Hello,

I was pulled over tonight on a road with a posted speed limit of 70KM/h. Apparently I was doing 29KM/h over, which was honestly a surprise to me. He reduced it to 15KM/h after explaining to me that I won't loose any demit points with this ticket. He also said that I have the right to fight it, but they might increase the ticket to 29KM/h over.

Note, my driving record is clean for the past 3 years and I work for a transit company, so I'm an essential worker.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I guess my hope would be for a delay or officer doesn't show so I could keep my clean record. If it does get to trail and the officer is there, can I agree to the charge (15 over) at the court house?

Yes. When you get there, the prosecutor will ask you how you intend to proceed. You can then plead guilty to the speed of 85. That will be your last chance to do so. If you plead not guilty, the first thing the prosecutor will do when the trial starts is amend the charge to 99.

Zatota wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:03 pm

Yes. When you get there, the prosecutor will ask you how you intend to proceed. You can then plead guilty to the speed of 85. That will be your last chance to do so. If you plead not guilty, the first thing the prosecutor will do when the trial starts is amend the charge to 99.

Also, would they tell me or can I ask if the officer is there before hand?

They don't have to tell you. It's also common that the officer may not even be there in the courtroom until they're needed (eg. someone requests to move forward with a trial.)

Trials are scheduled in blocks in built up areas. They may have 30 people scheduled into that block. Those who wish to accept a plea deal or just plead guilty will be dealt with first. Those who want a trial (usually one or two individuals) will sit around and wait until everyone is done.

It's a lengthy process and a lot of officers wont sit around waiting while they're not needed.

August2018 wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 10:08 pm

Zatota wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:03 pm

Yes. When you get there, the prosecutor will ask you how you intend to proceed. You can then plead guilty to the speed of 85. That will be your last chance to do so. If you plead not guilty, the first thing the prosecutor will do when the trial starts is amend the charge to 99.

Also, would they tell me or can I ask if the officer is there before hand?

First question you should ask the crown is "is my officer here or not", and they have to answer you, even if the officer shows up you may still strike a deal with the crown to save time for the court, if the crown whats to up the charge he or she has to go to the trail with you and that's not worth their time. So basically, worst case scenario is you wasted half of a day and best out come is you go home free.

As Bend and Zatota indicated, you will have to let the prosecutor know whether you are pleading guilty or going to trial. If you are pleading guilty, they will call your matter up before the trials. If you say you want to go to trial, they will then call in the officer when they are ready to do your trial. Officers do not all show up in the morning anymore; they are called in on a needed basis.

So, you need to make up your mind BEFORE going in to court. If you decide that you want to play games by telling them first thing in the morning that you want a trial, thereby making them call in the officer, and then think you can simply plead guilty when the officer shows up, you may be in for a surprise. You see, before you are arraigned (i.e. plead), the prosecutor will notify the court that they plan to amend up the speed. The JP will know that you asked for a trial when you spoke with the prosecutor that morning, so they may not be willing to accept your guilty plea to the charge as is since you've waste time and forced them to call in the officer. The JP sometimes will say lets run the trial since the officer is here anyway! At that point, the trial is run and the amended speed rate could be accepted by the court.

I went to the Whitby Court House today to go ahead with the trial option, but was denied entry. However, there was a security guard outside informing everyone what to do. I told him what I was there for and he handed me a form to fill out. After completion, I slipped it as well as the ticket into a slot. Hopefully it gets into the correct hands!

Thanks everyone.