I am referring to the piece of paper colored green, yellow or the 2-page-same-side letter size a police hands you after you are caught by them violating a section/s of the Highway Traffic Act or the Toronto Municipal Code. It is called Form 4, Provincial Offences Act, Ontario Court of Justice. I refer these pieces of paper as tickets being sold to generate cash for the bureaucrats and the police. To add insult to injury, the bureaucrat calls them the Offence Notice. In essence, you are given the chance/option to fight this in court.
With all the sections in the Highway Traffic Act, the chances of violating at least one of them when driving over a two mile distance is 100 per cent certainty. One day a driver maybe driving at the right street at the wrong time at the sight of a boy in blue sitting nowhere. All of a sudden a white car is following behind with his flashing light, the boy in blue comes to you and say “can I see you driver’s license, your car ownership card and your insurance slip?” My advice to my own children in a situation like this is just to abide to the demand and never say a word. At the end of the day, this subtlety works in your favor.
Fight the ticket. Always exercise Option 2 – Early Resolution. If the prosecutor failed to dismiss the case, exercise Option 3 – Trial Option. Never exercise Option 1 – Plea of Guilty.
Hire a paralegal to represent you in court. Better if you know him well, like someone who is a friend or a relative. They are the expert on traffic violation issues, probably, better than the lawyers. Most of them know the prosecutors and the judges. Last year, I had four (4) traffic offence notices of different infractions and were all dismissed as a result of the ability of my paralegals to do so. One offence was a very serious one – careless driving. Never did I attend to any of the hearings of these cases. I don’t know how they did it.
A paralegal’s compensation is worth giving. Traffic convictions can cost you a lot of money. Three lines on your driver’s abstract drives insurance premium 25% higher the next renewal. Careless driving conviction increase insurance premium 100% the next 4 renewals or more.
Drive carefully.