If your speeding ticket trial was unsuccessful, you may have grounds to ask the courts to review the decision.
Time Limits for Appeal
You have 30 days from the date of your sentence to file a legal form called a Notice of Appeal. You will need to file this at the Supreme Court nearest to where you were convicted. Be mindful of this date as court registries vary in how they accept filings and you may need to attend the court registry in person.
If you are not able to make this first deadline, you will need to ask the court for an extension of time to appeal. You will need a good explanation of why you were late in filing the Notice of Appeal. It is up to a judge to decide whether to grant the extension or not.
Your reason for appeal
It is important to note, an appeal is not another trial of your speeding ticket. If you believe there were errors that happened in court you may a ground of appeal. Generally, you are not able to introduce new evidence so you will need to rely on what happened during the trial. In order to have the appeal court cancel the lower court’s decision, you need to prove one of three things:
1. The verdict was unreasonable;
2. The judge made an error of law; or
3. There was a miscarriage of justice.
Things to consider that may have gone wrong in court could include for example, if you asked for an interpreter but were refused one before your trial, whether you feel there was a mistake in the way things were done in court that made the trial unfair or whether you feel the judicial justice misunderstood the evidence.
The court staff will also usually refer you to the court scheduling to set a time to schedule a hearing for the matter. The hearing will take place at the latest, 6 months after the court receives the Notice of Hearing.
What happens next?
Once the Notice of Appeal is filed at the Supreme Court registry closest to where you were sentenced, you will also need to request and order transcripts of the trial proceedings. The reviewing court will need this. Transcripts are the typed records of everything that was said at trial and contain the basic information you must use for your argument on appeal. There are fees associated with ordering transcripts. After you have ordered the transcripts, you will need to prove to the court registry that they are ordered. There is a 14 day-deadline of doing so.
Once you have received the transcripts, be sure to file copies at the court registry. You again have another deadline of 45-days to do so. You need to serve the Crown Counsel’s office, as they are the prosecutor in the appeal and need to have relevant documents for the appeal as well.
Closer to your appeal hearing date, you may also need to prepare a written factum to the court. For self-represented litigants this is optional but still encouraged by the courts. This factum will help you clearly explain your argument to the court and the factum should follow particular formatting and headings.
If you are uncertain about whether or not you have grounds to appeal and the process of your appeal, feel free to get in touch with one of our experienced lawyers at Acumen Law by calling 604-685-8889. We would be happy to provide you with a free initial consultation and discuss how we can assist with your traffic appeal.
