Hi first post on these boards but i've been reading them for a while now. Anyways a little about myself. Im 29 years old and live in downtown Toronto and im currently trying to start my own traffic ticket service business. I used to be a delivery driver in Toronto for the last 8 years. I also drove a souped up v8 mustang for a good chunk of those. Needless to say i've gotten A LOT of tickets. By a lot, i mean like over 50 in my life so far. But guess how many points I have on my license? 0. Ive learned the system so well now that's why I'm trying to start my own defense agency. Because I can do anything these high priced traffic guys can do. For a reasonable price. Anyways enough of the shameless plug, I'm going to get to my story of the shady business. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anyways I was at court about a week and a half ago at Old City Hall in Toronto (60 Queen St. W). I was fighting another ticket I received. This time it was for running a red light. (which i did not do!, cops a liar). So i go to the court room. I sign in with the prosecutor who is sitting behind a table outside the court room. She then asks me what I would like to do about my ticket. From my experience I figure the best thing to do if you dont have a defence is hope the cops not there. If the cop is there I take a resolution of a lessor fine which is in most cases no points. I tell the prosecutor I would like to resolve the ticket today and she offers a lessor fine of fail to obey yellow light or something. I wasnt really listening because I knew the officer who gave me the ticket wasnt there. I thought i was home free. So It comes time for me to go up to the front of the court room. The prosecutor tells the judge that I had agreed to a resolution to plead guilty to a lessor fine. The thing is in all my experience if the cop isnt there they dont even continue. They just throw out the ticket. But in this case they continued. The judge asks me how I plea to the lessor charge. So I say "Your worship, before I answer that question can I ask you a question?" He tells me that "now is not really the time to be asking questions. I tell him "well sir this pretains to the answer im about to give". The judge reluctantly allows me to ask the question. So I ask. "Your worship, I've been in this situation many times before. It is my understanding that if the officer who issued the ticket is not present the ticket is supposed to be thrown out on lack of evidence." The judge agrees with me. (Lots of thumbs up in the court room at this point for me :) ) The judge turns to the prosecutor and says to her. "Well is the officer here??" She tells him she just saw him and that she told him that he could leave since supposedly I agreed to a resolution outside in the hallway before. The judge then asks me if this is true. I tell the judge that "I wasnt agreeing to a resolution, I was just weighing my options". So the prosecutor gets all hissy and says that since the cop isnt here anymore its not fair that I should just get off and that they should reschedule. Anyways to make a long story short the judge sided with me and the court room cheered :) I heard other people in the pews mumbling to eachother about their cops not being there and why are they still getting tickets. This was the first time I've ever seen prosecutors trying to get convictions when the ticket writing officer isnt there. All i got to say is, is this legal???? Even if it is, its damn shady.