“Missed Early Prosecution Meeting”

Hi Forum members

Wish some members can help my dilemma?

I missed my early resolution meeting, I mixed the timings. My meeting was at 10:30 AM, somehow I had the calendar set to 12:30 PM and eventually realized I had the wrong timing. This was for a traffic ticket with 6 points

Is there a way the justice of peace would consider the re-appeal ? Should I hire a lawyer at this point for the re-appeal ?

This was just an honest mistake and my record has been clear of this

Thanks, any advise will be appreciated

MK

If all you missed was an early resolution meeting than that is not that big a deal and you can probably handle it without the help of a paralegal. All you need to do is call the prosecutors office and reschedule the meeting. If they can't fit you in before your court date you will still have the opportunity to talk to the prosecutor on the day of your trial before the proceedings commence. If all you are looking to do is plea bargain to a lessor offence then you can probably do that yourself. If you are looking to fight the ticket out right then you might want to consider hiring a paralegal to argue your case for you in court.

If you missed your actual court date then you have a bigger problem as you will have been convicted by default. If that happened then you will have to apply to a Justice of the Peace to have your case reopened. Reopening a case can be a bit of a complicated process so in that situation you would probably want to hire a paralegal to handle the process for you.

daggx wrote:If all you missed was an early resolution meeting than that is not that big a deal and you can probably handle it without the help of a paralegal. All you need to do is call the prosecutors office and reschedule the meeting. If they can't fit you in before your court date you will still have the opportunity to talk to the prosecutor on the day of your trial before the proceedings commence. If all you are looking to do is plea bargain to a lessor offence then you can probably do that yourself. If you are looking to fight the ticket out right then you might want to consider hiring a paralegal to argue your case for you in court.

If you missed your actual court date then you have a bigger problem as you will have been convicted by default. If that happened then you will have to apply to a Justice of the Peace to have your case reopened. Reopening a case can be a bit of a complicated process so in that situation you would probably want to hire a paralegal to handle the process for you.

Thanks for your prompt response. I have only missed my early resolution meeting with a prosecutor and not an actual court trial date. Unfortunately, when I called the courthouse on the number provided, they told me missing an early resolution meeting is also tantamount to conviction. I even went to collect the appeal form in person and was told the same. This is the Ontario Provinces courthouse in Mississauga. So the status is that I am convicted. I am hoping that the justice of peace sees through that I am not a serial offender on the roads or in missing court dates and grants a re-opening. I am freaked out that they just might not see this small mistake as a big one. Any advise ?

That is strange, there must be some kind of miscommunication going on between you and the court staff. As a matter of law you cannot be convicted simply for missing an early resolution meeting. The only answers I can think of are that either the court staff misunderstood what your were asking and thought you missed a court date when you in fact did not, or the date you missed was not an early resolution meeting but in fact a mandatory court appearance. Either way this is a mess and I would recommend getting a paralegal to help you sort it out so that you can get a fair hearing for your case.

daggx wrote:As a matter of law you cannot be convicted simply for missing an early resolution meeting.

Sure you can. Provincial Offences Act s. 9. It means you're deemed not to dispute the charge. For failing to attend the meeting our ticket will likely be placed into a pile to be brought into court sometime in the near future for a conviction in abstential under s. 9.

9. (1) A defendant is deemed to not wish to dispute the charge where,

(b) the defendant requested a meeting with the prosecutor in accordance with section 5.1 but did not attend the scheduled meeting with the prosecutor; or

Action by justice

(2) Where a defendant is deemed to not wish to dispute the charge, a justice shall examine the certificate of offence and shall,

(a) where the certificate of offence is complete and regular on its face, enter a conviction in the defendants absence and without a hearing and impose the set fine for the offence; or

(b) where the certificate of offence is not complete and regular on its face, quash the proceeding.

That's useful information Simon, Thanks.

And so what are my options if I missed the Early Resoltion Meeting, and still intend on pleading guilty ?

Thanks

aasghar wrote:That's useful information Simon, Thanks.

And so what are my options if I missed the Early Resoltion Meeting, and still intend on pleading guilty ?

Thanks

Do you mean not guilty? Because as Simon posted, by failing to attend you WILL be found guilty, you don't have to enter a plea.

I meant NOT Guilty Thanks for the correction.

You have to attend Court and request the matter be reopened. You only have 15 days from when you became aware of the conviction to do so. You also need to demonstrate that the reason you failed to attend was through no fault of your own. In other words it can't be that you simply forgot, it has to be something more akin to an unexpected emergency.

Stanton wrote:You have to attend Court and request the matter be reopened. You only have 15 days from when you became aware of the conviction to do so. You also need to demonstrate that the reason you failed to attend was through no fault of your own. In other words it can't be that you simply forgot, it has to be something more akin to an unexpected emergency.

Thanks. Just got back from court, they'll let me know tomorrow if they accept my re-open request.

Appreciate all the help I got here.