Safe Speed Forums

Exactly!

It’s no so different from discriminating against a fat person in a job interview. Who’s to know?

If the judges dislike young drivers in ostentatious cars I think it’s naive to think they wouldn’t be biased resulting in a heavier sentence. Again, who’s to know?

Same with a jury; apart from myself I don’t know any good men and true, let alone twelve, and I’m not even sure about me sometimes

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Found an article here ( I cannot find a public record of the Telegraph one ... sadly) Here I have sent of an FOI to Derbyshire County Council. The manufactures tarmac.co.uk have a new dry surface that looks very interesting - as it allows for drainage and so water stops sitting on the surface and by doing so the warmth of the surface enable the chances of freezing to be less likely - I hope to see more reports on this soon.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I am aware of the constraints on sentencers and didn't get that impression, but I do understand that such remarks make easy targets for people who are not aware.

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I am not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. I do have experience of the day to day working of courts and use that knowledge to help where possible. I do not represent any official body and post as an individual.

Training for sentencers constantly emphasises the need to be aware of bias. Part of the reason why all members of the judiciary are required to give reasons for every decision they make is to enable bias to be detected.
It is open to the defence to appeal any sentence and claiming bias against young drivers/black people/ginger hair/obesity/nationality/fiat drivers/bikers etc etc would be an easy way for a lawyer to earn a few more quid.

If bias exists in sentencing there should be huge numbers of appeals on those grounds. Anybody know of any?

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I am not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. I do have experience of the day to day working of courts and use that knowledge to help where possible. I do not represent any official body and post as an individual.

I very much doubt you can find much, if any, and that’s my point really Fisherman - you can’t prove bias, (except BOS)

How do you prove that you think you got harsher treatment or were discriminated against because you’re black, fat, female, smoker, gay, ugly, a biker? I don’t think you can.

I feel forced to give a 'for instance' On a different level, I’ve seen it for myself in my work whereby a job is advertised. Everyone already knows who’s going to get the position but for legal reasons they have to go through the motions of advertising and interviewing etc.

Someone who has done the job on a temporary or none-permanent basis who is liked and has got to know the job has to be interviewed for their own job if or when it becomes permanent, and guess who ends up getting it?

It’s completely unfair on the hopeful candidates' and a waste of time, effort and expense but I promise you will not find a whiff of this bais going on anywhere and never will, but that's life...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

The fact that you can't prove bias doesn't stop people posting here saying that it occurs in sentencing.

I would think that most people are aware of the pre determined interview fiasco that happens at work. Courts are VERY different. For a start we are not dealing with people we have worked with, we have no favours to pay back, no quotas to fill and we are (quite properly) subject to outside scrutiny.

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I am not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. I do have experience of the day to day working of courts and use that knowledge to help where possible. I do not represent any official body and post as an individual.

Fair point and sorry if I seem argumentative; I’m just putting it out there to dissect the process and understand.

With these matters I think it ultimately comes down to someone’s opinion rather than hard facts. You would know more on this than me of course but I’m sure there are instances where it has been shown there was bias where in fact there wasn’t but the race card was played for instance.

So the flip side is that bias could possibly work in your favour in the courts. People can be very devious and I’m sure you have witnessed people who could win an Oscar for their performance - and I don't just mean the accused.

If bias doesn’t exist, or if people think it doesn’t, why is it that the lowest life scumbags in life always turn up in court looking like a million dollars? One ought to be able to turn up in sweat pants and a T shirt but maybe that constitutes evidence of a 'bad character'...

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

No offence was taken.

The issue of dress standards has always interested me. The vast majority of defendants - and witnesses for that matter - don't wear suits. As long as what they are wearing covers the naughty bits and doesn't have anything offensive written on it, it will make no difference to the court. Quite why so many "expert" forums tell people that wearing a suit will be of benefit is a mystery to me.

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I am not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. I do have experience of the day to day working of courts and use that knowledge to help where possible. I do not represent any official body and post as an individual.

I must say when I have had to go to Court I would naturally expect like with any business meeting to dress respectfully and with great dignity.
As many find a suit covers this approach without too much debate then the simple default is a suit .... that is how I have 'seen it'.

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.