“Cell Phone Ticket - Valid Deffence?? Worth Trying?”

Hi I was wondering if I could get an opionion of my deffence for a trial next week.

So my daughter got a couple of tickets on July 30 - which we were disputing - in order to dispute the ticket she googled the directions to the court house on her phone the night before - after she exited the highway and was stopped at a light she pushed the refresh button on her phone just to view the map - the phone was on her lap not in a mount or anything. a little farther down the road she thinks she might have unintentionally cut off an unmarked officer while changing lanes. The officer pulled her over and accused her of using her cell phone - she told him that she was just looking at the map cause she was on her way to plead not guilty to two other tickets - gave her the cell ticket anyway - charged under section 78.1 of the H&T act.

She was not talking or texting from the phone - she was using the phone to get to the court house to dispute the ticket issued a few days before - any chance this would qualify under the execmption (5) subsecion (1) does not apply in respect of the use of device to contact ambulance POLICE or fire dept.

Ok so the provincial offences office might not actually be the police station - but it is loaded with police and we were contacting them on Police business?? We basically put in the not guilty plea orignally only because we were there a few minutes after the ticket was issued to plead not guilty to the other two and had no time to research the ticket or consider the options - we are from out of town and didn't want to go back a second time.

Also - if there is no chance of this deffence being successfull - is it worth showing up in court next week for this violation -to get a reduced fine? Or should we just try to pay it right away and avoid the additonal charges for not showing up set fine now is 110.00 My daughter is 20 and the first two tickets were the big ones - effecting her insurance which we already had one dismissed and one reduced. Its really more about the effects of the insurance than it is the fine.

Our court day is Tuesday, yea I left it a bit late to ask.... but would appreciate any input I could get

Thanks

It's some creative thinking but I would say looking up directions, even to the police station, is not what's stated under the exemption. And going to the courthouse to deal with a ticket isn't police business.

Just curious, you say the set fine is $110. Is that for the cell phone ticket? If so, that's incorrect, it should be a $125 fine, $155 total payable. If the fine is incorrect it may invalidate the ticket.

Thanks for the quick reply ---

Yes it was creative thinking - BUT the law also did some creative advertising when they told everyone "DONT TALK OR TEXT WHILE DRIVING" we listened and don't talk or text while driving . ...

I didnt know about the wording of the law till we got the ticket - for $5.00 you can get a car mount (subsequently purchased) that will allow you to touch the phone. (please let me know if I am wrong on my interpertation there or it won`t be long before I am fighting this issue again)

- regarding the fine because we were on our way to the court house when we got this ticket - the ink was not even dry on the front when we pleaded not guilty - I didn't have the opportunity to copy the ticket - I just jotted down the section she was charged under - all I have here is the Notice of Trial sent by the Barrie Court.

It reads : "did commit the offence of DR M/V USING HAND HELD DEVICE contrary to the HIGHWAY TRAFFIC ACT section 78.1(1)

The total payable includes the Set Fine, costs and Victim Fine Surcharge as indicated on your Notice of Offence Total payable $110.00

Since you encouraged me to be picky I also noticed that the Notice of Trial was sent to our address 99 Blank ROAD - but we live at 99 Blank DRIVE (ROAD INSTEAD OF DRIVE) - again dont have the original ticket and can not tell if this was the officers mistake or someone who processed the notice of Trial.

Would either or both of these items invalidate the ticket - and if so - do I settle on those grounds with the crown or would this be dismissed by a judge under these circumstances.

Now you have my hopes up --- much more than my creative thinking was dong : )

List of Fatal Errors: http://www.ontariohighwaytrafficact.com/topic1965.html

LADYDREAMER wrote:I didnt know about the wording of the law till we got the ticket - for $5.00 you can get a car mount (subsequently purchased) that will allow you to touch the phone.

The fact that you weren't familiar with the details of the law isn't a defence in Court. You are allowed to press a button on the phone to make/end calls, but you're daughter still couldn't be using the mapping feature on her phone even if mounted.

LADYDREAMER wrote:Since you encouraged me to be picky I also noticed that the Notice of Trial was sent to our address 99 Blank ROAD - but we live at 99 Blank DRIVE (ROAD INSTEAD OF DRIVE)

Even if the same error was on the ticket, it isn't considered a fatal error. Error on notices of trial are pretty meaningless since they aren't a charging document like the ticket itself.

LADYDREAMER wrote:

The total payable includes the Set Fine, costs and Victim Fine Surcharge as indicated on your Notice of Offence Total payable $110.00

If the actual ticket has that fine (not the notice of trial) you should have a fatal error that can result in the ticket being tossed. If a Justice of the Peace notices the incorrect fine, he should simply quash the ticket right away. If the JP fails to notice, you'll have to jump through some hoops to deal with it.