Last year, after going a decade and a half without a speeding ticket, I ended up wracking up three of them within three months. In fact two of them were the same day 20 minutes apart (one officer issued, then 20 minutes later a speed camera). Within the last month or so all three of them have been withdrawn by the Crown, basically because they have taken too long to come to trial, which is a violation of section 11(b) of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I’ve had multiple requests from others in the GTA for more details on how to fight a ticket because of delay.
But before I get into that, I need to stress that this is NOT legal advice. I am not a lawyer, nor am I able to represent you in court as a lay person. I am simply outlining what happened to work for me in my exact circumstances, by definition your circumstances are different and you may wish to enlist professional legal advice and/or representation. Also, Ontario produces a guide for self represented defendants that in my lay opinion is worth a read.
I asked for an “early’ resolution meeting for all three of my tickets, and all three of them took over a year for the Crown to schedule. I attended the meetings in person rather than taking the ZOOM option. They all took place separately, within around a month of each other, so I’ll roll up what happened since the nuances seem inconsequential.
There is apparently no leeway for the Crown to drop or reduce an Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) ticket, and I declined the offers to plead guilty to a lesser offence on the other two tickets. I asked for a trial to be scheduled, then headed to the Crown Prosecutors office to obtain disclosure. This last step is, in my opinion particularly important.
I received a summary of the officer’s written disclosure immediately, but I was told that any video evidence (dashcam, body cam, etc.) would be emailed to me separately. My lay understanding of disclosure is that it helps you understand the case against you, prepare your defence, and consider how to plead so it’s important to get; it’s also part of your Constitutional rights. Asking for disclosure at the “early” resolution meeting seems pretty reasonable to me, and keep in mind you need to actually receive it and have a reasonable time to review it before your trial.
ALL of my tickets took over 14.5 months or longer before the trial date. When I was preparing for trial using ChatGPT, the AI tool alerted me to an Ontario case that was dismissed for excessive delay after 14.5 months: R. v. Vellone, 2009 ONCJ 150 but ChatGPT also warned me that to be sucessful, I had to also file a notice with all three Crowns (City, Provincial, and Federal) 15 days before the trial date.
ChatGPT’s original letter also stated that I had not yet received full disclosure and that if it were provided to me at trial that I would require additional time to review it, and that such a delay should be attributable to the Crown. I’ve deleted that part from the letter below since again, my circumstances are not your circumstances. But here’s basically what I sent out 15 days before each trial date:
I hope this helps, and best of luck to you.
Christopher “SaabFaans” Jones