Judy was driving Amber's car when she was pulled over. She couldn't find the insurance papers and was charged with failure to surrender insurance card.

Amber said she does have insurance papers that says her car is insured, but she had canceled insurance after receiving the papers. Now if Judy goes to court to show Amber's insurance papers, will they check to see if it is valid?

Not as a practice, but it's irrelevant since the charge is not driving without insurance, it's failing to produce the insurance slip when requested to do so.

Also, I would not that if you do get caught presenting an insurance slip as valid when the policy has, in fact been canceled, you can be charged with producing evidence of false insurance under the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act, which carries a minimum fine of $10,000.

_________________
Former Police Officer, Law Student, and aspiring Criminal Lawyer
http://www.SimonBorys.ca - Bio and Blog

NOTHING I SAY ON HERE IS APPROVED BY ANY POLICE SERVICE, NOR IS IT LEGAL ADVICE.

thanks again simon... could someone be charged at the courthouse when presenting the false insurance slip? Or is that charge only if you produce the false insurance when stopped by the police?

It is an interesting scenario from a legal perspective...

Section 3(b) of the CAIA says:

(b) surrenders an insurance card for inspection to a police officer, when requested to do so, purporting to show that the motor vehicle is insured under a contract of automobile insurance when the motor vehicle is not so insured,

Since it's only an offence to surrender the card when requested to do so by a police officer, we must assume that the police officer has the lawful authority to request the card, otherwise you would not be required to do so. You are only required to surrender the card when stopped, so I interpret that to mean it would not be an offence under the CAIA to show the document in court.

However, it may be an offence under the Criminal Code, I'm not sure off the top of my head, I'd have to look into it.

My advise of course is, don't do it. We're just speculating here...

_________________
Former Police Officer, Law Student, and aspiring Criminal Lawyer
http://www.SimonBorys.ca - Bio and Blog

NOTHING I SAY ON HERE IS APPROVED BY ANY POLICE SERVICE, NOR IS IT LEGAL ADVICE.

If you presented it in court, and they verified that it was, in fact, an invalid insurance slip (which could be done with a simple phone call), that would be perjury. That's a criminal offence and it is jail time. On top of that, if the vehicle was then driven when the insurance was not valid on the vehicle, they now have proof to charge the vehicle's owner with permitting an uninsured vehicle to be driven - same as Drive with No Insurance: $5000 minimum fine.

It's not a good idea. Don't do it.

_________________
* The above is NOT legal advice. It is an opinion only. By acting on anything I have said, you assume full responsibility for any outcome and its consequences. *
http://www.OntarioTicket.com OR http://www.OHTA.ca OR http://www.OntarioTrafficAct.com