In case you missed the newscast on CTV this evening, we can now confirm that the lead case in the Immediate Roadside Prohibition judicial review decisions handed down November 30, 2011 and December 23, 2011, (i.e. Sivia v. The Superintendent) is now under appeal. The documents were filed January 20, 2012. The appeal deals with the finding concerning alleged refusal cases. We expect that it will be widened to cover other matters as further investigation and legal research is conducted.
There is a significant amount of material that was not available to the Court when the original petition was conducted. It will be interesting to see how the matter progresses through the Court. As always, we will try to keep our clients updated here.
Important to note is that this means the matter will be before the Courts for some time to come. Which means the lead case may not be resolved in the spring, or even this year.
If you missed the 7-day period:
Our mandamus application caused the Attorney General’s office to pressure the OSMV to render decisions. We have a handful so far, but we are filing mandamus Petitions (many) each day for the rest of the week. We have over two dozen extension requests outstanding. We expect a prompt response. In our view, the only explanation for the delay is that the Government is trying to hinder people from accessing a remedy. It is not what a Government should do, but it is something we expected. It is a sad statement that it required petitions to Court to compel the OSMV to do what it is required to do by legislation.
CTV is also working on this aspect of the story. In some respects it ties in with their story on the Wang decision.
As we have explained to our clients, we do not expect the OSMV to grant any extensions. We are filing Petitions of all of the OSMV decisions to lift the RDP and interlock pending resolutions of the lead cases. Sivia tells us that you could not have a meaningful hearing, so everyone should be excused from missing the 7-day window in our view. Also, it is an arbitrary period with no legitimate purpose in our view, as we have explained before.
So things are moving quickly now for all of the clients who would like us to have the interlock and RDP requirement lifted so we can get their licenses back.
Class Action:
As we alluded in previous posts, a class-action lawsuit is premature in our opinion because the issue of the illegality of the scheme is still unresolved. As well, these matters may all still find their way to the OSMV for re-hearings, in such case they can rule against the applicant and potentially eliminate any chance for a remedy. So there are too many steps at this point, and the Government may successfully divide the group in such a manner that it will not fit the definition.
So at this time we ask that our clients hold tight. We will provide updates about this as matters progress.