When people receive speeding tickets, because of the significant consequences attach to them, including fines, penalty points and insurance rate increases, they are often motivated to dispute them.
Unfortunately, many people dispute their speeding tickets themselves. They take on the case without hiring a lawyer, and since they don’t know what to do in a traffic ticket trial, it results in them losing the case.
People often come to us and say ‘I lost my speeding ticket trial, can I appeal?’ The answer is yes, but you have to file the appeal within 30 days of the date that you were convicted.
This is a very short window to get everything filed. To start the process, you have to file a notice of appeal in the BC Supreme Court at the criminal registry, for a Summary Conviction Appeal.
This appeal is an appeal before BC Supreme Court Justice, and once you have filed it, there are a number of steps that have to be followed in order to successfully appeal the ticket.
People who self-represent on traffic tickets, will also then try to self-represent on appeal, but this is not advisable, because in an appeal case, everything is far more complex.
After filing the notice of appeal, you must order transcripts of both the proceedings, the reasons for judgment and the sentencing. They must be filed at the registry, and proof that the transcripts were ordered must be filed at the registry within 14-days of commencing the appeal.
You will also be required to set a date for the hearing of your appeal at the time that you filed the appeal. This is important because the date that you set the hearing to take place will dictate certain timelines for the next steps.
Once you have received your transcript, you will then have to file a statement of the argument, which will basically be your reasons for the appeal. And this is also where legal advice is particularly important.
While it can be the case that people who are self-represented, making an argument in the BC Supreme Court on an appeal, is technical and legally complex.
An argument on appeal is not a new trial, you don’t tell the BC Supreme Court judge your story, and the officer does not attend, rather a representative of the Crown will defend the appeal.
On the appeal, you must demonstrate that the judge made an error of law, an error of fact or committed a mixed error of law and fact.
You also have to know what is known as the standard of review. This is the level of intervention that the BC Supreme Court judge is allowed to take into the reasons provided in traffic court.
Then there are also issues of fairness, and dealing with things like whether or not you had a fair trial, that may come up on appeal.
All of these issues are technical and complex, and sometimes even lawyers may struggle to identify the correct standard of review or the legal errors or errors of fact that may have been committed in the case.
Our office handles a significant number of these traffic ticket appeals, and we have developed a good familiarity with these complex legal concepts. Our office has succeeded in numerous appeals of speeding tickets and other appeals.
This is because we are generally capable of assessing the evidence of the officer that was led at trial, the evidence you led at trial and the reasons and behaviour of the Judicial Justice in traffic court, to make a call about whether something went wrong.
If you want to appeal your speeding ticket conviction, it is important to contact us as soon as possible so that we can get started on the process.
Unfortunately, we have dealt with numerous cases where self-represented people have put off contacting us until the process has gone off the rails. While often we are able to fix the situation, it is a lot easier if we can handle your appeal from start to finish so that we can address the important legal issues and comply with all of the rules of the court from the beginning.
If you have questions about a traffic ticket appeal, whether for a speeding ticket or not, feel free to give our office a call, we are more than happy to help.
