Quote:
Originally Posted by redyaris
The $1.- fine is a message to the peace officer; that he/she should not waste the courts time with matters of this sort.
The $115.50 court cost is relatively small compaired to the hourly cost of running a court house and all the people in it...
In Canada there is no such thing as court costs for traffic court, we see that as an impedement to access to justice, and thus a violation of our charter of rights and freedoms.
I think Sweden or Norway, have a traffic ticket fine system that bases the amount of the fine on Your income!? I remember on TV an interview with a guy who was fined $30,000 for a speeding ticket. He did drive a rather expensive Mercedes...
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Holy overly democratic, socialism batman! Wow!
Also how does one go about moving to Canada? :-).
Seriously, I have constantly complained about exactly that my entire life "...as an impedement to access to justice, and thus a violation of our charter of rights and freedoms. ...". I feel lawyer is fine as a profession, just as accountant is but it SHOULD BE POSSIBLE to understand the justice system and represent yourself and should not count against you. That is, just like the examples with officers word counting stronger and 'maintaining a career' I know for a fact that in smaller towns or for larger firms that this same 'clout' applies, regardless of facts. Not to mention that how you 'present' information should not count against the information itself. But anyway my point is, nice charter and holy crap your $s are worth more than ours now, where is the down side :-). Its also nuts that I am born/raised in northern NYS and have never crossed the border.
Anyway, as for the concept of 'court costs', I think that should boil down to that fact that if you plead guilty and accept the fine right off they should offer you a 'discount' for not incurring court costs to the state. Not the other way around. And who knows, that might even generate more actual money for the state because more people would just plead guilty. The first time I got a ticket for $25 + $110 in court costs I have been on a vendetta ever since. You guys can say that's not a lot, but I must be doing something wrong in life because I've been working full-time for 8 years now and have never had $100 of frivolous cash (or savings for that matter
) ever in my life.