OHTA.ca

Hello everyone

I am new here therefore before I ask any questions I would just like to thank the people who created this website, it is very helpful with great amounts of information on various traffic laws and regulations.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find an answer to my problem so I thought I would ask for some help.

Here is my situation:

On July 5th of 2010 I received a Speeding ticket on Dufferin St. South of Lawrence Ave. in Toronto by a Metro Police traffic unit officer.

The ticket was speeding 75km/h in a 50 km/h zone. The officer did not reduce it at all.

I was driving a company car at the time and unfortunately the people in charge of the fleet did not place the pink insurance card in the car therefore I was also given a ticket for failing to surrender an insurance card.

I filed for a court date, I received my notice of trail in the mail for March 7th 2011 and a month before my trail I had to change my court date because I was leaving the country for a few months to go do some work related training in Europe. They bumped my court date to November 14th 2011.

On July I returned to Canada after my training in Europe and I filed for the police officers disclosure.

After a few months I hadn't received the disclosure from the police officer so I went back to the court house to ask again. They told me to wait because some officers file it just before the court date and the clerk at the prosecutors office told me that if the police officer fails to file his/her disclosure the case will be withdrawn.

On November 14th I went to my court date the police officer had failed to file her disclosure notes. I told the prosecutor, he called up the police officer, showed her my copy of the Disclosure request form dating back to July and instead of withdrawing the case he made the cop photocopy her notes right there and then and then he rescheduled the case for April 24th 2011.

I am starting a new job on April 23rd and taking the day off on April 24th is impossible. The other problem is in this new job my drivers abstract has to be 100% clean otherwise I'm out of work.

Is there a way I can get out of this jam? I showed up for my court case it's not my fault the cop didn't file her notes. She had over 5 months to file them, that's plenty of time. Why do I have to pay the price? I asked for legal advice from xcopper they couldn't do much for me other then take my $350.00 and sent a representative to court for me to see if they can get the speeding reduced down to 15km/h over so I don't lose any points which is something I can do my self without wasting $350.00

Any good advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance.

John G.

If I'm to understand this correctly... did you get the original ticket in July of 2010?

If so, the time from July of 2010 to February of 2011, and from November 2011 until April 24, 2012, all count as "delay." That seems like a 12-month total delay that is attributed to the system and the Prosecutor's office. You might want to think about filing an 11B for unreasonable delay. The disclosure (or lack thereof until November) works in your favour. You may be able to get the charge stayed. (No guarantees - your case is a little more complex.) Check our "Courts and Procedures" section for advice on filing an 11B.