A client contacted me just a short time before his matter was in court for a defended hearing. He had been charged with exceeding the speed limit by more than 30km/h and if he were to be found guilty would face an automatic 3 month suspension. To be able to properly defend the matter I would need to issue a subpoena on the Police for them to produce information. However there was no time for this to occur as the matter was in court very soon. The only evidence I had was the client’s version of events, claiming that he was speeding, but not at the speed alleged by the police officer.
As the matter had already been in Court, the Magistrate would not allow for the case to be adjourned. I was offered the opportunity to withdraw from the matter. Knowing that my client had no chance of properly defending the matter on his own and that he looked to me to get him out of a difficult situation, I remained instructed and the Magistrate gave me half an hour to prepare.
I was then provided with a copy of the police officer’s statement and the police in-car video footage of the event. The police officer relied on a radar reading, the video footage and measurements that he later took to prove the speed my client was travelling at.
After challenging the police officer’s evidence, I managed to prove that the radar reading was unreliable and therefore the best evidence was the officer’s estimate, reinforced by his measurements. In the half an hour I had to prepare, I managed to also perform certain mathematical calculations and make some important observations in relation to the video footage.
I submitted to the Magistrate that after hearing the evidence, he could not be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that my client was exceeding the speed limit by more than 30km/h. The prosecutor personally congratulated me in achieving what seemed the impossible for my client with such little preparation. My client therefore received a tremendous result under the circumstances, as he would have lost his licence for an automatic period of 3 months if he was unsuccessful in defending the matter.