January 2016

Limitation periods are tricky. As lawyers, one of the first things we are taught is to pay close attention to limitation periods, because when you miss them the consequences can be devastating. And there are various limitation periods for various issues, so keeping track of them can be hard.

For traffic tickets, you have 30 days from the date you are served with the ticket to dispute it. If you’re served the ticket after the offence, this means from the date the officer issues the ticket, not the date of the driving incident. Remember too that traffic tickets are different from Immediate Roadside Prohibitions, 24-Hour Driving Prohibitions, or Administrative Driving Prohibitions, which have different time periods for dispute.

But what happens when you miss the time to dispute your traffic ticket? This blog post attempts to explain what to do in that situation.

A recent article by News1130 suggested that drunk driving numbers are falling in Vancouver. The article cites statistics provided by the Vancouver Police Department spokesperson, Brian Montague to show that in 2013, 1317 IRPs were issued to drivers. In 2014, the number fell to 1100 in 2014, and by 2015 it was down to 1030.

At first blush the numbers appear to show a general decline in drunk driving in Vancouver, but these numbers do not tell the full story.

I receive a number of calls from clients who have been involved in accidents, or who have fled from police and who are later given a ticket by the police. It is not uncommon for officers to show up on someone’s doorstep and serve them with a traffic ticket for something that happened days, weeks, or even months earlier. Most of these clients have questions about disputing these tickets, and questions about whether the police are entitled to serve a ticket after the fact, or for something they did not observe.

This blog post attempts to answer those questions.