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- Newsgroups: ont.general
- Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!geac!aimed!seachg!burke
- From: burke@seachg.uucp (Michael Burke)
- Subject: Re: fighting parking ticket, ALWAYS PLEAD NOT GUILTY!
- Message-ID: <1992Nov5.180600.18255@seachg.uucp>
- Reply-To: burke@seachg.UUCP (Michael Burke)
- Organization: Sea Change Corporation, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- References: <1992Nov2.153106.19078@utstat.uucp> <Bx4722.Jy@ecf.toronto.edu>
- Distribution: ont
- Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 18:06:00 GMT
- Lines: 60
-
- In article <Bx4722.Jy@ecf.toronto.edu> ossia@ecf.toronto.edu (Kamran Ossia) writes:
- >In article <1992Nov2.153106.19078@utstat.uucp> william@utstat.uucp (William Chow) writes:
- >>
- >>
- >>Can anyone tell me if it is true that if you get a parking ticket
- >>and you plead not guilty and a court date is set up but the time
- >>from the date of the parking ticket and the court date is more than
- >>6 months, then you will be aquitted?
- >
- >This is the decision of the justice of the peace. Six months may be
- >cutting it close, but over eight months will definitely get you off
- >iff you explicitly "move to stay the charge". The judge will usually
- >ask you if you have anything to say before they proceed. This is
- >your signal.
- >
- >It seems, however, that the city/province has learned its lesson and
- >is scheduling trial dates earlier. They may no longer give you night
- >court, either. Regardless, plead not guilty and go to court. There
- >is a good chance that the officer will not show up, and even if s/he
- >does, any silly argument will get you at least a reduction in the
- >fine. I personally have lost only one parking case in the last 12
- >years (out of more than 15). Indeed, the more people plead not guilty,
- >the less likely are officers to write borderline tickets. The cost of
- >prosecuting you is far more than the fine.
- >
- What a travesty of our justice system. Here we have someone who obviously
- has a problem with parking legally presenting strategies for "beating" the
- system. Makes you kind of think about what goes on within prison walls,
- doesn't it?
-
- Perhaps we need to spend more time on productive ventures and less on
- "beating" the systems designed to protect us.
-
- Our collective fixation on "beating" the system can snowball very quickly.
- It might start with a "borderline" parking ticket, expand to other "not so
- borderline" parking tickets; leading to stretching the highway traffic laws
- and potentially to outright violation of any law that does not seem to fit
- one's current mood or state of mind.
-
- As more people break laws (major or minor) our cost to prosecute go up.
- This is true at all levels and all courts. Is the poster's goal to
- eliminate parking laws in our cities or just to enlighten codefenders to
- the tricks of scamming the system? Why even bother with courts and a
- justice system?
-
- If someone can justify this behaviour at one level of law breaking - it
- becomes even easier to justify at more serious levels.
-
- Just my $.02 anyway...
-
-
- --
- ---
- Michael Burke
-
- Sea Change Corporation
- 6695 Millcreek Drive, Unit 8
- Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5N 5R8
- Tel: 416-542-9484 Fax: 416-542-9479
- UUCP: ...!uunet!uunet.ca!seachg!burke
-