OHTA.ca

Turned right where it was marked no right turn from 7-9AM. Honestly never saw the sign, and I've lived in the neighbourhood for 22 years. My bad, but officer (York Region) took my information back to the cruiser to write up the ticket. In the meantime, he flagged over 2 other cars after me and collected their information as well. Returned with my ticket & info. about 5 mins. later. When I got to work I was looking at the ticket and noticed it wasn't mine!! Someone else's name, address & licence. Obviously he mixed up the tickets, so someone else has my ticket. What should I do now?? Does this invalidate my ticket? Advice appreciated. Thanks in advance

Well that's a major mistake by the officer. It does not "invalidate it" immediately, but delivering the ticket to the wrong defendant should be sufficient to get the charge quashed. Probably the other guy has "your" ticket as well. They have up to 6 months to withdraw the original charge and issue a new one against you, but chances are they won't realize their mistake until it is too late. What I'd do is try to contact the other guy - he probably has your ticket. You wouldn't want to have him pay your ticket for you, resulting in a conviction etc. Since this is a highly odd situation, I'd suggest getting some sort of legal representation (paralegal). You can both probably file motions to quash the certificates for improper service.

I was going to suggest going right in to the police service and speaking with the officer in charge. It would be nice if they could simply pull both tickets before they even get sent through to the Courts saving everyone a lot of hassle. That's something that would have to be done ASAP though.

As Radar Identified says, it should be more than enough to get the ticket quashed, but the last thing you want to do is get the other guy in trouble or vice versa through inaction.