OHTA.ca

Hello, it's me again. I have a few questions about disclosure and paying the fine by mail.

This is related to my previous post, located here: http://www.ontariohighwaytrafficact.com/topic5399.html

1.) I was ticketed in Woodstock, Ontario, and I sent the prosecutor a disclosure form that looks like this: http://www.ticketcombat.com/step4/sampledisclosure.doc on June 24th, 2013. My court date is August 7, 2013. How long would disclosure take to be sent, processed, and received? Is my disclosure request specific enough? I didn't put my phone number down, to try to get them to delay in sending me the disclosure, so I can go into 11b territory.

2.) If I do not wish to go to court, and want to pay my fine before the court date (or in my case, don't want the charge to be re-amended up $70), how can I pay the fine without going to the office (it's quite far)? How many days do I have to do this before the trial date?

3.) How do I go about doing a plea bargain? Is it just the prosecutor asks me: "Here's a lesser charge that you can plead to, if you don't accept this, good luck" kind of deal, or do I have some negotiating power?

Thanks alot for your time. You're awesome for even just reading this.

ImJayson wrote:

1.) I was ticketed in Woodstock, Ontario, and I sent the prosecutor a disclosure form that looks like this: http://www.ticketcombat.com/step4/sampledisclosure.doc on June 24th, 2013. My court date is August 7, 2013. How long would disclosure take to be sent, processed, and received? Is my disclosure request specific enough? I didn't put my phone number down, to try to get them to delay in sending me the disclosure, so I can go into 11b territory.

6-8 weeks is probably a reasonable amount of time to wait for disclosure. You might not have it in time for your trial. If you didn't wait too long to file for disclosure, you'll probably be given a new date for your trial. It's neither sides fault. The amount of time between the day you were ticketed and your trial date is just over 4 months. I don't know how you're going to push an argument that this thing is taking too long because you're not even close right now. You'll also have the opportunity to reach a plea deal while you're there. Considering your situation, i'd highly recommend you consider it.

ImJayson wrote:

2.) If I do not wish to go to court, and want to pay my fine before the court date (or in my case, don't want the charge to be re-amended up $70), how can I pay the fine without going to the office (it's quite far)? How many days do I have to do this before the trial date?

You already have a court date. Show up and you'll probably get a deal for 29km over and 3 points. You are a Novice driver. You DON'T want to get suspended on a 4 demerit point conviction. Take it and run. You're on the verge of getting your license suspended which is going to be way worse, over what? $70? I'd pay $1000 to not have my license suspended. G2 driver with a suspended license isn't very attractive to insurance companies, if they will even insure you anymore. Make the drive and see what they offer you.

ImJayson wrote:

3.) How do I go about doing a plea bargain? Is it just the prosecutor asks me: "Here's a lesser charge that you can plead to, if you don't accept this, good luck" kind of deal, or do I have some negotiating power?

They will offer you a deal and that's mostly it. You have a very good chance at getting at least 29km over and leaving with 3 points. I'd take it if I were you.

First of all, thank you to user bend for taking your time to help me

6-8 weeks is probably a reasonable amount of time to wait for disclosure. You might not have it in time for your trial. If you didn't wait too long to file for disclosure, you'll probably be given a new date for your trial. It's neither sides fault. The amount of time between the day you were ticketed and your trial date is just over 4 months. I don't know how you're going to push an argument that this thing is taking too long because you're not even close right now. You'll also have the opportunity to reach a plea deal while you're there. Considering your situation, i'd highly recommend you consider it.

I meant how long would it take for the prosecutor to give me the disclosure I asked for. I'm afraid that if I go to court, they don't give me a plea bargain, and I get fined $70 more because they amended the charge to 137km/h instead of the 130km on the ticket. That would be the worst case scenario, because I would have just drove to Woodstock for nothing, and got punished further

Show up and you'll probably get a deal for 29km over and 3 points. You are a Novice driver. You DON'T want to get suspended on a 4 demerit point conviction. Take it and run. You're on the verge of getting your license suspended which is going to be way worse, over what? $70? I'd pay $1000 to not have my license suspended. G2 driver with a suspended license isn't very attractive to insurance companies, if they will even insure you anymore. Make the drive and see what they offer you.

I plan on not driving for 2 years (so that the demerit points & record of my offense goes away) if I lose, so that I don't get punished by the insurance companies as well. Is this a valid tactic?

Thanks alot, and cheers~!