People think that disputing a ticket is just guilty or not guilty, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The possible outcomes when you dispute a ticket are broad.
The range of outcomes when you dispute a ticket includes anything from receiving a complete acquittal all the way up to receiving a significant sentence such as a driving prohibition, or restrictions on your driving privileges.
In most circumstances, if you dispute a ticket, you will either be found guilty or not guilty of the offence. But there are also situations in which you can be found guilty of a different offence.
This may happen if you dispute the ticket and in the course of negotiating with the police officer, you are found guilty of a lesser offence. Sometimes pleading guilty to a lesser offence may make sense, because you would receive fewer points or no points on your driving record, the fine amount may be lower, or the stigma associated with the conviction may be lesser.
There are also situations where the law allows a judicial justice after a trial to convict you of a different offence than the one for which you were charged. This is most commonly seen with speeding offences.
In speeding ticket cases, the cost of the ticket varies based on the speed at which you were travelling. For example, if you’re going one km/h over the speed limit, you’re facing a $138.00 fine. If you’re going 65 km/h over the speed limit, you’re fine would be $438.00. This is a pretty significant range in fines.
The Motor Vehicle Act permits judicial justices to enter a conviction for a lower tier or type of speeding if the speeding offence as charged is not proven. This means that if you are charged with excessive speeding, maybe 48 km/h over the speed limit, but the evidence only proves you were going 38 km/h over the speed limit, you
would be convicted of tier two speeding offence, with a $196.00 fine, instead of an excessive speeding offence, with a $368.00 fine, and the high-risk designation. The MVA allows this to happen.
The sentencing options for tickets are also very broad. Some traffic tickets have mandatory minimum penalties but many do not, which means that you may be convicted of an offence, but you may get a lower penalty.
A distracted driving ticket has a $368.00 fine but you may only pay a $200.00 fine, depending on the evidence and depending on whether you plead guilty.
Similarly, a ticket for driving without insurance $588.00 fine, but that can be substantially lowered, often tied to how expired your insurance was, and what your level of knowledge was regarding the expired status of your car insurance.
Through applications to the court, in some circumstances, tickets can also be amended. They can be amended to reflect different charges as previously discussed, or they can be amended to reflect a charge against a registered owner as opposed to the driver. This would prevent the ticket from going on your driving record and receiving any penalty points.
We recommend reading our recent blog post on this topic to see how difficult this can actually be achieved.
Traffic ticket disputes are governed by the British Columbia Offence Act and the penalties for violation tickets are not just limited to fines and penalty points.
In rare circumstances, judicial justices in traffic court may impose broader penalties, including driving prohibitions or probation orders that include stricter restrictions on your driving. While these are incredibly rare, and there is a lot of debate in the legal community about whether or not they are in fact lawful orders in traffic court, it is nevertheless the case that some judicial justices will impose driving prohibitions or probations orders on drivers after finding them guilty of traffic offences.
Understanding the broad range of consequences that can come from traffic court, puts you in a better position to be able to defend yourself against those consequences should the judicial justice signal an intention to impose them. Knowing the law, and the Court of Appeal and BC Supreme court cases can help prevent the imposing of more significant consequences in traffic court.
The one thing that a judicial justice has no independent authority about in traffic court is points. While a ticket can be amended, that amendment is done on application by the police officer on behalf of the crown.
Independently, a judicial justice can not say ‘I waved the penalty points.’ There is no statutory authority for them to do that.
So, if you’re going to traffic court, with the intention of saying ‘I don’t want the points, but I’m happy to plead guilty,’ understand that this is not an option available to you or available to the court.
These are some of the possible outcomes when you receive a traffic ticket, but because the court’s authority to impose consequences and traffic ticket sentences are broad, there is, in theory, no limit to the types of penalties a person may receive. For these reasons, we advise you to always obtain legal advice before going to traffic court so that you can best understand how to approach your situation.
