“Got A Double Whammy Today! Driving Home From Work”

Driving home from work and was pulled over doing 72 in a 50 in the Hammer. As officer is asking me for information I am unable to locate my wallet. After all is said and done I received a 10 over 60 in a 50 ticket and a failure to surrender license. Upon arrival home I found my wallet which fell out of my pocket in between the seat and console. I have a clean record with no offences in the last 8 years. I really don't want two convictions for insurance purposes. Any thoughts on proceeding here. The green tickets I received both have Carbon copy signatures on them (Not sure if that matters.) I would love some advice here

The ticket for the license is for not being able to surrender it upon immediate request. It doesn't mean you didn't have a license, it just means the officer asked for it and you couldn't provide it at that moment. Even if you end up finding it later, the charge would still be considered valid. Some people have the misconception that this is some kind of paperwork ticket that doesn't impact insurance. You'd be correct in assuming both these tickets will be used against you for insurance purposes.

Sometimes when you get dinged with two tickets like this, you can show up for an early resolution and they'll get rid of the license charge as long as you plead guilty to the other. The issue you have is that the other charge has already been reduced. They may tell you that you've already received a break and they aren't going to negotiate any further. Basically a "take it or leave it" scenario.

At that point you can either plead guilty or you can proceed with taking both tickets to trial.

If you choose a trial, you will wait for a Notice of Trial to be sent to you via mail. At that point, you can make a disclosure request. This will contain, at minimum, the officers notes regarding the traffic stop. If you don't know how to make this request, practically every city has instructions on their website and will even supply you with a generic form to fill out.

For Hamilton, all this information including disclosure request forms can be found here.

I am assuming the Carbon Copy signatures are of little importance as far as the ticket being properly served to me. I deal with secondary loans quite a bit and the contracts all need a hand signature.

Also I am assuming I should submit both tickets for early resolution together and basically beg for leniency.

Lastly Hamilton Court has been closed from June 2020 and is reopening in February 2021. What kind of backlog are we looking at in a trial option?

The carbon is for you and the original will be filed with the courts.

Tickets can also be signed "electronically," meaning it's just the officers name typed out. That is also acceptable under the Provincials Act.

I haven't been keeping up with anything regarding the courts being opened or closed since covid started. Hopefully someone else can tell you what to expect.