Hi,

I was given a ticket on May 11th, 2011...and I know that I have 15 calendar days to go to court and give my "Notice of Intent to Appear for Trial". I am, however, out of town and won't be back until May 30th. This is a gap of 19 days.

Has this happened to anyone? and do you know if the courts allow a leeway time period to account for human error and tardiness?

Please advise me. Ever since I found out, I have been terrified. This is a very silly ticket that I can easily fight, so I would like to do anything and everything possible to NOT have it stick to my record for 3 years.

Thank you!

You can try filing it when you return, however the courts may not accept it, in which case a conviction is automatically registered against you. In that case, you simply go and pay your fine, and then you'll have it on your record for 3 years. You could try to re-open the case after you get your notice of conviction, but there's no guarantee that will work. Many JPs will not allow it. (FYI - if you fail to pay the fine promptly after receiving your notice of conviction, your licence will be automatically suspended.)

If they do accept it after the 15-day period, count yourself as lucky and start going through the motions...

I thought that you really had 45 days even though the ticket says 15...A cop told me this once. I hope it's true!

45 days is a benchmark (and usually what they go by), however there is no guarantee that after 15 days the court will accept the ticket.

The 45 day benchmark (which varies form jurisdiction to jurisdiction) is the amount of days before the clerks will send that ticket to the prosecutor to put on the docket and attempt to get a s. 9.1 conviction in abstentia. Before that happens the ticket is still technically open, awaiting your reply. But since the POA says that you only have 15 days to file notice, there's no obligation on the court clerks to accept your filing notice after that 15 day period. That being said, if they were to refuse and you were convicted, you could probably have it reopened on the grounds that you were reasonably unable to get it filed in that period (if that's actually the case). Clerks usually are aware of this so they often will just accept your late filing...as long as it's within a reasonable period of time. At least that's been my experience.

and it should be cut and dry......one knows if they are going to challenge it or not ...15 days is more than plenty of time.....courts should stick with the 15 days, after that too bad

The fact that you are out of town does not help you. You could have paid your ticket online or mailed a cheque. You will be charged late fees and may be required to appear in court. Call the number on the back of the ticket to find out how much the fees due are and make the payment immediately.

Vinny wrote:

I thought that you really had 45 days even though the ticket says 15...A cop told me this once. I hope it's true!

It states 15-days directly on the back of the ticket with 3 choices: 1) Plead guilty and pay fine 2) Plead guilty with explanation (usually goes to court to reduce charge/cost) or 3) Plead not guilty and go to court.

I don't know where anyone is getting this "45-days" thing. It's 15-days.

No one is disputing what it says on the back of the ticket but, as I said, a ticket is not put into court to ask for a s. 9.1 conviction right after the 15th day.