My Day In Court Fighting A Ftc Ticket
Court was for 9 am … after the prosecutor had talked to everyone that was there, it was near 9:45! I would guess there were 25 people there, and only I asked for a trial (well, there was another, but she soon took a plea). The prosecutor at first offered to swap the FTC for an "unsafe lane change" charge, which would be the same fine approximately, but only 2 pts instead of 4. I declined that offer.
I was prepared to go to trial if the prosecution would only be allowed to use the evidence that they had disclosed to me (which was only the front and back of the officers ticket). I was going to ask the JP to exclude anything else that the prosecution might want to use, but never got to that point. The JP recessed with only two of us remaining (myself, and a paralegal who claimed that there was an agreed resolution with the prosecutor for one of her cases, to which the prosecutor disagreed, claiming he had no recollection of such an agreement, etc.). The JP stated before she left "hopefully we can take another kick at the can with these and perhaps get some resolutions". Hearing that was a bit unnerving, as it seemed as though the JP just wasnt in the mood to preside over a trial that day, etc. That definitely was a factor in my final decision.
During the recess, the prosecutor, the officer and myself went into an interview room just to hash out what some of the abbreviations in the officers disclosure meant. On the way back into the courtroom, the prosecutor offered me a plea to speeding 115 in a 100 zone ($60 and no points). At first, I said Ill take my chances - mainly b/c I was interested to see if I wouldve won my case with my caselaw arguments - but after a few minutes of reflection, I took the plea. I have (had) a clean record at the moment, so a minor conviction on there wouldnt affect my insurance. I still wouldve liked to have seen what the outcome wouldve been if it had gone to trial, but once youre in a trial, there is never 100% certainty that you will win. Sure, I couldve appealed afterwards if it hadnt gone my way, but then Id be looking at $300 to order transcripts, etc. Sometimes you need to know when to fold your cards.
p.s. My caselaw arguments, in case anyone was wondering, were with the R. v. Haddad case from last year, and specifically the three POA appeals court rulings that it cited (R. v. Bookman, R. v. Schmidt, and R. v. Borg).