"Bill Kambic" wrote in message
...
"Peter Skelton" wrote in message

We have conditional and absolute discharge, ie. the court saying
don't do it again, and don't bug us with this trivia respectively
to deal with this sort of sillyness. Isn't there something
similar in the states?

No, Sir.

Life can get a bit unpleasant for a judge
who lets things get tied up with too much effort for too little
crime.

Our Federal judges serve for life or good behavior (U.S. Constitution,
Art.
III, Sec. 1).


So are Canadian judges

http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/trib/page4.html

Not much can happen to such an official who does get "tied down" in
trivia.


Except that he becomes unable to spend time on important matters.


It's not perfect but it helps

Perhaps. On the other hand it does keep the heavy hand of any given
administration from bringing direct pressure on judges for some specific
outcome.

Bill Kambic



How does spending time on trivial cases do that exactly ?

The point Peter makes is valid. There have been similar cases
in the UK where a trial judge found for the prosecution on
the point of law but gave the defendant an absolute discharge
and made the prosecution pay his costs after lecturing the
prosecuting counsel about bringing such trivial matters before
the court. This ****ed off the Crown Prosecution Service to be sure
but was hardly evidence of the subservience of judges, quite
the reverse in fact.

Keith