I got a red light ticket Brampton, Queen St. E. and Laurelcrest St./ West Dr.

I did some research on this site and wish to clarify some points.

1.) No mention of whether I was going East or West bound on Queen St........................ Is this the norm?

2.) If I go to court as "not guilty" the signing officer will not be present??

3.)Is it not necessary for him to be there?

4.) Reducing the fine can only be done meeting the prosecutor at the court house.

Thanks for all your help in the past

joepenoso

1) Tickets only record the offence location, not the direction of travel.

2) The officer will not be present.

3) No. You'd have to demonstrate some reason why their evidence is necessary and then a JP can summons them. Here's the section below:

Challenge to officers evidence

205.20 (1) The provincial offences officer who used the evidence obtained through the use of a red light camera system to identify the owner or driver of the vehicle involved in the alleged offence and who issued the offence notice and certificate of offence shall not be required to give oral evidence at trial unless a summons requiring the officer to attend is issued at trial under section 39 of the Provincial Offences Act. 1998, c. 38, s. 4.

Same

(2) A provincial offences officer who certifies that a photograph was obtained through the use of a red light camera system shall not be required to give oral evidence at trial unless a summons requiring the officer to attend is issued at trial under section 39 of the Provincial Offences Act. 1998, c. 38, s. 4.

Summons

(3) No summons shall be issued to a provincial offences officer referred to in subsection (1) or (2) unless a justice is satisfied that the defendant will not be able to have a fair trial if the officer is not required to give oral evidence. 1998, c. 38, s. 4.

4) I know some jurisdictions allow plea deals by telephone, but I don't understand the process. I'm under the impression it's only allowed in extenuating circumstances (i.e. defendant lives far away from offense location).

Thanks for the insight.............no defence is possible without extenuating circumstances i.e. I was speeding up to get out of the way of a tsunami

=8-O)

Thanks

joepenoso

Red light offense is an absolute liability. Your defense will have to be "I never ran a red light and here's why...".

Technical errors that would effect your ability to defend yourself and Defence of Necessity are your last two options. So either there's an error on the offense so blatant that it makes it impossible to defend yourself against the charges, or there's a good story in the newspaper on how you avoided getting shot by going through a red light.