OHTA.ca

Hi

I received a traffic ticket on December 16th, and I understood that I have 15 days to deal with the ticket.

I traveled till Dec 23rd, so I went to the Guelph Provincial Court to submit the ticket and apply for option 3 on the afternoon of Dec 24th. However, I noticed that the court would remain closed till Jan 4th.

I understand that my ticket will ticket before Jan 4th, and I could not find any way to submit the ticket online.

Could anyone offer me some advices please?

Thank you!

Sorry I meant the ticket will expire before Jan 4th.

Does it have the option to mail it in? If so, then as long as it is post marked by day 15 then it should be okay.

While technically they can send your ticket into default proceedings after 15 days, it usually takes them a little longer than that to get around to it. Obviously the longer you leave your ticket unanswered past the 15 day mark the more likely it is that the city will do the paper work to get a default judgment against you. However, I think if you go into the office promptly on Jan 4th it is most likely that they will not have done anything with your ticket yet and you will still be able to book a court date.

Don't sweat this - the 15 mentioned is only to get the ticket into the system as quickly as possible and have it dealt with - in actual fact you have 44 days to respond.

If, you have not responded by the 45th day, you will be convicted in your absence, the fine on the ticket imposed with 5.00 for costs and a Notice of Fine and Due Date will be mailed to you usually granting 15 days to pay the fine - which, if not paid at this point will result in a licence suspension. This is the only 15 day period you must concern yourself about.

Sit back, enjoy Christmas and New Years, and deal with it some time during January.

karra wrote:Don't sweat this - the 15 mentioned is only to get the ticket into the system as quickly as possible and have it dealt with - in actual fact you have 44 days to respond.

I'm not sure what you're basing this on. As Daggx said the process typically takes longer then 15 days, but there's no legal guarantee that you have longer then that to respond.

Karra might want to read section 9 of the Provincial Offences Act.

15 days.

No question that S.9 clearly states a defendant will be convicted on the 15th day if no action has been taken.

That's the law - the reality however, is, as usual, something quite different.

It all has to do with manual data input - e-tickets have made data input nearly something of the past.

Imagine a court; any in Toronto, Windsor, Ottawa, Napanee (12 - 14 weeks to get a Notice of Trial) - or any other court along the 401 corridor - they are very busy POA courts. The police have 7 days to file the most common ticket, a Part 1 - the POA municipality has a certain number of employees and dollars assigned to inputting ticket prior to the 7 day expiration. The volume creates mayhem, anger, late nights, overtime and upset employees.

As a result - every POA jurisdiction in the Province of Ontario, save one - has the agreement/arrangement I've stated above.

The only court in Ontario that does not go along and adheres to S.9 of the POA is - London - on the 15th day you will be convicted in absentia.