PARKING TICKET PROCESS
1) Once you get that yellow ticket on your windshield (For example $30 ticket), you have exactly 15 days to pay the ticket or go to court.
2) Once the ticket has passed 15 days you will be sent a "Notice of IMPENDING Conviction and the cost of the ticket is still the same ($30). Once you receive that you will have another 15 days to pay the ticket or send it for court.
3) Once the due date has been reached you will then receive a Notice of FINE and DUE DATE which means you have been convicted and it is too late to send to court. At this time they charge you an additional $16 in court fees (Eg. the $30 ticket is now $46). You will now have an additional 30 days to pay for the ticket.
a) If you still want to take it to court you have to go see a JP(Justice of the Peace) to reopen the case, in which he may or may not grant a reopening.4) If you ignore that notice and do not pay for your ticket after you have been convicted and after the 30 days, the ticket is then forward to the MTO(Ministry of Transportation) in which they add their charge of $20 (eg. The $30 ticket -> $46-> $66 that is due) When is sent to the ministry you have three options
a) go to the ministry and pay the fine off as soon as you can.
b) don't pay the fine until you need to get your sticker renewed as the ticket will not increase any more
c) go to the parking office, request a print out($1/ticket) and then see the JP and request a reopening, which he may or may not grant
5) When it is forwarded to the ministry, it will stay there until you need a sticker renewal for your car, at that time the ministry will ask for any outstanding parking tickets. If for whatever reason you do not need the sticker renewed, after about 2 years it eventually gets forwarded to collections.
www.FileTickets.com
USE; www.FileTickets.com to process your parking ticket court dates.
COURT
To file a court date you have to appear in person to any of the Parking Tag Offices. Grab court document and fill out the former with the owners information. If you don't own the car but got the ticket you still have to put the owners information on top and put your name as the agent at the bottom. Not matter what they will get the notice for court.
When filling out the form, the question relating whether you want to challenge the officer's evidence, you should check yes , unless you are pleading guilty. It does not hurt for him to be there, but it may hurt if hes not there as if you challenge his word with a judge and you requested him to not be there then you will lose your case. If you check yes it is always better as if the officer does not show up you automatically win the case.
Court dates take anywhere between 6-8 months on average to recieve a court date. I have seen it where people have been waiting for more then 2 years, its just a process, but rest assured its not going away you will evenutally get your court date.
Make sure that if you move address after you set the court date to return to the office and change your address as it will not automatically update and you could potentially miss a court date.
Once you have set a court date you have up until the day before your trial to return to the office and pay off the ticket without going to court.
If you missed your court date, then you will be convicted and charged an additional $12.75 on top of your ticket.
If you cannot attend your court then you have upto 10 business days prior to the date to go to the office and file a motion to change the date.
If you cannot attend your court then you can send any representative over the age of 16 to attend for you.
There is ONLY DAY COURT there is NO night court.
SOME FACTS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
FACT: DON'T ignore parking tickets cause they will never go away, they will catch up to you eventually and usually a high price to pay.
FACT: Parking tickets NEVER affect your insurance
FACT: IF the officer issues you the ticket and doesn't put it on your windshield, because you drove away, you are still going to get the ticket, it will be sent as a Notice of Impending Conviction, unless the officer decides to cancel it.
FACT: Only a judge can reduce parking tickets, not the parking tag staff.
FACT: Parking tickets can only be cancelled for valid reasons listed in the Cancellation section of this post. No matter how much you think you are innocent, the parking staff cannot cancel your ticket only a judge.
VALID REASON TO CANCEL A TICKET AT PARKING OFFICE
These reasons can be used to cancel tickets at the parking office, if the reason is not listed then it cannot be cancelled at the office, GO TO COURT.
1) The MAKE of your vehicle is incorrect. For example, it says you own a NISSAN, but really you own an INFINITI . Bring your valid ownership to the parking office and they will cancel it for you.
2) Missing Information. If there is any missing information such as PRICE, OFFENCE, OFFICER ID, OFFICER SIGNATURE, then the ticket can be cancelled.
3) HANDICAP sign. If you own a handicap sign you are exempt from certain situations not ALL. You are not exempt from NO PARKING/ NO STOPPING zones, LOADING ZONE. If anyone other then yourself was driving the car without you present.
4) The sticker EXPIRATION DATE stated on the ticket is incorrect, the ticket can be cancelled, bring valid ownership.
5) If you have a GREENP Parking Receipt, valid for the time you received the ticket, your ticket states the following offence then your ticket can be cancelled.
a.FAIL TO DISPLAY RECIEPTIf it is any other offence the ticket will NOT be cancelled under any circumstance. For example, NO PARKING/STAND SIGNED PROHIBTED TIMES AND DAY is not a valid cancellation.
b.FAIL TO DEPOSIT FEE IN THE MACHINE
GENERAL CONSENSUS WITH PARKING TICKETS
Tickets for $15 under no circumstance should be sent to court. It is an utter waste of time, because the judge will laugh and make you pay the $15 anyways, plus you waste your own time, your wages, parking cost. Not worth it at all.
USE; www.FileTickets.com
In my opinion tickets OVER $60 should be sent to court, anything else is simply not worth it as the judge will doc maybe doc half of the ticket off and the cost of fighting the ticket is not worth it.
PARKING LONGER THAN 3 HOURS - OFFENSE EXPLANATION
This is a $15 ticket that is commonly issued and people have a hard time understanding the meaning of it.
In the CITY OF TORONTO, there is an UNSIGNED (Means no sign) BY LAW that states no vehicle can be parked longer then 3 HOURS on any City of Toronto street.
Parking Enforcement does not go looking around neighbourhoods to give these $15 tickets out, they have better fish to catch, they only issue tickets when SOMEONE complains that there are too many cars on the street.
CONCLUSION
I hope the above information is helpful and provides a base understanding for people with parking tickets. Because of the large amounts of issues that can arise I cannot list them here as this post is already long enough
www.FileTickets.com
USE; www.FileTickets.com to process your parking ticket court dates.
USE; www.FileTickets.com to process your parking ticket court dates.
