“144/18”

ok so a bit of back ground here. happend on AUG 2ND, im certain i still had right of way. was struck in intersection, i clearly seen the light turning from yellow to red when i had finished being spun out from the accident. officers showed up on scene within minutes as police station is located a few blocks from where it happened. driver that impacted me was charged with speeding in a school zone at the scene. police took my info, my passengers were examined by paramedics and taken to hospital. officers left me at the scene. luckly my mother in law was a few blocks behind us so i didnt have to walk over to the hospital (no the officers didnt know that she was on scene when they left me there). so get over to hospital and officer speaks with my wife and passenger and then gives me incident report. was never given ticket that day, officer said if he needed to get in contact with me he would as he had all my information. now fast forward to sunday september 11th. im served a summons to court for monday morning (the 12th). so never received a physical ticket and received a summons to court less than 24hrs from the date (also have to note that my name was spelled incorrectly and it states that it happened near the intersection not in it.(there are other inconsistency's that i can go into if needed)) so to the point at hand was wondering if it was in fact legal not receiving a ticket and the fact i received a summons less than 24hrs before court.

Browsing through i found this here. http://www.ontariohighwaytrafficact.com/topic7686.html was wondering if this would apply to me as i was never issued a ticket.

Summons

26. (1) A summons issued under section 22 or 24 shall,

(a) be directed to the defendant;

(b) set out briefly the offence in respect of which the defendant is charged; and

(c) require the defendant to attend court at a time and place stated therein and to attend thereafter as required by the court in order to be dealt with according to law. R.S.O. 1990, c. P.33, s. 26 (1).

Service

(2) A summons shall be served by a provincial offences officer by delivering it personally to the person to whom it is directed or if that person cannot conveniently be found, by leaving it for the person at the persons last known or usual place of abode with an inmate thereof who appears to be at least sixteen years of age. R.S.O. 1990, c. P.33, s. 26 (2).

but that doesn't answer my question if there was a applicable time limit or not. There are plenty of things that seem fishy about how it was handled and im exploring every avenue. Just want to make sure im barking up the right trees so to say.

from some of the things i have been reading (though have not been able to directly view source material for) leads me to believe that there is in fact a time limit to have served me with documents (plz correct me if im wrong, if correct if you happen to know the reference to it that would be appreciated).

Are you reading articles for Provincial Offences court of documents referring to Family Court or Small Claims Court.

We would be looking for people to serve them the night before court. It's not uncommon.

Service of documents sometimes have a time limit as the respondent needs time to review them but this is just a document telling you to be at court. If there was time limit then it would have been the Act which I quoted above.

What exact charge and section were you charged with on the summons?

What happened at your first appearance? Did you go?

So as far them giving you either a regular ticket (Notice of Offence) or a summons ticket, they have 6 months from the date of the incident to serve you with one or the other. I do not believe that there is any time limit on serving you the summons before court date though, so giving it to you the day before is okay from a legal perspective (not that I agree with them doing that though).

Your name being spelled wrong does not really matter.

jsherk wrote:What exact charge and section were you charged with on the summons?

What happened at your first appearance? Did you go?

So as far them giving you either a regular ticket (Notice of Offence) or a summons ticket, they have 6 months from the date of the incident to serve you with one or the other. I do not believe that there is any time limit on serving you the summons before court date though, so giving it to you the day before is okay from a legal perspective (not that I agree with them doing that though).

Your name being spelled wrong does not really matter.

States I was being summoned for 144 (18). Had paralegal go in to request full disclosure to see what was in it sense I literally found out less than 24hrs from having to be there. Thing I'd like to know is how I could be charged and not even know about it till I received that short notice summons. From what I've been told is that even though officer had 6mths to file it with court, only had 7 days to serve me with the documents from that day to have it legal.

I do not believe what you have been told is correct. They have 6 months to charge you from the date of the incident. If you are given a Notice of Offence (the normal ticket you would get for something like speeding) then the officer has 7 days to file their copy of it (the Certificate of Offence) with the court. If you are given a summons, then they do not have any specific time frame (that I am aware of) to file it with court.

Anyways they can serve you anytime up to 6 months from the incident. The 7 days only applies to officer filing with the court, not giving it to you.

Did you receive the disclosure yet?

Section 144 (18) says:

You are being charged with running a red light. Can anybody else in the car testify absolutely that it was green when you went thru it?

"Thing I'd like to know is how I could be charged and not even know about it till I received that short notice summons." That what the summons is, it is to inform you of the charge...The summons will contain your information, what the charge is, what act and section number, and when and where you are to appear for court...Ya, that was short notice for sure, but the first appearance is only to set things in motion, you do not need to make a plea at that time so you don't need disclosure before that, often you get disclosure at the first appearance...but your paralegal will look after all of that for you...

jsherk wrote:I do not believe what you have been told is correct. They have 6 months to charge you from the date of the incident. If you are given a Notice of Offence (the normal ticket you would get for something like speeding) then the officer has 7 days to file their copy of it (the Certificate of Offence) with the court. If you are given a summons, then they do not have any specific time frame (that I am aware of) to file it with court.

Anyways they can serve you anytime up to 6 months from the incident. The 7 days only applies to officer filing with the court, not giving it to you.

Did you receive the disclosure yet?

Section 144 (18) says:

Red light (18) Every driver approaching a traffic control signal showing a circular red indication and facing the indication shall stop his or her vehicle and shall not proceed until a green indication is shown.

You are being charged with running a red light. Can anybody else in the car testify absolutely that it was green when you went thru it?

Passenger in back seat can't he was playing a game on his phone. Wife is iffy she got her head rocked pretty hard from the impact. I do know that the guy who hit me was charged with speeding. I distinctly remember confirming that I had to make a turn to the left at next set of lights just after I had looked up at the traffic lights to make sure they were green. I then looked to both sides of intersection checking for pedestrians. After this van hit my explorer it spun us around backwards onto oncoming traffic lane. I distinctly seen the lights turning from yellow to red.

Though as you stated above there if that officer didn't file it within 7 days ? Would that mean it's not valid?

For summons, there is no requirement to file within 7 days. This is for a regular ticket that says Notice of Offence on it, not a summons. And the 7 days to file is from when they give you the ticket not form the date of the incident.

You will have to wait and get all the witness statements to determine if the other driver is saying you went thru the red light and then at trial that driver would have to show up to testify. So wait on disclosure and let us know what it says.

If the guy who hit you was charged with speeding, there must have been an officer there at the scene to measure the speed of that vehicle...if that is so, he is likely a witness to the crash...re reading your post, you say the cops showed up a few minutes later as the station was close by...if that is so, how did they get a speed on the first guy?

screeech wrote:If the guy who hit you was charged with speeding, there must have been an officer there at the scene to measure the speed of that vehicle...if that is so, he is likely a witness to the crash...re reading your post, you say the cops showed up a few minutes later as the station was close by...if that is so, how did they get a speed on the first guy?

I found out this information via the insurance company. It mentions nothing in the disclosure about him being charged with speeding. Is this a fact I can use in court?