Hi,

I had an collision the other day. I was turing left and ran into a car going straight in the opposite direction. The insurance company has already determined that I'm at fault, since I made the left turn. But I'm wondering whether I should go on trail and at least I might get rid of the ticket. The ticket was under 142(1)

I was told that if I go on court, both the guy I hit and the officer who issued the ticket should be there. If either of them failed to attend, the case will be dismissed, and the chance of both parties showing up is pretty low.

I just want a second opinion. Is this true? I'm not sure if I can defend myself if the case is not dismissed. And if I lose in the trail, will the fine be increased?

I wouldn't mind plea guilty, but since I only have a G2, I'd prefer not to get the 2 points.

Any help is appreciated.

You have nothing to lose other than time by going to trial. The odds of the driver not showing are much greater than the officer not showing. Even if they are both present, you might not have received disclosure yet and can easily ask for an adjournment to review the disclosure, giving you another shot at the witness being a no-show. So I might be inclined to not ask for disclosure until the first appearance at trial.

ynotp wrote:You have nothing to lose other than time by going to trial. The odds of the driver not showing are much greater than the officer not showing. Even if they are both present, you might not have received disclosure yet and can easily ask for an adjournment to review the disclosure, giving you another shot at the witness being a no-show. So I might be inclined to not ask for disclosure until the first appearance at trial.

Thank you for your response.

But I also see some people saying that if you don't ask for disclosure in advance, the court will think it's your fault that you didn't get the disclosure, not theirs. And by asking for disclosure you are showing your initiative so that any delay will be their problem?

The delay would be attributed to you so it will count against you as far as an 11b will go. I wouldn't volunteer the fact that you were aware that you could request disclosure before the trial.

If you dot ask for disclosure, the JP may also decide against an adjournment and have the trial go ahead that day.

ynotp wrote:The delay would be attributed to you so it will count against you as far as an 11b will go. I wouldn't volunteer the fact that you were aware that you could request disclosure before the trial.

Decatur wrote:If you dot ask for disclosure, the JP may also decide against an adjournment and have the trial go ahead that day.

Guys, thank you for the advice. I guess I'll ask for disclosure just in case. So what's a proper time to ask? 8-10 weeks before the trail?

And one more question, I believe the prosecutor will try to offer me a deal before the trail. Will I be able to know if the driver & officer are there before I decide to take the deal? I think if I see them around I'd better take it and run away.

An honest prosecutor will tell you whether or not their witnesses are there. Some prosecutors though, may not tell you, and will try to convince you to take the deal.

You can also ask them directly if their witnesses are if they do not say anything specific about it, but they may or may not tell you. And they do not have to tell you.

If the prosecutor won't tell you, the only other way to find out if a witness is not there, is to NOT take the deal and say you want your trial. When the trial starts they will call you up and the prosecutor has to tell the JP whether they are ready to proceed or not.

If they say they are ready to proceed then this means that all their witnesses are there the trial will start. You can not take the plea deal they offered earlier at this stage.

If they say they are not ready to proceed then that probably means that one of their witnesses is not there. They will do one of two things: (1) they will ask for the charge to be dropped, or (2) they will ask for another trial date so they can try to get their witnesses here for the next trial. If they try option (2) you should object as this is the day you were scheduled for trial and it is costing you money to be here and it will cost you even more if you have to take another day off work and come back again. The JP may agree with you and dismiss the charge or may agree with the prosecutor and set another trial date.

jsherk wrote:An honest prosecutor will tell you whether or not their witnesses are there. Some prosecutors though, may not tell you, and will try to convince you to take the deal.

You can also ask them directly if their witnesses are if they do not say anything specific about it, but they may or may not tell you. And they do not have to tell you.

If the prosecutor won't tell you, the only other way to find out if a witness is not there, is to NOT take the deal and say you want your trial. When the trial starts they will call you up and the prosecutor has to tell the JP whether they are ready to proceed or not.

If they say they are ready to proceed then this means that all their witnesses are there the trial will start. You can not take the plea deal they offered earlier at this stage.

If they say they are not ready to proceed then that probably means that one of their witnesses is not there. They will do one of two things: (1) they will ask for the charge to be dropped, or (2) they will ask for another trial date so they can try to get their witnesses here for the next trial. If they try option (2) you should object as this is the day you were scheduled for trial and it is costing you money to be here and it will cost you even more if you have to take another day off work and come back again. The JP may agree with you and dismiss the charge or may agree with the prosecutor and set another trial date.

Thank you so much. This is really helpful.