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Hello everybody,

I have a court date scheduled for next week (week of October 5th) for a ticket I received in fall 2008 for failing to stop at a stop sign. Upon receipt of my ticket, I opted to challenge my ticket at trial for two reasons: 1) the location, as it was hand-written on my ticket, does not exist (i.e., on the ticket, the location where the offence was allegedly committed appeared to say 51B John Street; however, upon receipt of my printed Notice of Trial I realized that the location was S.B. John Street (for southbound John St.) - the officer's handwriting made it look like 51B); and 2) the officer never looked at my vehicle registration, and the year of the vehicle on the ticket is incorrect (it says the vehicle was a 2008 model, while my model is 1997).

Based on the above, I have several questions: 1) I have not yet requested disclosure, as I did not realize that I could do so until very recently; at this point, the trial date is so close that I don't think I will receive the documents in time, so how should I proceed? Can I request for my trial to be re-scheduled since I need more time to prepare my defence?; 2) Is incorrect information on the ticket sufficient enough to have the charges dropped?

Thanks in advance for anybody's comments.

The location error is minor error, and the year is your sticker year, so not enough to get it dropped.

If the cop shows up at trial, yes ask the JP for adjournment to get disclosure as you just recently learned about it.

1stTicket2009 wrote:Hello everybody,

I have a court date scheduled for next week (week of October 5th) for a ticket I received in fall 2008 for failing to stop at a stop sign. Upon receipt of my ticket, I opted to challenge my ticket at trial for two reasons: 1) the location, as it was hand-written on my ticket, does not exist (i.e., on the ticket, the location where the offence was allegedly committed appeared to say 51B John Street; however, upon receipt of my printed Notice of Trial I realized that the location was S.B. John Street (for southbound John St.) - the officer's handwriting made it look like 51B); and 2) the officer never looked at my vehicle registration, and the year of the vehicle on the ticket is incorrect (it says the vehicle was a 2008 model, while my model is 1997).

Based on the above, I have several questions: 1) I have not yet requested disclosure, as I did not realize that I could do so until very recently; at this point, the trial date is so close that I don't think I will receive the documents in time, so how should I proceed? Can I request for my trial to be re-scheduled since I need more time to prepare my defence?; 2) Is incorrect information on the ticket sufficient enough to have the charges dropped?

Thanks in advance for anybody's comments.

If it is over 10 months apply for a stay.

Or when you get to court just tell them that is what you are going to do.

My bet is they withdraw it.(either way)

Cheers

Viper1

viper1 wrote:

1stTicket2009 wrote:Hello everybody,

I have a court date scheduled for next week (week of October 5th) for a ticket I received in fall 2008 for failing to stop at a stop sign. Upon receipt of my ticket, I opted to challenge my ticket at trial for two reasons: 1) the location, as it was hand-written on my ticket, does not exist (i.e., on the ticket, the location where the offence was allegedly committed appeared to say 51B John Street; however, upon receipt of my printed Notice of Trial I realized that the location was S.B. John Street (for southbound John St.) - the officer's handwriting made it look like 51B); and 2) the officer never looked at my vehicle registration, and the year of the vehicle on the ticket is incorrect (it says the vehicle was a 2008 model, while my model is 1997).

Based on the above, I have several questions: 1) I have not yet requested disclosure, as I did not realize that I could do so until very recently; at this point, the trial date is so close that I don't think I will receive the documents in time, so how should I proceed? Can I request for my trial to be re-scheduled since I need more time to prepare my defence?; 2) Is incorrect information on the ticket sufficient enough to have the charges dropped?

Thanks in advance for anybody's comments.

If it is over 10 months apply for a stay.

Or when you get to court just tell them that is what you are going to do.

My bet is they withdraw it.(either way)

Cheers

Viper1

Viper1 - so you think I should request a stay of proceedings? The court date will be more than 10 months from the offence date. This will be my first court appearance, so I'm not familiar with the mechanics. Should I just indicate my intentions to the prosecutor when I meet with him/her before my trial? I'm curious, what makes you think that they will withdraw the charges?

Thanks again.

A motion for a stay of proceedings needs to be filed (usually) 20 days or more in advance of the trial. It's probably too late for that now, but if you get your request in ASAP they may consider it. For now, take a look at this website: