Disobey Sign need help | GTAMotorcycle.com

Disobey Sign need help

Sig_Girl

Well-known member
For those of you from Scarborough, I got a disobey sign ticket yesterday for turning left onto the hill on military road. I didn't notice the sign saying no left from 4pm-6pm.

I got my ticket at 5:50 pm.

My insurance is already high enough being a 23 year old new rider. I pay $3400 for 1 year with my 2012 CBR250

I need a recommendation or a service that will fight my ticket and get it dropped. I can do a penalty reduction my self by going to court. I need this ticket gone.

Also got dinged with a fail to surrender insurance ticket, but I was told I can see a JP with my valid insurance and I can get it dropped.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
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Nobody can guarantee you that your two tickets will get dropped. Disobey Sign & Fail to provide Insurance card are arguably some of the easiest tickets to prosecute for the crown. Both are "Absolute Liability Offence" tickets which means you can not use a due diligence defence (ie. i didn't see)... unless the sign was snow-covered.

The JP will not drop the insurance card ticket if you bring a valid one to trial. You're being charged for not providing the officer a valid insurance card at the material time he requested for it.

Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act

Operator to carry insurance card
3. (1) An operator of a motor vehicle on a highway shall have in the motor vehicle at all times,
(a) an insurance card for the motor vehicle; or
(b) an insurance card evidencing that the operator is insured under a contract of automobile insurance,
and the operator shall surrender the insurance card for reasonable inspection upon the demand of a police officer. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.25, s. 3 (1).

However, the prosecutor will most likely drop the insurance card for a guilty plea to a reduced disobey sign ticket.

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Before blindly paying ~$300 to a ticket service, try some things yourself: file the ticket for trial, when you receive your notice of trial then request disclosure, assess the officer's notes; if you find problems with it, then gauge your options.

Was this a handwritten ticket or a printed one? Did you make sure there are no problems on the face of the tickets? Some things that will get the ticket dropped:
  • Defendant name missing (misspelled name does not invalidate the ticket)
  • Missing offence or an offence not known to law (subsection missing or totally wrong)
  • Missing date
  • Missing offence location
  • Missing officer signature
  • Incorrect set fine and/or total payable.
  • Missing name of municipality
 
You are not the only party who needs to obey the law. Ontario has to obey the law too, and sometimes it does not. For instance, there are rules saying how high a sign needs to be. Just like you, I turned left where a sign says NO LEFT TURN between 4:00 and 6:00 PM.

When the charge came to trial, I asked the cop two questions:
"Did you measure the height of the sign prohibiting the turn?" The answer was "No".
"So can you tell us how high the sign was above the pavement?" The answer was "No".

I said I had no further questions, and was sworn in so I could testify.
I reported that I had not seen the sign before committing to the turn.
I said the sign, black on white, was presented against the background of a chain link fence, and blended in very well with the fence, so it was very easy to miss.
I said I brought a tape measure to the site and measured the height of the sign.
I said the bottom edge of the sign was about five feet one inch above the pavement.
I pointed out that HTA required the bottom edge of the sign to be more than 6 feet above the road.
I requested the charge be dismissed, because the sign was not a valid device within HTA rules.

The magistrate hemmed and hawed, and said the figures in HTA were only guidelines (BULLS***) and then he quizzed me about the terrain near the corner (I supposed he knew the territory). I satisfied him that I had studied the terrain well enough to be telling the truth, and then ...

and then ...

he dismissed the charge.

You can tell from my use of "feet" that this happened a while ago. It was 1968.

Now you can do the very same as I did, and you can be just as honest as I was, if you like. Understand, I was testifying in December about observations that only I made, back in October, so there was no way anyone could pipe up and contradict the measurements I reported.

Attend just one session in traffic court, and you will promptly learn that cops frequently lie in the stand, because they know which lies cannot be effectively contradicted. If Law Enforcement uses lies to achieve their ends, I feel no more bound by the truth than they are ... but by damn I am careful about that!

Good luck, however you proceed.
 

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