Fighting handicapped parking ticket of $450

Hello all, yesterday I received a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot outside of school. I was done classes and had to load up my van with some very heavy and awkward items for transport. I had been parked in the garage across the street for the duration of my classes and decided to bring the van around to the front of the school to quickly load it up. There were no available spots that I could see on the street ( the school does not have a designated student parking lot or loading zone) so I pulled into an empty spot that was not marked on the pavement by a square bracket as a parking spot. I put my four-ways on and ran inside to grab the items to be loaded. I was gone for about 30-40 seconds and when I returned, items in tow (and over encumbered), I discovered an officer issuing me a ticket. The time on the ticket and the time on the punch out receipt form, the parking garage are literally a minute apart which I documented. I explained the situation to the officer, that I was a student at the school and had some very heavy items to load without any assistance (on of them weighs 89lbs). He assured me that it did not matter and I was getting a ticket as I had parked the wrong way in a handicapped loading zone. Because I approached the spot from the wrong direction I did not see the signage (it is turned into the lane facing the other way), and frankly I have very little experience driving in heavily developed areas like Toronto. I live in a rural area, and have been for the entire time I have been driving. I was unaware that parking direction on the street was even governed law (I will not soon forget). Anyways, as a student $450 is a massive deal. Given the amount of time I was in the spot and the circumstances (it was dusk) etc... this seems quite severe. There is no question that I am going to fight the ticket. As far as reduction what do you guys/gals think I can expect?

Toronto courts are backed up so there is a good chance that if you plead not guilty and ask for a trial, the trial will be more than a year away and you can then apply for it to be dropped on charter violation grounds of right to a speedy trial.

I got one of these last year April, and my court date is next month, so I don't know how backlogged they actually are. None the less, request disclosure, and hopefully they won't have it ready for your case (the situation which I'm in right now). That way, you'll be able to get an adjournment and that helps your case even more for an 11B.

I agree with the the others, file for court and request disclosure. At the very least you won't have to pay it until the trial process is complete, which will likely be many months down the road. If nothing else this will give you some time to save up the money in case you lose and wined up having to pay. Also you should be able to ask the justice of the peace for extra time to pay if it comes to that. There is of course also the chance that they won't be able to schedule your trial with in the legally mandated one year, in which case you can have the ticket dropped. Also the officer may be a no show or you may be able to find some other defence once we see what the officer's notes say, when you get disclosure.

Alright, thanks for advice! I will pop by the office tomorrow and let them know I am pleading not guilty and will also request disclosure. Hopefully the case gets tossed, even if it doesn't I don't mind paying some amount for this offense. $450 is out of the question though, it's too bad the issuing officer couldn't have been more understanding of the situation.

You said this was in front of a school, if it is something like York university, they have their own parking enforcement officers, to which they can not enforce the parking ticket unlike regular Toronto parking enforcement officers.

The catch is, if the plates are registered to you, then they know who you are and they can withhold you from graduating until you play up.

You might want to investigate that part also.

Awesome, I will ask as the desk today if the school looks after the street or not. I have a feeling they are not in charge of it though and it falls under the city's jurisdiction. The car is not registered to me but it clearly says on the back of the ticket that my drivers license would not be renewed etc if I do not pay.

Can you scan and post the ticket with personal and officer info blanked out?

I can, although I just inquired at the from security desk and they said it is in fact the city that takes care of the street. I just took some more scene photos to document the angle of the sign. I'll be taking some more at the time the ticket was issued after I am out of classes today. It's funny, in google street view and in my shots there is a car standing in the spot I was in with no permit, the only difference is there is an individual in the vehicle in both cases, also facing the other way. I also managed to grab a picture of a handicapped ttc transport shuttle pulled over maybe 20 meters up the street, presumably letting a passenger off while the car without the permit was in the spot. Would you still like a ticket scan, or was that just to see if it was a non-government party that issued the ticket?

Here is the ticket and receipt stub form the garage for time reference.

Thanks again!

It clearly says CITY OF TORONTO on it so it is not from the University.

Use the Option 2 to Plead not guilty and request a trial and then request disclosure and go from there. Make a copy of both sides of ticket to keep before you go request the trial.

As a side question to others reading this thread, is it City of Toronto POLICE that issue by-law offences like this, or does Toronto have seperate by-law officers?

"It clearly says CITY OF TORONTO on it so it is not from the University."

Also this lol. Will do, thanks for the advice everyone!

P.s. I believe it is a unit of the Toronto police that takes care of this, however I did not see the car and was in quite the rush as you may imagine.

jsherk wrote:

As a side question to others reading this thread, is it City of Toronto POLICE that issue by-law offences like this, or does Toronto have seperate by-law officers?

Toronto has a separate Parking Enforcement Unit that issues parking tickets. This unit is managed by the Toronto police, but the parking enforcement officers themselves are not police officers, they are unarmed bylaw officers who only have the power to issue parking tickets.