Eye-opening Court experience. Spent 3 hours to not pay $30 parking ticket

What Happened
Today I visited the Provincial court for the first time in Canada, for a $30 by-law parking ticket in Jan 2009

I didn't pay because I assumed that the "area" between my garage and the road are my PRIVATE property, and not the city's jurisdiction. Turns out it is part of city property after today's adventure

• 10 am - arrived at court (77 Queen St South), one small court besides the Kitchener Public Library


• 10:15 am - finished preliminary discussion with City of Waterloo prosecutor, with an understanding I would plead guilty but the offense will be suspended ($0 fine)


• ...waiting...


• Highway offenses like speeding, with OPP officers called upon as witnesses despite the defendants' absence.


• ...waiting...


• People come up with all kinds of reasons and excuses to reduce fine. Most "sad" stories revolve around "I was laid off", "I have to support family", "my son/daughter/friend was driving". And the fines reduction ranged from $5000->$2500, $300->$150 (handicap parking)


• ...waiting...


• 11:30 pm - 15 minutes recess. I went to move my car in the 2 hour free parking spot (it'll be too ironic if I get a parking ticket when I was fighting a ticket)


• 11:45 pm - City of Kitchener with a long line of guilty pleas, ranging from "parking in handicap spot", "overnight parking", to "fail to stop in school zone". Most fines are reduced to $10 or $25 and people still complain they have to feed family seeking for further reduction. WOW


• ...waiting...


• 12 pm - I went to the stand, stated my name, said Yes Yes Yes many times to plead GUITY. And then the prosector asked the judge to suspend the offense as it's my first offense and the confusion was understandable. I was on the stand for 5 minutes

Lesson learned
Next time, do a cost-benefit-analysis before you do anything (i.e. don't go to court unless it's over $100)
Spending 2~3 hours to save $30 = my hourly pay is $10 :-(
That said, I would still do it again, just for the experience

Observations

• You see various kinds of people in court, fighting for either $10, $100, or $1000 with all kind of "sad" stories
• We use "Your Worship" in Canada instead of "Your Honor" in the movies/US
• One extreme case (everyone else plead guilty) was a woman on the stand for her daughter's "parked in the handicap spot" $300 ticket. Despite city's request to reduce to $150 already, she requested the judge to suspend the charges ($0 fine) because there was snow, her daughter's volunteering (how is this related???), etc.... Good thing she didn't succeed, result was $100 fine
• I have more respect for police officers now as they do their due diligence when issuing tickets, and have to put up with appearing in court to explain/recall the situation from their notes.
• Today's cases involving police officers
• 124 km in a 85 km zone
• Failed to wear seatbelt
• Loud muffler, failed to surrender license/insurance/ownership, driving with suspended license"
• All the defendants were absent. In my opinion, they should be convicted guilty without the need for the officers to testify.