OHTA.ca

Hello everyone. Any opinion is appreciated. Here goes.

Today I left from port loring Ontario just south of northbay. Did some sledding and decided to leave early because of the bad weather. I cleaned off my vehicle and took off. The weather was blizzard conditions so we took our time. This made for a long ride so as we came down the 400 we decided to take the 407 to get home quicker. Just before we got on the 407, a marked cruiser came behind us on the 400 and followed us for a while .Thinking nothing of this ,I pulled onto the 407 with him in tow. He pulled up on my driver side and took a look and promptly pulled me over. The officer informed me of the plates being covered in snow and asked for license/registration. When first asked this I had to look through my info and I didn't have my insurance paper. The officer promptly said he would sort through it. He told me to come back to the back of my trailer with him and told me to wipe off the snow from all my plates which were covered . I apologized as I didn't realize this. He told me to go back to my vehicle and wait there while he went inside his cruiser. Meanwhile I found my insurance paper and waited. I was going to show him my valid insurance when he came back. He came back and told me he was suspicious of the plates being covered and asked why I would take the 407 and issued me 2 tickets. He also told me he could give me tickets for my sleds not having visible license plates as they were covered . The first ticket was One for entire plate not visible and the second for failure to surrender insurance card. I tried twice to tell him I had my valid insurance card but both times he quickly told me that he wasn't there to debate with me . I then said nothing and took the ticket. While sitting waiting for the officer we took pictures of other vehicles with covered plates to show how bad the condition. Just so you know ,I always play by the rules. Valid insurance on all my vehicles, trail passes for my sleds and I was very compliant with the officer. Here are my questions

1. any demerit points here

2. How should I fight this as I am taking this to court

Thanks for all your help.

Your only option at this point is file the ticket for trial, wait for your notice of trial; once you get your trial date, request for disclosure and go from there.

The insurance card one is going to be very tricky, because you did not provide the officer with your card when he requested for it.

Operator to carry insurance card

3. (1) An operator of a motor vehicle on a highway shall have in the motor vehicle at all times,

(a) an insurance card for the motor vehicle; or

(b) an insurance card evidencing that the operator is insured under a contract of automobile insurance,

and the operator shall surrender the insurance card for reasonable inspection upon the demand of a police officer. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.25, s. 3 (1).

Do you have a 407ETR transponder? If you receive a 407ETR bill in the mail, you may want to hold on to it. There are no demerit points associated with either the plate or insurance card offences.

hta sect 13(2)

Thanks for the information

Also, I live near London Ontario and for me to go to court the ticket says I have to show up in Newmarket to request a trial option. This means I have to go to Newmarket twice. Do I have much of a shot or do I take my chances with a early resolution by phone.. I figure it costs me two days off and $120 in fuel to fight this. The fines total $175.

You also have to consider a possible insurance premium increase for having at least one minor ticket for the next three years. Including the increase, if it's still less than your travel & time-off costs, then you're better off plea-bargaining by phone (if that's an option).

The crown will most likely plea-bargain by dropping the insurance card for a reduced sentence on the license plate visibility.

A lot of people fight tickets tooth-and-nail because the insurance premium increase for a minor ticket may total thousands of dollars for the following three years. Ex: State Farm Auto Policy for $2000/yr; one minor ticket, you lose 10% ticket free discount, get 10% premium for first ticket... so that's a total of +20% and over three years it's an extra $1200. Even though the minor ticket may have been $45.