MORE ON LAYING PRIVATE CHARGES (MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS ACT)

I'm reasonably certain that today's fun and games in the legal system do not apply for private charges such as assault. If they do then Lord knows the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

So Monday (two days ago) I described the "joys" of Serving a Summons upon the individual that you have had charged privately via a Justice of the Peace. I also expressed my disgust with having to do this as I feel it is unecessarily inflammatory and provocative. Furthermore in some instances a complainant with legitimate grounds to file an Information seeking charges can feel intimidated by the person he is charging and thus not remotely want to serve them personally with the Summons. In Mr.Hahn's case no evidence of bad behaviour, threats or intimidation were involved nevertheless I simply felt that while sometimes "in your face" can not be avoided in confrontations it should be whenever possible. In other words your case should be based upon the facts not upon personal animosity and serving the accused personally is really in my opinion beyond the pale.

It turns out that Serving the Summons is not remotely the end of the process. Then you have to have the Affidavit of Service of the Summons commissioned by a Notary, Commissioner or some lawyers. I firstly went to a lawyer here in Elmira who had been recommended to me by a friend. I had actually dropped in to her office several days prior to serving Scott the Summons. I was told by a staff person that indeed this lawyer could commission or take an oath from me after I served the Summons. Therefore this past Monday after serving Scott on Saturday I dropped back into her office with the Affidavit of Service requesting that it be commissioned. Well skipping the nonsense that she wasn't there (she walked in while I was there), I left my name and phone number, drove home and immediately received her phone call. No she would not "commission" my Affidavit of Service allegedly because she had a conflict of interest as she had done work for the Hahn family. I gently pointed out that taking an oath that I had served Scott with a Summons was hardly a conflict of interest. Afterall I wasn't suing him or asking her to take some legal action against Scott. Basically she was being asked to rubberstamp an oath that I had served him with a Summons issued by the courts. No go. Later in the day I phoned and left messages at two other local lawyers.

Yesterday Tuesday one of them returned my call and we made an appointmernt for 2:30 pm. A very reasonable $25 and 5-10 minutes later the affidavit was commissioned. The lawyer even gave me some advice as to where to file that paperwork.

This morning I first visited Intake Court/Superior Court where the charges had been laid by the J.P.. Somewhat as expected they directed me over to the Provincial Courthouse where Mr. Hahn is to appear on August 31/16. As directed I left the commissioned Affidavit of Service with a Clerk at that courthouse. Somewhat disconcertingly she did say that to date they have not received the Information /charges from Intake Court. She did not seem terribly concerned about that and advised me that yes my part in the process was completed at least until court on August 31/16. Therefore it appears that my running around trying to figure out processes and procedures is at least temporarily at an end. Let's see now exactly how the crown Prosecuter decides to handle this case. At one point he had verbally advised me that if he had a Forensic Audit such as Scott Hahn's regarding mayor Shantz that he could have stepped right up and prosecuted. Well now he's got it so let's see what happens with Mr. Hahn's case.