UPDATE: Ruling on S4 Lidar Ticket

[Dwayne Cosby <dccosby@interlog.com>]

As many of you know from last week's long living thread on speeding, laws,
and morality, my S4 was tagged by LIDAR for travelling at "excessive"
speed. My case came up yesterday.

My original question to the forum was whether LIDAR was on Judical Notice
in Ontario (i.e. does the court recognize it as working - or does it need
expert testimony for support). I was under the assumption that it did not.

I arrived at the court a little early. Two of three the officers involed
in my ticket were talking outside (I saw the third go in earlier - so I
knew I wasn't going to get off on a no show). Since we had talked for a
while on the roadside (chit chat) at the time of my ticket, they still
remembered who I was five months later. I explained that I didn't think
the ticket would hold given the lack of case law in Ontario. One of the
officers agreed, stating that there is a case on appeal (I don't know
which way the original ruling was) in Alberta that may establish Judicial
Notice in Ontario in the future.

As I was waiting for the session to begin, the prosecutor approached me
and offered to lower the ticket so that there would be no demerit points.
I thanked him for the offer but explained that the charge won't stand. 
After some further talking, he agreed to drop the charge. After a
superficial hearing with the jutice of the peace, I thanked the officers
for their time and left the court with a perfect driving record once
again.

Canadians should enjoy their get out of jail free card while it lasts.

Again to state my position on the matter of speeding; I would have
preferred to pay the fine as it stood (and not wasted a day of my time,
and the time of the officers) and consider it a speeding tax.  The issue I
had was that my insurance company would have used this as an excuse to
raise my rates (i.e. increase their profit margins) under the very false
assumption that I am more likely to get in an accident than the little old
blind lady holding up traffic. 

Dwayne
-94 S4