Ontariohighwaytrafficact.com

so i went to court

i filled out the notice of appeal form, i put speeding as the offense and when is asked for the section i put N/A

then i gave the clerk a copy of my actual ticket and payment receipt from the morning, so they can see the section is blank

she then filled out another form, and she put HTA on there and gave me a date for oct 6, 2017. Now we sit tight and wait.

I will re read this thread with all of your advice and guidance before I go, just so I hopefully can familiarize myself with some of hte case law and sections.

but i'm really hoping it will be as simple as:

the ticket does not state which act I'm being charged under so I was unable to prepare a defence

i'll keep this updated as progress is made

going to appeals court this friday.

the plan is to tell them I don't have a complete ticket as the act is not filled out. I do not work in the business, this is my first ticket and have no idea how to prepare a defense without complete information. For me to have to jump through hoops to try and figure something out on my own, that should have been correctly complete by the police officer is not fair.

so i went today...

first met with the prosecutor outside the court....who just laughed at me when i said there was a flaw, she just said to wait for the judge

got called up to court, at first the judge said it was all complete, then i showed him my copy and we all went into discussions...all the prosecutors were helping each other look for sections and court cases, while the judge was doing his own...

stood there for awhile before he called a break...

30 mins break, went back at noon....

came back with two court cases

2017 wadood (wadude?), in which it allowed the cop to make minor changes

1994 R. Whim regarding a liquir license act issue

prosecutor said i ignored the ticket, did nothing and changes are allowed

i said i didn't ignore the ticket, consulted professionals and they said the ticket should be quashed, and it is a major violation as I couldnt' prepare a defence to the matter

prosector said i could have googled speeding and 128 and I would have known

judge ultimately said, the ticket had enough information, speeding, the speeds, intersections, 128 and that i was not prejudiced.

I explained that it should be a complete document and the cop cannot make amendments unless in a court room infront of JP.

Regardless, he dismissed my appeal and now I have a conviction.

I do think teh judge put effort into it, but ultimately in R.Whim parag 12, the judge used another court case to show that the defendant had enough information when looking at the whole picture and I too did have enough information.

sucks because i know in my profession, if i was to leave out my statute from an assessment, it woudlnt even get this far and would have been thrown out regardless.

Personally I think this was the right decision. You were looking for a loophole. You weren't actually prejudiced because you knew what you were being charged with. That's the point of the process.

i agree that most human beings could figure it out....but it's the principle....the ticket should have been complete, allowing in my opinion an major part of the violation blank just means, oh here's a ticket, you can google it and find your answer.

the ticket, just you're notice of assessment, or your MPAC property assessment are standalone documents.....they all tell you the information (what you are being asseessed at) and according to which section of which act and of which act.

the whole point is that any layman could understand these documents without needing to employ a profession and navigate through the court systems and prepare defenses without jumping through loopholes.

but i was arguing the ticket was incomplete that i had no idea how many acts i would have to decipher through before finding the answer.