Rob951

You are thinking of the 'Balance of Probabilities', that is, the judge or jury decides whose version of the facts is the most probable and thus, which party wins. This is the case in civil court, not criminal. Traffic I assure you, is the same as criminal court rules which is why there is a Crown (Civil doesn't have a Crown). And it's beyond a 'reasonable' doubt, not a 'shadow' of a doubt.

And police only seem to have the advantage. They do only in the sense that they have, well, experience (at trials, as you probably won't see a cop at his first), training (Oh yeah, they're trained how to give evidence in order to get convictions and not look like a tool up on the stand), they have notes about the encounter (you probably don't), if it's speeding then they likely have an instrument that when used properly, accurately measures the speed of moving motor vehicles (now you gotta prove they didn't use it properly).

So you're right, when it comes to your word against the po-po's and he says you're speeding and he provides notes, proof he used his radar/laser properly, and can tell the judge everything about the incident which he's done lots before; and all you can say is you didn't speed but have no proof, yeah, the court favours him as he proved beyond that 'reasonable' doubt thingy.

So how do you win? Get up and testify? You could. If in fact you were speeding, you could say you just weren't going as fast as he says, but then you admitted to speeding, and the Crown wins. You could lie. But perjury carries a penalty of up to 14 years in prison (not that anyone is going to get that, but we're all honest here, right?)

You win by attacking his credibility. It was another vehicle his radar picked up. He didn't test his laser properly. He didn't estimate your speed therefore he'll believe whatever his laser/radar says. He was never trained (or at least didn't provide proof to you when you asked for full disclosure). Were you tagged coming around a corner? Can he tell you HOW radar works, the formuals in which it uses (ie: Closing Rate of Speed - Patrol Vehicle Speed = Target Vehicle Speed in moving mode for example) or what 'radar' even stands for. Can he tell you about Batching, Shadowing, or Billboard Effect which are all common ways a radar unit can give a false reading....

Do your homework. You may not be able to catch him on all, or maybe even any of these things if he's good at his job, but cops are people too, and not all are good at this part of their job. Sorry for this being so long.

Imo000

ahh ok, good to know! My perseption was a little off and thanks for point it out. Learn something new every day!

cdncanoer

Picking up on Rob951.... There is also something called "paralax error" (I think that's what it's called?) But it is the angle at which the laser gun was pointing in relation to the direction of travel of your vehicle. I once got off a speeding ticket in St. Thomas, because I proved that the officer was more than 30m off the roadway and that his radar beam was at a significant enough angle to give an inaccurate reading. It's all related to the third side of a triangle (Pythagoras stuff if you are a geek like most of us P-Car owners)

Fight it yourself, but only if your record is tainted. If it's your first in 3 years, don't worry about it.

peritus

Whatever you do, DON'T go with STOPP. They suck, and cost me way more than my ticket was for... and I still got stuck with a 3 point consequence.