OHTA.ca

First post on this site - must say it has been an EXTREMELY valuable source of info. Well done.

SITUATION - received ticket from OPP; ticket states 127km/h in a 90km/h zone (37 over). Set fine indicated as $282, total payable $347 - clearly incorrect, as these amounts would be commensurate with a 137km/h ticket (i.e. 47 over) base on the current schedules.

Did not notice this at first, so I requested a trial with the officer present, as I was going to fight the ticket on another angle (officer clearly lost sight of the vehicle). However, now that I see the error I will not show up at trial so that Section 9/9.1 of the POA applies and the JP should quash the ticket based on the fact that the set fine and total payable are incorrect (London v. Young, Sudbury v. Leikemoser, Barrie v. Porter).

QUESTION - does anyone have any experience with this, specifically as to whether or not the JP usually picks up on this error an quashes the charge at trial? Or does this normally have to be appealed? Fully prepared to appeal if the JP does not notice the error, but would obviously prefer to not have to. Thanks in advance for any/all replies.

I had the same issue as you, the ticket went through.... I had to have the case reopenned.......

I had the same issue with a fail to stop read light ticket, the JP did not notice the error and I had to appeal. That having been said the appeal process, at least for me, went relatively smoothly and the applet Judge entered an acquittal in my case.

Dont show, get convicted, appeal on your grounds and get the charge dropped.

I've heard of another tact to take with these that may be worth trying. Send someone to court on your trial date (do not be there yourself). When the case is called, s/he should step forward, indentify, advise the court that s/he is there only as a friend of the court and is in no way authorized to represent you or enter a plea on your behalf. S/he would then respectfully point out the error to the court and the relevant portion of the POA and case law. If it works, you save the aggravation of an appeal. If not, you haven't lost anything - you still can go to appeal route.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I will likely end up having to appeal it.

One other question - I got a notice saying I could meet with the Crown Attorney prior to the trial to discuss options (at a specified date and time). If I were to go to that meeting and point out the error on the ticket, and the fact that I did not plan to show up for trial, does the Crown have any ability to have the ticket amended PRIOR to the trial? I keep reading about summons vs offence notices - is this something they could do in this situation to get around the fact that there is an error on the ticket?

I believe the Crown has 6 months from the time the offence took place to issue a summons. So theoretically if you went to the first attendance meeting and pointed out the error on the ticket to the Crown they could withdraw the ticket that has the error on it and issue you summons to court. This would correct the error and eliminate the advantage you have now. I think your best bet is to do nothing, sit back and wait to see what happens.

SUCCESS

Just to put this to bed -- I received my Notice of Trial sometime end-July, trial date 20 Aug. I did not attend, for the reasons cited above. As of yesterday I had received nothing in the mail, which I would have expected had I been found guilty. So I called the courthouse this morning, and lo and behold - the charge/ticket had been withdrawn. I didn't ask any further details, but I assume it could only have been because the JP actually checked the ticket and found the fine to be incorrect.

So check your tickets VERY carefully - you may get lucky like I did.

Thanks, and good luck to everyone else who deserves a break.