I have been looking online to find some case law regarding section
144(1)(a) of the British Columbia Motor Vehicle Act.

I luckily found a small searchable database at
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgmentdatabase/index.html but the
case history is very light and doesn't apply to my situation. The only
other searchable database I'm aware of is LexisNexis Canada's
www.QuickLaw.com site which is huge. Unfortunately the service is
targetted to lawyers and as such the fees are extremely high, like
$150/hr!! However it seems law students might get free access??

So what I am inquiring is not only how to find relevent case history
for me to help defend myself, but if someone (probably a law student,
maybe a lawyer :) has access to QuickLaw and if they would let me use
their login to do my own research for a short period of time? Or if
not if they could use the service to search for relevant cases.

The situation is that I was given a very harsh violation ticket
"Driving without due care and attention" Selction 144(1)(a) for the
simple act of doing a couple of donuts at midnight in an empty
industrial area parking lot (without a car or pedestrian in sight for
miles).

If conficted the fine would be over $300, plus 6 points on my
insurance which as a "New Driver" at the time would mandate the Super
Indentant of Motor Vehicles would attempt to remove my license for 6
months.

All of the case law I've found for Section 144(1)(a) does not fit with
what has happened to me, but what it does do is show that the
convictions for 144(1)(a) are all much more severe situations that
result in at-fault accidents or even hitting and killing pedestrians!

http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2000/01/p00%5F0162.htm
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/1999/00/p99%5F0025.htm
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2001/01/p01%5F0175.htm
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2000/00/p00%5F0066.htm
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2002/00/p02%5F0064.htm

It's been a year since the ticket and now my court case is scheduled
for a month from now.

Comments are welcomed, and appreciated. I don't have a lot of cash,
but I'm willing to do the work if someone can provide me with the
resources.

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 15 Sep 2004 23:26 PDT

yoinky-ga:

Thanks for thinking of Google Answers for help in this predicament.

As you have already identified, finding relevant cases in Canadian
jurisdictions is easiest using the paid-access services of QuickLaw or
WestLaw. And yes, access is both pricey and limited to those in the
legal profession.

Unfortunately, providing you with a valid username and password to
enter either system would be a violation of the user agreements of
those systems, and therefore would not be allowed under the terms of
service for Google Answers. Likewise, publishing enough content
extracted from either site to be of use to you, would also be a
violation of the Google Answers terms of service. So, it would seem
that your request is one that will not be possible to fulfill
directly.

From the brief background you have provided about the charge against
you, it actually sounds like you could benefit from having a legal
professional review the facts with you in detail, to see if the citing
officer applied Section 144(1)(a) of the BCMVA appropriately. Since
you mention that money is tight, if you like I can provide you with
several no-cost or low-cost ways to access legal advice to consider.
Would you accept this as an Answer? If so, please state which part of
BC you are located in, so that I can direct you to the nearest
options.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by yoinky-ga on 21 Sep 2004 17:09 PDT

I guess asking for a username and password would be a violation of
their service agreement, I only thought it might be a pratical
solution because I'm sure the research time a lawyer would charge
would make the price of this answer much higher.

However I went and read the entire google answers terms of service and
did not see any such restriction on posting case law information. Can
you please clarify why this would be a violation? I was under the
belief that case law/judgements were under the public domain, and that
the only service quicklaw provides is to easily search it, not that
they own it.

The answer I seek is for you or someone to provide links or full
documents to case law which I could effectively use in my case. These
are the type of judgements I am desperately trying to seek out:

Judgements dealing with "burn outs", "excessive wheel noise" or
similar minor violations in which the accused wasn't charged under
144(1)(a) or the charges for 144(1)(a) were dismissed.

Judgements where the definition of 144(1)(a)'s "highway" was proven to
not apply to private property or a parking lot.

Judgements where credibility, professionalism or biased behavour of an
officer (more specifically a B.C. Rail Officer) were questioned and
resulted in a traffic case being dismissed.

Thanks very much, time is growing shorter, so if someone is able to
get me some good resources I'll throw in a tip!

You could try CANLII, http://www.canlii.org. According to their site,
"CanLII's goal is to make primary sources of Canadian law accessible
for free on the Internet. CanLII seeks to gather legislative and
judicial texts, as well as legal commentaries, from federal,
provincial and territorial jurisdictions on a single Web site."

Thank you for pointing out CANLII, it contains good national
information and is easy to use. Unfortunately the only BC traffic
cases I found were all the same as those from provincialcourt.bc.ca

yoinky-ga:

The best advice I can give you given your circumstances, then, is to
refer you to the free legal advice available from the University of
British Columbia Law Students' Legal Advice Program. You can find
their contact information at:

http://www.lslap.bc.ca

The law students that run the free legal advice clinics have access to
Quicklaw and Westlaw, and will be able to help you conduct the case
law searches that you have specified.

Depending on your specific circumstances, they may even be able to
represent you in court, again for free.

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

Hi aht-ga,

Thanks for all of your help in trying to find a solution to this. I
called the LSLAP, but unfortunately they don't deal with traffic cases
:(

I guess that pretty much exhausts my options. I'll try calling a MVA
lawyer and see if they have any advice.

Thanks for trying,

yoinky-ga