HOW TO APPEAL A TRAFFIC TICKET IN ONTARIO

A question I’m going to answer for you today is how to appeal a traffic ticket in Ontario. Before I get into the nitty gritty of answering that particular question for you, I think we have to think about this in another way, which is how did you get convicted of this particular ticket in the first place?

So, We know there’s two ways of, of getting a ticket. One could be a ticket where there’s a fine on it, and the other could be a summons to court. What could have happened, for whatever reason, you’ve either misplaced the ticket, you forgot, or you ignored, you didn’t show up, and you’ve been convicted by the court without you even being there.

The other particular way would be you’ve gone to court, you’ve done your trial, and the judge has found you guilty. Now, depending on how we get to the position that we’re in, which is how to appeal a traffic ticket in Ontario, we now move to the, how are we gonna deal with this? How do we file an appeal in Ontario?

Well, if there’s a traffic ticket, the one with a fine on it, and for whatever reason the court has made a mistake or we have made a mistake, the first step in appealing that traffic ticket is to consider whether or not the ticket can be reopened, if it can be reopened. It’s a relatively simple and cost effective process that OTD Legal can help you with in order to get that ticket back on the rails, get it off of your record and get it in a position where we can either get rid of that ticket or have that ticket reduced to something that does not hurt you. That’s step one. When the ticket is a summons, a summons is simply command that you be in court. There’ll be no fine on it, and in those types of situations we most certainly have to do an appeal.

An appeal is a relatively complicated process. We can do it, it does take some time. We have been quite successful at dealing with that type of thing, but it does require a heightened knowledge of how the system works. How to file a motion, how to get it before the court, how to get it to the right court in order to get you the success that you need.

The oddity about appealing a ticket in Ontario is what a judge is looking at, is not what we traditionally think of as guilt and innocence. They are looking more at how did you end up getting convicted? Why was it ignored? Who made the mistake? And if we don’t allow this appeal to go through, does it affect the rights of the person who was originally charged?

The defense itself on an appeal comes after the appeal is taking place. So once a judge has decided that yes, the merits of this case ought to be before the court, the defendant ought to have his say about what happened, because there may be merit to that defense that is decided at some other time.