Haha.
So I can share some more details now as ive been informed that all the documents have been organized by a court lawyer from both sides and are ready for a judge to review.
Basically to review a Section 59 it has to fall under 3 reasons, unlawfulness, irrationality and unfairness.
For the point of my claim I filed under unlawfulness, in that the Section 59 was unlawfully issued because the standards to issue it were not met. Obviously the police backed their own and for all intents and purposes refused to speak to me except to review BWV of after they stopped me.
They refused to provide any BWV or Car footage of the alleged incident (later claiming it doesnt exist) and then eventually sent some mute video of where they pulled up to my car at a set of lights. A second BWV of another officer has also mysteriously disappeared. All this has been highlighted to the court.
So it then comes down to the statement of 1 officer (the others refused to give statements), whos evidence has all gone missing despite my immediate request to have it preserved, vs my statement and representations.
After months of to-and-fro they also changed their tune from "inconsiderate driving" to try and also add in "careless driving". This seemed to happen when the legal department got involved, no doubt as they know inconsiderate driving has a well defined standard as laid out in Dilks v Bowman-Shaw [1981] RTR 4 DC. In cases of inconsiderate driving, there must be evidence that some other user of the road or public place was actually inconvenienced.
Accordingly I have also pointed out the change to the court and asked them to review if that is appropriate for the police to do.
Ultimately it comes down to the following points that the judge will review and decide on:
1) Did my driving cause actual inconvenience (the legal meaning of it, not what you will think) to anyone and can that be demonstrated.
2) Is that driving causing, or likely to cause alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public.
3) If 1 is found in my favor, the judge will also have to decide if 3 months down the line if it is appropriate for the police to change it to a broader charge of "contravening section 3 of the RTA" including careless driving.
4) If the judge Agrees with me on 1 but the police on 3 then they will also need to consider was my driving careless.
So basically theres a matrix of outcomes.
If I win 2 then I win my case regardless of the others.
If I win 1 then lose 2, 3 needs to be considered.
If I win 1, lose 2, lose 3, then 4 will decide the winner.
But if I win 1, lose 2 and win 3 then I win also.
Ultimately, it could go either way as a review gets very specific. In my mind and heart I know I did nothing wrong or dangerous, and hope the judge agrees with me. However if I lose then it just means gotta be on good behavior for another 7 months, not that I've changed my driving at all following this so its a case of "yea whatever".
I have also represented myself in all this (insert fool of a client quote here), and have picked up a huge amount of knowledge by doing so, so in that regard has been time well spent. Have also picked up a dash cam system I can install stealth on the car should anything further happen.
Its all written submissions only.
