OHTA.ca

Hi

I am new to this board but read alot of comments from ticeketcombat.

I have a question to all of you knowledagble fellows...

My wife called me today and told me that a town of Markham parking enforcement guy showed up at the door and was askng for me...

he got her exact name and gave her a summon for me to show up in court on March12th 2010.

the Summon has an issue date of January 22, 2010.

It says that I have commited an offence of "Park in a Fire Route contrary to Town of Markham By-Law 2005-188, as ammended , Section9(3). on Dec 10th 2009.

The address is for stouffville hospital. I remember I was there on Dec 10 as my wife had a doctors appointment, and I had parked my car and I was sitting in the car. I had seen the parking guy but had moved my car... a ticket was never served to me or on my car.. nor i ever got the letter of conviction from town of markham.

What should I do now... this is a bizzare that the summon was issued on 22 and was served to me today @ march 9th 2010...

please an urgent help is required.

Shaq

The notice of summons is in fact the "ticket" you received.

You can get a "ticket" either via a Provincial Offense notice (PON) (the normal way) or via a Summons (what you got).

An officer only has a limited number of days (10?) to issue a PON after that they need to get a Crown or Justice to issue a Summons.

The amount of time that it took between issuing the summons and you receiving it seems excessive in my mind, and you may be able to use it in your defense.

When you attend court make sure to complain to the Justice about the lack of notice that you have been provided. As well I wouldn't even acknowledge a memory of the incident.

The only way you can be done with the matter tomorrow is to make a guility plea. Talk to the crown before court and agree to a guility plea for a reduced fine / charge.

The question you need to ask yourself is are you prepared to fight it? Cause if you want to fight it it will take multiple court visits.

If you wish to fight the matter you might have a good defense based on the amount of time it took receive the ticket as well you may be able to push out the case long enough to qualify for an 11b.

I'd suggest when you attend court when the justice asks you how you plead to state that you don't know. You only received this notice 3 days before and you don't understand the implications of either choice. Note that is this the crowns fault and you need more time to consider your options and the evidence against you.

However when push comes to shove plead Not Guilty, then file for disclosure.

An argument may be made that the vehicle in questions was stopped and not parked, especially when the vehicle has been moved to another location/parking spot and no service was effected at the time of the offence. Usually parking infractions are handled under part II of the Provincial Offences Act by way of a Certificate of Offence, but any Provincial Offences Charge may be laid by way of an Information that is Sworn before a Justice of the Peace.(A Part III Proceeding)

I would suggest that when you attend court, you also bring with you a copy of a Disclosure Request form, asking for all of the evidence that may be used against you to be provided to you. At a trial you may have good arguments to how that a temporary stop does not alway mean parked. The Definitions of Parked and Stopped can be found in Section 1 of the HTA. It says that a vehicle might not be considered as parked when loading or unloading passengers or cargo.

Check it out, and be sure to let the message board know how you make out with your case.

David Chatten