hwybear wrote:TC...speaking of face value of a PON. What about the signature? I have two ways of thinking on this.
1) Sign the top copy, identical signature is complete thru each layer of the PON, thus all are original and identical
or
2) Rip out the defendants copy and sign it in ink, then sign the top of the PON, thru the remaining copies. But does this then not make the signature on the defendants copy different from the top and not a true copy thereof? Or is it this makes it an official copy for the defendant.
thoughts?
This is actually a very complicated question. Hopefully without creating a doctoral thesis, here are my thoughts.
For defaults (the defendant doesn't show up in court or doesn't respond to the ticket), two of the three justices in London (City) v. Young, 2008 thought that the information on the certificate and the notice should be the same. They rejected an earlier ruling, York (Municipality) v. Wilson, 2005 CanLII 47712 (ON S.C.) that said the top copy and the one the defedant gets have different purposes. The third justice dissented and supported York v. Wilson that they don't have to be the same.
S.3(2) of the POA states that you are competing the certificate and signing it and then either completing the notice or a summons. For administrative expediency, it's in a carbon copy form so you only have to do it once for a Part 1 ticket. So "theoretically" after completing the certificate, you are "next" completing the notice which is a separate requirement and should be signed. I think the carbon copy method is "practically" accepted as sufficient and expedient.
S. 90 of the POA states that at trial the court must address any irregularity between the two (notice and certificate) which misleads the defendant.
There are some living on the fringe of the (mostly US) law that argue that what you are getting into is either an International Maritime Contract or a "common law" contract situation between the Crown and the defendant. See this example. They argue contracts need to be signed. If you ever sign a contract, buy a house or watch politicians sign a peace accord, everyone signs multiple copies so that each has an original signature version. So the thinking here is that the missing original signature voids the contract. They even go further to assert that international maritime law gives you seven days to dispute the contract, that is you dispute entering into a contract and therefore are not obligated to deal with or pay the ticket. Again this is mostly US thinking but is gaining popularity here.
So do you sign twice? The latest ruling says it should be exactly the same, just sign the top copy. I think signing each copy is more complete but that raises the possibility of further discrepancies between the two copies.
Of course, six months from now there'll be a new ruling and new procedures to follow.