“Contesting Fail 2 Surrender Insurance Card Ticket After Paid”

Hi, I am from Ontraio, Canada. I was using my friends car for moving some stuff around and was stopped by police and could not produce insurance slip. Got $65 ticket and paid it thinking not to make fuss about it. I know I made a mistake by not contesting it more so given that it was my first ticket ever. Well it has come back to bite me now. I got a second hand car for myself and Insurance company is charging me $20 extra a month for having this on my record and will do that for next 3 years. I am wondering if there is a way to get it off my record or there is no way but to pay $600 more in insurance over the course of next 2 and half year? Thanks in advance for taking time to read and reply.

You plead guilty to it and paid it... you are stuck with it on your record now and there is nothing you can do about it.

Your chances of re-opening a ticket that you paid are pretty much nil.

Sidebar....it's stuff like this that just burns me up. People are negative about police because of the huge impact a ticket has on them financially. It is nothing to do with the fine but the increased insurance premiums. How on earth does not having your friend's insurance slip make you a higher risk driver ? It's just asinine. A driving offence I can see but fail to produce documents ? OK, rant over. Nothing to see here, move on.

Yes most people only look at the fine amount and the demerit points and never consider the insurance implications. So your $65 fine just became $665!

I agree that a document conviction should not affect your insurance at all... but unfortunately it does!

I once received a speeding ticket and my insurance company tried to up my rates by 10%. I asked them not to and they removed the ticket from my record.

They told me that they did this because I had not had a ticket or claim in 20 years and also because I insure 5 cars.

So it doesn't cost anything to ask them to remove it. Worked in my case.

J

Unfortunately, like the others have said, once you pay a ticket the courts consider the case closed and it is next to impossible to get them to reconsider the matter. At this point the only thing you can do is ask the insurance company to reconsider your rate, like curiousottman suggested, or shop around for a better rate from a different company.

argyll wrote:Your chances of re-opening a ticket that you paid are pretty much nil.

Sidebar....it's stuff like this that just burns me up. People are negative about police because of the huge impact a ticket has on them financially. It is nothing to do with the fine but the increased insurance premiums. How on earth does not having your friend's insurance slip make you a higher risk driver ? It's just asinine. A driving offence I can see but fail to produce documents ? OK, rant over. Nothing to see here, move on.

By having paid the ticket and plead guilty to the offence, a reopening would not be available. This leaves an appeal as the remaining avenue to address the conviction. If you could successfully have your appeal granted, it would bring your matter back before the regular POA court. Hiring a paralegal is generally cost-effective in contesting a matter before the court. While hiring a paralegal to do the appeal would provide you the best fighting chance to have the appeal granted, given the minor nature of the offence and costs this may not be cost effective in this particular case.

Should the appeal be granted and a new trial date be set, the next question is whether or not you have a defence or if a technical error or omission can be found upon which to have the charge withdrawn or dismissed. The offence of Fail To Surrender Insurance Card (CAIA section can be found here) does not state that you were not insured, only that you failed to provide proof of insurance when requested to do so. Providing proof of insurance at court, it not a defence to this charge. That's not to say that there may not be another grounds upon which to have the charge thrown out. However you may want to carefully weigh out the time and monetary costs of proceeding with an appeal versus unhappily accepting the current situation as an unfortunate learning lesson.

I hope this helps!