“Wrong Date And 40 Over”

I was going 90 in a 50, so 40 over. And the cop gave me the $295 ticket. I didn't notice until I got home that the cop had put the wrong year on the ticket!!!! I got the ticket today, May 18, 2009....and he dated it as May 18, 2008. And I plan on pleding guilty as I'm a university student and don't have the funds to pay to large amount.

So, what does this mean? And what can I do?

The way I understand it is that this would be a fatal error and the charge should be beatable. With that being said, I'd wait for more knowledgeable people like TC to chime in, confirm this and give you the best way to go about it. Don't take it to court just yet but don't wait for longer than 2 weeks either (in case the guys don't get around to chiming in with this one).

Worst case scenario, you can just go, request a court date and that'll buy you a few months to do your homework.

I have made this error before. Usually within the first couple weeks of a new year and the court is understanding with that type of thing.

On other occassions, I would get a photocopy of the ticket back in my diary slot at work, with *voided* wrote on it with the date "highlited". Just to let me know I messed up.

So I would guess that the court either sends a letter to the person or if they have paid the offence they just mail the money back.

The ticket has to be filed within 7 days of the offence.

Sure TC would know more of this part.....

I'd wait for another week and file the ticket with option 3. Then wait for the response.... then go from there. Like 'Bear said sometime you win, sometimes you still have to goto court.

I'll try and explain your options as best as I can. But I warn you, it can get complicated and overwhelming.

Technically the wrong date is not a fatal error unless it misleads the defendant as to the date and location of the alleged incident. Are you misled about when and where your speeding occured? Didn't think so. So if you show up at trial, you know what you did and when you did it. The date will be amended to the correct date.

You have another option which is to try and force this error to be fatal. You do this by ignoring your ticket. Yes, I know this sounds completely bizarre. I've posted details about how to do this on my website. My thinking here is that the certificate (which is an exact copy of the ticket) must be filed in court within 7 days of the offence. That would be May 25, 2008. Oops, missed it by one year. The justice should quash the ticket (if he's awake). Under the default provision of s.9 of the POA he cannot amend the date.

There's some risk with this approach. The justice could miss this tiny incorrect date detail and convict you. Then you would have to pay the fine and then appeal.

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Another way to do it is request a trial and then don't show up for the trial. The default provisions of s9.1 of the POA is similar to s.9 except for one thing. If you are convicted, s. 11 allows you to come up with a good excuse why you did not go to your trial. You can get a reopening which saves you going to an appeal and the conviction is struck out which means you don't have to pay the fine. So if you do lose and are convicted, you can request a reopening which is a lot easier to do than file an appeal. You get another kick at the can, especially if the error does not turn out to be fatal.

The risk with this approach is that if you request a trial "within 15 days" you obviously knew that 2008 was the wrong date. Your actions to request a trial in 2009 confirm this. So you won't be able to take advantage of the wrong date at your retrial unlike the first option above since your wrong date argument is still "alive" upon appeal.

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You can of course fight the ticket the old fashioned way: request a trial, request disclosure, apply for a stay, etc...