“Strategy Suggestions Please”

Hi All

Hoping someone can give me some advice:

My wife got a ticket for speeding 2012/02/28 - Charge: 75 KM/H in a 60 KM/H zone.

(Officer alleges 83KM in a 60KM, but wrote ticket for a lower amount.)

Never received a notice of trial, then got a conviction letter in October 2012.

Went to the court in Newmarket to get it reopened, and there was no JP available. They tried to send us away, but we insisted we have already taken time off work to handle this. They got a commissioner of oaths to take an affidavit that we never received notice. Notice of trial arrived a week or so later. Requested disclosure on Feb 14th using the sample letter I found here (thanks!). Received disclosure about a week ago. Should have gotten to this sooner, but time has been hard to come by.

Contents of Disclosure:

1. Standard Cover Memo

2. Intimidating letter that the charge would be amended to the actual speed.

3. Copies of the following from the radar manual:

- Front Page: Genesis VP Directional - User's Manual Canada Variant - Rev 25/Aug/2010

- Pages 26, 27, 28, 29 of the manual - Nothing that appears useful - Just a short bit on Testing (Circuitry test - Simulated speeds: 25,50,75,100KM), Specs, and an FCC certificate

4. In request to a copy of both sides of the officer's copy of the ticket (Notice of offense)

The (Affidavit of Service) on the backside is blank (Does that matter?) No handwriting anywhere, just the same info as from the original ticket.

5. As per the sample letter I requested:

I requested a full copy of the officers notes, typed if not legible.

I did not receive a photocopy of pages from the officer's notebook. (Do they keep written notes for this stuff anymore, or do they just put it in the computer?)

I received a printout from the YRPTICKET Portal (most of it looks like boiler plate) that reads as follows:

----------------------------

Narrative:

RADAR SPEED ENFORCEMENT UNIFORM CAPACITY. RADAR #YRP248 TESTED ACCORDING TO

MANUFACTURER INSTRUCTIONS AND FOUND TO BE IN GOOD WORKING ORDER. ROADS DRY, CLOUDY, 4

DEGREES. SET UP ON BOND CR FACING NORTHBOUND AT KING ROAD.

KING RUNS EASTBOUND AND WESTBOUND AND HAS 2 LANES IN EACH DIRECTION. THIS

IS A 60 KM/H ZONE. SPEED LIMIT SIGNS CLEARLY POSTED EAST AND WEST OF MY LOCATION.

I OBSERVE A MOTOR VEHICLE TRAVELLING W/B L2 AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED. I ACTIVATED THE RADAR

SPEED MEASURING DEVICE & RECEIVED A READOUT OF 83 KM/H ACTIVATED EMERGENCY LIGHTS OF XXX

CAR AND INITIATED A TRAFFIC STOP. I DID NOT LOSE SIGHT OF THE MOTOR VEHICLE AND HAD CONSTANT

VISUAL CONTACT WITH

THE VEHICLE THROUGH OUT MY WHOLE INVESTIGATION. I ADVISED/DEMAND

DRIVER SURRENDER:VAL DL, O/S, INS

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION:mazd m3h whi

OCCUPANTS:LONE FEM

DRIVER ISSUED TICKET AND EXPLAINED 3 OPTIONS/15 DAYS.

VISIBILITY: EXCELLENT

TRAFFIC: MODERATE

TEST #1 -0924

TEST #2-0947

----------------------------

Trial Date: Mar 27, 2013

What should my next move be? I'll be representing my wife.

Based on the reading I've done it appears that I need to keep things to pretrial motions. (I'm worried about the charge getting adjusted up to 3 points).

Any chance of a stay? Don't have time to serve notices (and if I have to go to the expense of driving downtown, It might cost me more than the ticket - wife has one ticket conviction in May 2011 - no points). Even if I can't get a stay, I want to keep this off her record for as long as possible since we are just buying a car and the insurance will be up for review.

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

hopeful wrote:

2. Intimidating letter that the charge would be amended to the actual speed.

I'm curious to see the wording of this letter. Not that it might help much, but now i'm curious.

hopeful wrote:

4. In request to a copy of both sides of the officer's copy of the ticket (Notice of offense)

The (Affidavit of Service) on the backside is blank (Does that matter?)

Most likely no. The affidavit of service is only needed if you're served the ticket by someone other than the charging officer. For most roadside traffic stops, it's the officer charging you who issues the ticket.

bend wrote:

hopeful wrote:

2. Intimidating letter that the charge would be amended to the actual speed.

I'm curious to see the wording of this letter. Not that it might help much, but now i'm curious.

Happy to satisfy your curiosity... (here is an OCR of the intimidating paragraph)

Speed has been reduced on your charge

If you have been charged with speeding and the officer has reduced the rate of speed on your ticket and

you have come to Court for trial, you now have several options of which you must choose one. Your

options are as follows: *

1) You can pay the total payable amount shown on your ticket in order to take the benefit of the reduced

speeding charge. A conviction will appear on your driving record but there are no demerit points added

to your driving record if the speed alleged is 15 KPH over the speed limit or a lesser amount;

2) You can have a trial, in which case the prosecutor will tell you the original rate of speed that you are

alleged to have been going before the trial starts. At trial the prosecutor may ask the Court to amend the

speed to the actual rate observed by the officer or recorded by the radar or laser device, which the court

can do under s. 34 of the Provincial Offences Act. You then run the risk that the court may amend the

charge to a higher rate of speed based on the evidence the court accepts.

3) Having been told by the Prosecutor that the Court may amend the speed back up and that there are

potentially more severe consequences, you may ask the Court to adjourn your trial to another date so

that you may obtain independent legal advice before you decide which option to exercise (i.e. pay the

ticket or have a trial).

You should be aware that the court may find you guilty and convict you of the actual rate of speed you

were travelling over the speed limit, based on the evidence presented at trial. For example, if your charge

is speeding, 60 kph in a 50 kph zone, and the officer testifies that your actual rate of speed was 80 kph in

a 50 kph zone, the court can amend the charge to reflect the actual rate of speed and enter a conviction for

speeding at 80 kph in a 50 kph zone. You would have gone from a. charge with no demerit points and a

total payable of $40.00 to an offence with 4 demerit points and a total payable of $265.00.

Option 3 looks good another delay and perhaps no officer in court. I am wondering because it would be the prosecuter asking for an amendment to the charge if you ask for a delay to prepare you could ask that it be attributed to the prosecuter restarting the 11b clock? Or at least get you the time to get that new car of yours insured.

Given the time delays... any possibility of a stay?

I wouldn't think so. The matter was dealt with in a timely fashion by way of a conviction being entered.