“Two Tickets - Fatal Flaw On One?”

Hi,

On Friday at 1:45 AM ,I received two tkts. One for driving without insurance and another for invalid sticker. The no insurance tkt does not have my name on it while the other one does. The officer called me the following night to state that he wants to come around to "edit" the tkt. I stated I would call him back after half an hour, I did not. He called after that but I did not pick up. He's called a total of 4 times in 6 hours, and we've spoken just once. Have not met him as my friends have told me to avoid him like the plague!

I know from one of the posts on here that he has upto 6 months to serve me with another summons to "edit" the ticket or a new one, a correct version this time. How can I avoid this?

How can I have the ticket dismissed? Obviously I am looking to get insurance immediately (which will be after easter due to the long weekend).

Please give me advice as to what can be done with the above. My friend told me it's a "fatal error" and that will be withdrawn however the other ticket (invalid sticker) does have my name on it. Summons date is 31st MAY.

Apart from that, won't the court just identify me through my license/car # or the second tkt (though I have been told EACH ticket must be completed CORRECTLY & FULLY).

Please advise.

From my understanding of your post, you've received a summons to Court, not regular tickets with a set fine. A summons is different from a regular ticket in that it's not a charging document with the possibility of an out of court settlement. Because of that, fatal error rules don't apply. You still have one valid summons that compels you to attend Court. You can try and avoid service, but it's pointless since on your first appearance the charges will be read out and/or you can easily be served on that date. Definitely get insurance ASAP. It won't make the charge go away since you were still driving without insurance on the date of the offence, but it will at least show you've dealt with the issue.

Just to clarify what Stanton said, fatal flaws don't apply to court summons like they do to regular tickets because the summons is not the official charging document like the ticket is, it's just a summons to compel you to attend court. However, the missing name is still relevant because without the name the summons isn't complete so I'd say you have nothing compelling you to court on (with respect to that summons only).

But, the officer can lay a new summons on you within 6 months (actually 2 years, not 6 months for Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act charges) and even if he doesn't do that before you're court date, which you're compelled to attend because of the other summons, they can just give you a new summons on both charges at that time.