“Wrong Date - Force Fatal Error”

Hi everyone, I got caught speeding 73 in a 50 zone on Jan 21. The officer reduced it to 60. But I noticed the date on the ticket says 2016/11/30. Should I ignore the ticket and force fatal error? If they miss the mistake, can I get the ticket quashed during appeal? Thank you!

A recent decision by the Court of Appeal has found that minor errors, such as incorrect time or incorrect name, would not cause a defendant to be misled or prejudiced.

However, in this case, I would argue that the significant variance in date would cause you to be misled or prejudiced.

If you request for a trial or choose to pay a fine, you have 15 days from the date of the offence to do that. But on the face of the ticket, it would appear that you would be well overdue to choose one of these options. If you went into a courthouse to request a trial, you would likely not be able to - and as a result of this error, you have been deprived of your right to a trial.

I would call the courthouse and ask if the officer has submitted his/her copy to the courthouse (s/he has 7 days from the date of the offence to do this).

If the officer did submit his/her copy, hopefully the justice of the peace will quash the ticket. You can follow up and call the courthouse again in a few weeks to find out what has happened with your ticket.

If the officer did not submit his/her copy, then that probably means the officer noticed the error.

Thank you Whenaxis! I called the courthouse and the lady said it is in the system. And there is a correct date right above the officer's number "other service date of: Jan 21". That area is blank on my ticket. Does it affect anything?

on the pay ticket online system, the offence date says "not available".

Do you mind posting a copy of your ticket and a screenshot of the online ticket system (blank out any personal information)

Officers are allowed to correct minor errors on their copy of the ticket so I think that might be the case here. But I'm not sure if the ticket would still be valid, considering the large variance in the date.

uploaded

In this case, I would not do anything. I would wait a few weeks and call back to the courthouse to find out what has happened with this ticket.

If the justice of the peace quashed the ticket, that's the end of the story, you're good.

If the justice of the peace did not quash the ticket (or you get a notice of conviction in the mail), I would file for an appeal (not a reopening).

The ticket should be quashed because if the officer's copy of the offence notice (ticket) does say "other service date of: January 21, 2017" and the "alleged" offence is taking place on November 30, 2016 according to the ticket. This is significantly past the deadline set by section 3(3) of the Provincial Offences Act:

"Service

(3) The offence notice or summons shall be served personally upon the person charged within thirty days after the alleged offence occurred."

Great! I will wait for two weeks then. Very helpful info Whenaxis. Thanks a lot!

I agree with whenaxis, except to me the ticket (at the bottom) says that it was served on November 30th.

But that is okay too because a ticket needs to need to be filed with the clerk within 7 days of it being served, which means it would need to have been filed no later than December 7th per Section 4 of the Ontario Provincial Offences Act:

Basically the ticket should be quashed for this reason as well.

Anyways, either way I would just ignore the ticket and call clerk at end of February to see what happened.

If a conviction is registered against you, then you would need to APPEAL it right away (make sure you say appeal and not re-opening).

At an appeal hearing you would just bring your copy of the ticket and a copy of those sections of Provincial Offences Act we mentioned above and say that the ticket, if served on Nov 30, should have been quashed because it was not filed within days, or if served on Jan 21, should have been quashed because it was not served on you within 30 days.