$60 Parking ticket - court date is 18 months after ticket was issued | GTAMotorcycle.com

$60 Parking ticket - court date is 18 months after ticket was issued

M

MarcosSantiago

Well-known member
On December 8 2011, I got a $60 parking ticket for "Stop - signed highway - prohibited (times/days)", Metro Toronto By-law #32-92.

It's so long ago that I even forgot about it. But I guess they didn't, I just got the notice of trial for June 11 2013. Now, let me say that the length of time is ridiculous. When it happened I took 2 photos and wrote down notes, now I can't find them, it's been one year and a half!!

Do I request disclosure? Maybe the officer lost his notes too :D
Do I file an 11b? Honestly, this waiting period is unreasonable.
Do I plea down the fine? I think the correct charge as per the sign should be parking ($30 ticket) but the officer maliciously used a different charge so a higher fine would apply.

Opinions? Suggestions?
 
If it was signed as a no stopping (days/times) zone, then that is the applicable charge. You comments regarding how you had forgotten about it, and don't remember key details, tends to indicate that this is precisely when 11b should apply. I would definitely request disclosure though.
 
MarcosSantiago said:
On St. Clair Ave West, just east from Dufferin
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Hmm I got 3 parking tickets from one weekend for parking somewhere near there (left bike there all weekend). I paid the first one (was left on the bike) thinking $50 wasn't bad for illegally parking for 3 days. Then 2 more showed up in the mail. I wasn't going to pay 3 tickets for the same offense. I submitted to fight two of them (would've done all 3 if I knew there were 3) and never heard from it again. I hope it doesn't pop up sometime now.
 
I had a handicap parking ticket from Sep 2011, that came back to haunt me last month. I went to court and the prosecutor reduced it from 450 to 100. I paid up.

When the prosecutor was briefing us before the session, she stated that all tickets will be reduced to a third of the set fine if you plead guilty. So you're looking at a 20$ fine. on top of that my officer was the only officer that was in court, so majority of the ppl had it withdrawn.

oh also, i thought my 18 months prompted for an 11b, when i showed up everyone in the court room had gotten their tickets in september of 2011, so they all had been waiting 18 months. Which would mean for parking offences 18 months is the city's normal wait time right now.

Hope this helps.

by the way, when i had my trial, the judge accidentally withdrew my charge and then took the verdict back, not to hijack this thread, but does anyone know if the judge can just take back his verdict just like that? lol. it went something like:

*My name is called, prosecutor advised him of my plea*
*judge misheard and thought officer not here, he says "withdrawn"*
*prosecutor is startled, she says "it's a guilty plea" *
* judge apologizes to her and continues as normal for a guilty plea*
 
hamaad89 said:
I had a handicap parking ticket from Sep 2011, that came back to haunt me last month. I went to court and the prosecutor reduced it from 450 to 100. I paid up.

When the prosecutor was briefing us before the session, she stated that all tickets will be reduced to a third of the set fine if you plead guilty. So you're looking at a 20$ fine. on top of that my officer was the only officer that was in court, so majority of the ppl had it withdrawn.

oh also, i thought my 18 months prompted for an 11b, when i showed up everyone in the court room had gotten their tickets in september of 2011, so they all had been waiting 18 months. Which would mean for parking offences 18 months is the city's normal wait time right now.

Hope this helps.

by the way, when i had my trial, the judge accidentally withdrew my charge and then took the verdict back, not to hijack this thread, but does anyone know if the judge can just take back his verdict just like that? lol. it went something like:

*My name is called, prosecutor advised him of my plea*
*judge misheard and thought officer not here, he says "withdrawn"*
*prosecutor is startled, she says "it's a guilty plea" *
* judge apologizes to her and continues as normal for a guilty plea*
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I don't know what you mean when you say "i thought my 18 months prompted for an 11b". An 11b argument is not automatic. There are steps required such as filing a motion before the trial.

The city's "normal weight time" doesn't matter. It doesn't justify a violation of your rights.

To the OP:
Definitely request disclosure. If you don't get it in May, request it again. You can decide whether you should file an 11b motion around 3 weeks before the trial.
 
BubbaL00 said:
I don't know what you mean when you say "i thought my 18 months prompted for an 11b". An 11b argument is not automatic. There are steps required such as filing a motion before the trial.

The city's "normal weight time" doesn't matter. It doesn't justify a violation of your rights.
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I was saying I thought my 18 months delay was long enough to prompt me to file an 11b. I had requested a disclosure and never got it, decided to go to trial and have it adjourned for lack of disclosure and then file an 11b 3 weeks before the new date. but Prosecutor said she'd reduce it to 100 if i plead guilty so I took it given i didn't think it was worth requesting the disclosure again, taking off work to go pick it up (they don't mail it) and then show up to trial again and argue for an 11b.

you're right, city's backlog doesn't justify the violation of your rights so an 11b can be successful (my bad). OP can decide between paying 20$ and going home quick time, or prepare his presentation of 11b, wait to the end of the session and take the stand to present his arguments .

The prosecutor had advised us that if we choose to go to trial and loose, the set fine can be increased, not sure how that works or if she was bluffing us.

OP, if you decide to do an 11b, please do update us, I'd like to know how it worked out in case I need to go that route in future.
 
hamaad89 said:
I had a handicap parking ticket from Sep 2011, that came back to haunt me last month. I went to court and the prosecutor reduced it from 450 to 100. I paid up.
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you were lucky. I hear the courts dont like the handicap parkers and its hard to win those.
 
Today I went to court for this ticket.

I decided to plead it down. It was at Toronto West Court Office (York Civic Centre 2700 Eglinton Avenue West).

Complete circus. There are 55 tickets per session according to the dockets that I saw. The room is packed.

The usual stuff - my $60 ticket is reduced to $20. Handicap tickets are reduced to $125. Fire route are reduced to $80.

But it depends on the "explanation". If you have a good explanation is even less. A $60 ticket is reduced to $13 - why $13? Is that the JP's lucky number? It boggles my mind, but anyway... Another $60 fine is reduced to zero with a really good explanation (person pleads guilty, ticket in front of church on a Sunday, JP suspends sentence). A girl with TWO handicap tickets the same day ($450 each, $900 total) pleads one down to $125, and the judge instructs her to go to 50 Yonge St. (??) to see if the two tickets can be consolidated into one? Something like that... I thought that paying 125 instead of 900 sounded like a good deal.

Some additional info:

First thing, even before the doors open, the prosecutor asks each person for a guilty-not guilty plea. He demands one... and most people say that they have an excuse, which lead them to "guilty with an explanation". But once that they committed to a guilty plea, they will be convicted, even if the parking officer does not show up later on. Hold on your ground!!! Wait until the parking enforcement officers show up. Obviously this is hard because usually you do not know his face. I did not plea, and when the first officer shows up, I went to him and asked him "officer, can I ask you a question..." He looked at his papers and said "I didn't write your ticket". Next officer shows up, I do the same, the guy says "yes, I wrote your ticket", at that point I argued with him about the lack of signs but he just keeps saying "signs are there, signs are there"... and I do not have the photos to show him.

Only one person won (the prosecutor did not proceed against her), everybody else pleaded for a reduced fine. Guess who won? The only person who showed up with photos. Let's take a hint from that.
 
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Dude it ain't about right and wrong. It's revenue generating. They bank that some shmuck will get a ticket and them not pay it in time. Boom full pop. Then they bank that people will pay it in time cuz they don't want to waste their time fighting it. Then there are people who will plead to a lesser fine just so they don't have to go to trial. Pure BS.
 
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