OHTA.ca

Hi guys, just wondering if a case can be dismissed if the Crown mailed the disclosure to the wrong address?

Basically I was convicted on 'stunt' driving charge....doing 59 in a 50 on Hwy 401. Because I live about 4 hours away, I was co-ordinating with the PO office and then the Crown so I would get everything mailed to me, and then only have to make 1 appearance in court. I talked to him on the phone and also emailed the prosecutor the proper address, only for it to be mailed to some other address. Then my date apparently went through, and I missed my court date & was charged $2500+! Even though I actually was trying to do my diligence since I know how huge this charge is gonna hurt me.

Now I'm having to do an appeal, and pay for transcripts and all that.... it almost feels worthless.

The background: I was driving from Barrie to Montreal in late December 2007. Was driving for a good 3-4 hours already at 7am now through Kingston on the 401, not racing anyone, missed an exit thanks to a couple trucks / cars and had to pee, was going abit faster not realizing it, boom, caught. In a rental! Costed me about $1000 from the rental company + another $500 in bus tickets + aggravation + a couple big friendships + having to pay for another rental from Kingston to Montreal and back for my friends to get around.

Thanks for all your insight, I really appreciate this site immensely.

E

To get the "no disclosure" angle, you basically need to show that, despite your reasonable efforts to obtain disclosure, the Crown failed to fulfill its duty to give it to you. A mistake by the Crown in the address is not enough, unless it happened more than once.

The main issue I see here is, did you know about your trial date? If not, why not? If they mailed the notice to the wrong address, and you called the courthouse several times and were given misleading or inaccurate information about the trial date, or a simple "I don't know," you can probably get it tossed on appeal. If you simply missed your trial date, and knew or ought to have known the date/location, disclosure going to the wrong address is not going to help. You'd have to file for a stay of proceedings for incomplete disclosure at the original trial. If the JP refused to accept it, an appeals court would probably toss the conviction and order a new trial with complete disclosure provided.

An appeal will only work if the JP made an error in convicting or sentencing you, either in law or in fact, so to speak.