Do I need to take the day off?

I hear people spending the whole day in the court room before being called.

But in my notification it says clearly at 2pm.

So can I arrive around 1pm?

Thanks.

It is a good practice to arrive in court 15-30 minutes before your scheduled time. This will give you an opportunity to discuss your case with prosecutor and prepare for trial.

Traffic Law wrote:

It is a good practice to arrive in court 15-30 minutes before your scheduled time. This will give you an opportunity to discuss your case with prosecutor and prepare for trial.

Thanks.

Why do people say that they end up spending the whole day in court?

Or am I missing something?

Because there is no guaranteed order that the cases will be called for trial, so somebody's going to be there until the end of the day.

Thanks.

So there's no risk of them calling me before 2pm, right?

When do they end the day, around 4pm?

Regards.

I can't say whether they may be ready for you before 2pm, but I don't think it can be held against you if your scheduled time is 2pm and they're ready for you early but you're not there.

Court usually goes until finished, which is about 5 or 5:30 at the latest.

diehard wrote:

Thanks.

So there's no risk of them calling me before 2pm, right?

When do they end the day, around 4pm?

Regards.

You won't get screwed if they call early. You were told 2 so 2 or later it should be.

And I have not seen any cases called early, but I have not had that many tickets....

I'm not sure about other court houses... but the Markham Road one:

When you are scheduled to go in at 2:00. If you go early, you'll have to wait outside with everybody else that is scheduled for 2:00. Once it's around 1:55/2ish... the prosecutor will announce something like "Everybody waiting for court E2 please enter now". Then you all line up and talk to the prosecutor... (s)he'll give you a plea if you accept or not... then they will tell you to sit down. You wait till you're called up.

If you're accepting a plea, you'll be called first and done by 2:30. If your cop doesn't show, then you'll be done by 2:45... If you ask for a trial, it depends if you're the only one opting for a trial -

Last time, there was another person who opted for a trial (against the same officer as me). Her trial ended at 4:00... when I was called up - they said they ran out of time... **(Pissed me off because I didn't know how long I would be at the court for, so I paid till 6PM -- 2 extra hours), and I had to be postponed. I asked for the earliest date... they gave me a date that was 15 months after the alleged incident. I tried to inform the Justice that that will violate my rights and ether pick an earlier date or withdraw the charges. He still adjourned, charged the delay against the crown, and told me that if I feel that the date violated my rights, to file a proper charter motion. I filed a 4f and went to the 2nd trial date.

1:00PM... Cop didn't show - didn't even get to see if my charter motion through... Paid for parking till 3:00

***(City technically won. Although I don't have a conviction on my records, I paid a little under $20 for parking [file for court date, pickup disclosure, court, file form 4f, 2nd court]

but I stayed to see other people and same thing happened to a paralegal representing some other guy... 2:40ish, the prosecutor said that they ran out of time and have to adjourn.

So long story, but the point is - I think they are only scheduled for 2 hour windows.