OHTA.ca

Hello,

My mother was charged with a failure to obey a stop sign HTA 136(1)(a) last week and I would like to help her avoid the demerit point loss.

She drove through a residential road to avoid construction, which recently had some 4-way stops added.

I don't think she has much of a case since this location seems to be a favorite location to setup a cruiser ticket cars. Also, the officer says he has everything on video. My dad drove through the intersection and did say the sign is at the bottom of a banked hill and hard to see if you're not looking for it.

That said, she's been under a lot of stress recently because I was involved in a hit and run when a car clipped my motorcycle, leaving me with a pretty bad bone fracture. She's off work caring for me and that's had a toll on her.

That day she was especially stressed because I was running low on pain meds and she'd been stressing about getting my prescription renewed in time (getting a hold of my surgeon is difficult since he's in demand)

What I'd like to know is:

1) Should I try to meet early with the prosecutor and see if she will show leniency and reduce the charge to something lesser, given my mother's circumstances

2) If I'm not happy with the meeting outcome, can I still go to trial. What from the meeting is admissible in court?

3) Is there a lesser charge she can plead to, to avoid demerit points? I'm happy to pay the fine but with her off work, I'd like to avoid an insurance spike (she's had a clean record for 15 years).

4) How soon are the meetings with the prosecutor arranged?

5) Can I send in a disclosure request now? Can I get the video, etc before the meeting with the prosecutor?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Demerit points are irrelevant to insurance companies, they look at all convictions. Unless theres a similar bylaw offence in your region that the Crown will let you plead down to, best deal you'll probably get is a reduced fine.

You should wait for your trial notice first.. THEN immediately request disclosure.. When you get disclosure, look at everything the officer is noting.. Check face of ticket carefully for ANY errors of your license, no signatures, or of the criminal code she was charged with.

Your best bet is never inform the prosecutors office what you plan to plea or what your defense is..

They are there to convict and make her plea guilty.. No matter what.. ANY plea of guilty, even if they say you will not loose demerit points with only a small fine.. IS an admittance of guilt and your insurance rates WILL still go up !!

WHY when there are no demerit points taken away??? Its because you or she plead guilty.. So insurance companies will penalize you for up to 3 years.

You want to make a case that looks good for your mother.. Maybe if you don't know the laws correctly, you need to hire an expert paralegal..

Or look on ticket combat.com as they have been a huge help to me when I needed to defend myself.. And over the years, I've not only defended myself and even my mother and sister up to 10 times in traffic court.. I've won every time !!

So don't rush to plea guilty as you have to play the court game if you plan to win..

Also if trial date is over 8- q

10 months from date of infraction.. You can file for a charter B11 and have the case stayed or dismissed totally and then your free and clear..

There are many ways to win a ticket.

Even a fail to stop at stop sign ticket.. I've been lucky !!

But I can assure you, it will never happen again, as I learned a lesson.