First Ticket, Need advice.

[Thunder Fox]

if the OPP officer doesn't show up does that mean I'm off the hook and I just leave the court and don't pay? or will they at least lower the ticket?

Cheers,

yes and no, I've been a court (small court in Woodstock close to London) and see others cases, that judge won't discharge when cop didn't show up, even the defendant takes a day off from work and needs to drive 1-2 hrs to there, excuse is "cop is human and will get sick too, if defendant is sick I'll delay for him/her too"
so all of them reschedule another date for court again

may be a big city is too busy to delay and will discharge, may be
or depends on judge?

lower ticket? yes, talk to the prosecutor before trial pled guilty and will get lower points and fines usually, but still a record on your insurance no matter how low or no points

[FiReSTaRT]

Again with the misinformation.. Here are a few facts...

1) EVERY ticket is a conviction. Yours sounds like a minor and in most cases won't affect your insurance (much or at all), but if you get another one in the next 3 years, then you're gettin' it up the rectum without vaseline. By the way, it doesn't matter whether it's 1 over or 40 over, the insurance industry treats them the same. Unless this ticket will bring your demerit total up to 9 (in which case you'd need to go to an interview and explain why they shouldn't suspend your licence), getting convicted won't be any worse on you than getting a plea bargain.

2) If it's in the GTA, just call Redline (charged.ca) and they will give you the best chance of getting the ticket tossed out in the $500 ballpark. Even for a $40 ticket, I'd still consider it a good deal just for keeping your record clean

3) You can also dispute the charges yourself. You have just under 2 weeks to go to court with the ticket and fill out the form (make sure you select the box that says that you DO wish to challenge the constable's testimony and watch out, I think the wording is a bit misleading there, so read carefully). Read the sticky and also checked out ticketcombat.com site. It's an excellent resource and helped me a lot in preparing a couple of defences.

4) Contrary to the example of the piss-poor JP in Woodstock, they routinely throw out the ticket if the officer is not there because the Crown doesn't have a prima facie case against you. If convicted, the conviction can be successfully appealed

5) You have other outs, such as lack of disclosure and 11b (if your case takes too long to go to trial) and all of that is before challenging the constable's testimony against you.

I get ticketed about once a year and since I routinely started disputing all of my charges 10 years ago, I've only been convicted once. Insurance companies love my record

[Metastable]

What Firestart said!

Except you say you have little experience, then if this happened around the Toronto area, contact RedLine... and specifically tell them you want to FIGHT your ticket. Look if you just want a 15 over plea, you do that yourself, there is no need for RedLine and then you don't have any points. However, this wouldn't do anything to help you in terms of insurance unless you are about to get your licence suspended.

Also, even if you plan to take a plea... play it right, because you might still get off completely. Ask for disclosure (after you get a court date) and see what the notes say. They might not send you the disclosure, in which case you can ask for the case to be dropped or for an extension, so you can prepare for it better. If given an extension, it might put you into 11b territory, and you might be able to get off on that. Or finally even if they provide you with all the right information, you can always to go court and see if the cop shows up.... if not, good chance you can get off on that. If you're a court newbie and you want to put the guy on the stand, then get RedLine to do it. Their likelihood of success will be higher than yours.

[Newblet]

Good advice guys, my next question is if I ask for disclosure will it be more likely for the cop to show up? perhaps cause he would be ****** that I asked for it?

[viccont]

Need more info, where is the court

[OpenGambit]

Good advice guys, my next question is if I ask for disclosure will it be more likely for the cop to show up? perhaps cause he would be ****** that I asked for it?

Unlikely. They schedule a bunch of tickets written by the same officer on the same day so the fact that you did or did not ask for disclosure is going to have little impact on whether he shows up or not.

[Newblet]

More info:

Mississauga court on Burnamthorp.
Also, I should mention that I was in my car, not on my bike.

[Metastable]

I don't think the cop is going to get mad at you. Even if he does, who cares.... but I doubt it.... it's just a part of the little court games that happen every day for them. Chances are you aren't the only one asking for disclosure.

BTW - there was one case where I KNEW the cop just wrote me a random ticket then he did the same thing to the next guy. I didn't think he wrote any notes. When I got the disclosure back, it was completely different pen and he was talking about speeds that he never talked about before. Obviously he had never even written any notes and then just made them up when I asked for disclosure. I got off on an 11B, so I was happy enough, but I kinda wanted to see the little liar squirming on the stand.