 2

1 tt l2 104

1 car l1 110s

1car l2 110s

t: l1 atw

passing all

no loss

"T" rear antenna

please somebody explain the note as some of the lines couldn't understand well. Also, did he clock me @ 500 m distance?

Is there something that I raised question on it?

I didn't get the manual of radar and they said me to go to the local police station and they will allow you to refer over there bit couldn't get copy of it.

so, should i asked for further disclosure?

should i ask about more test details?

Anybody has any clue regarding above please help me out.

thanking you,

The way I read it he's just describing the bend in the road as being 500 m distance. I'm not sure where he actually lists the distance he obtained his reading at.

My guess is that he's talking about which vehicles are in which lanes (tt is probably transport truck) and what their speeds were. He then states you passed them all, didn't lose sight and obtained his reading with the rear radar in the cruiser.

Hey guys,

I am looking for advise regarding the above disclosure that what should I do next or what should I asked further?

Is it any clue that make the case strong?

Thanking you in advance.