OHTA.ca

How is the best way to deal with the prosecutor before the trial?

I don't want to be forced to go to trial, but if the officer doesn't show

or there is some other reason that the charge gets dropped I don't

want to stop it from happening.

If the officer shows, I want to make a motion for an extension and

additional disclosure, but I don't want to risk being forced into a trail.

I'd appreciate any advice from anyone who has been down that path.

BTW I bought the book

Fight Your Tickets

A Comprehensive Guide to Traffic Tickets

Second Edition

Erick Jeffrey & Max Smith

While it has some useful information I doesn't talk about the

mechanics of this pre-trial poker that the prosecutors play. I'm

pretty sure that if I had know how to handle it I would have gotten

off on a ticket about 10 years ago.

This page http://www.ticketcombat.com/step5/procedure.php

hints about it, but I don't think goes anywhere near deep enough.

It's their job to get you convicted of something, so they usually will offer you a reduced charge or fine to get you to agree to make their job easy. Most people who show up to court take the deal offered and plead guilty they all end up with convictions on their record albeit with reduced charges. Most people get the same deal.

Be professional, sincere and stick to your guns about what you think you are guilty of and if you cannot agree have a strong defence ready. Be prepared to give good reasons why they should see things your way. On the day of trial often the prosecuter refers you to the cop to arrange a plea which might be better than what the prosecuter offered.

hopeful wrote:I don't want to be forced to go to trial, but if the officer doesn't show

or there is some other reason that the charge gets dropped I don't

want to stop it from happening.

Lots of prosecutors won't let you on to the fact that the officer is either there or not. Just because the officer is not in the courtroom doesn't mean they are not in the building. Even if the officer isn't there at all, lots of prosecutors will try to wheel and deal a plea from you knowing full well they aren't capable of even having a trial. The only way to find out is usually to request a trial. After that, it will become apparent if the prosecutor is able to continue or not.

hopeful wrote:

If the officer shows, I want to make a motion for an extension and

additional disclosure, but I don't want to risk being forced into a trail.

This is up to the courts. They are not too fond of people who wait until the date of trial to ask for things. Your trial date is your trial date, not your chance to start requesting paperwork. You're supposed to prepare for your trial before, not the day of. If you've already received disclosure, there will be a discussion of whether or not your additional requests even fall on the prosecutors shoulders.

What exactly are you missing? You're going to have to have reasoning on whether the prosecutor needs to supply it. If they don't give you something, it's usually because they are prepared to answer at your trial why they are not responsible for it. If they aren't, there's a good chance the trial will go ahead as planned