XPOLICE Traffic Ticket Services Toronto Hamilton

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• Fournier, Ivon K. (Founder) - Hamilton
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• Domenic Zito

From time to time, we’ve been spotted in a courtroom and interviewed by reporters for a story they may be working on.

Frank Alfano, XPOLICE Traffic Ticket Paralegal was interviewed twice so far. Take a look at media coverage of some of our cases.

1. October 22, 2008 - National Post

Frank Alfano, XPOLICE Traffic Ticket Paralegal was arguing Section 11(B) Charter Applications. There were a bunch down at Old City Hall in Traffic Court.
view the National Post article or download PDF.

2. October 30, 2006 - Peterborough Examiner

Frank Alfano, XPOLICE Traffic Ticket Paralegal was in court waiting for his case to be dealt with. While waiting he saw an unrepresented person on the verge of going to jail when he shouldn’t have. He immediately stood up and offered to represent him for free.
Read all about it in the article or download PDF.

Demerit points are what the Ministry assess against you for traffic offences. Here are some popular misconceptions.

• You don’t lose points, you accumulate them. Meaning you start with 0.
• Secondly, they don’t increase your insurance premiums, although that may be a collateral effect. Insurance companies consider convictions. Considering that the conviction will be on your record longer than the demerit points, this is obvious.
• Demerit Points will be on your record for 2 years retroactive to the offence date. This means that if a case took longer than 2 years to resolve, those points are recorded retroactively. They will have been on your record even if they are not anymore.
• If you receive more than 1 ticket in a single stop and a couple have demerit points (example: Stop sign & a Seatbelt offence), you only lose points for the highest carrying ticket. In this example it would be the stop sign. So you would lose 3 points, not 5.
• When you accumulate enough points, your license gets suspended for 30 (60 days or 6 months for subsequent suspension for NOVICE drivers) days. The time period starts from when you surrender your license. So if you waited 30 days to surrender your license, the suspension is for 60 days total.
• If you accumulate enough tickets and have to attend an interview, you can still be suspended, or retested depending on how the interview goes.
• For novice drivers (G1, G2, M1, M2), it takes 6 points for a possible interview and 9 points for a 60 day (6 month suspension for subsequent suspensions) suspension. For fully licensed drivers (G, M, GM), its 9 points for an interview and 15 for a 30 day suspension.
• If you are suspended for the 30 days, then your demerit point total is reduced to 7 when you’re reinstated. If you were a novice driver suspended for 60 days, your demerit point total is reduced to 4.

Learn what to say and what not to say and when vehicle searches are legal. Your battle to beat a ticket begins the instant you realize you’re being stopped by a police officer. You will be in a much better position to challenge your ticket in court if you take a few simple steps when you are pulled over. Here are some suggestions.

• When You See the Police Car If a police car is following you with its siren blaring or emergency lights flashing, pull over to the right safely and quickly. Use your turn signal to indicate any lane changes from left to right, and slow down fairly quickly, but not so quickly that the officer will have to brake to avoid hitting you. Pull over as far to the right as possible so that, when the officer comes up to your window, he won’t have to worry about being clipped by vehicles in the right lane. By stopping as soon as you can, you’ll have a better chance of figuring out exactly where the officer says you committed a violation. You may want to return to that area later to make sure the officer was telling the truth about how he judged your speed, saw your turn, or witnessed any other violation.
• Right After You Stop After you’ve pulled over to a safe spot, you might want to show the officer a few other token courtesies. At this point, you have little to lose and perhaps something to gain. First off, roll down your window all the way. You may also want to turn off the engine, place your hands on the steering wheel, and, if it’s dark, turn on your interior light. This will tend to allay any fears the officer may have. (After all, police officers are killed every day in such "ordinary" traffic-stop situations, and the officer’s approach to the vehicle is the potentially most dangerous.) Don’t start rummaging through your back pocket for your wallet and license, or in your glove compartment for your registration, until the officer asks you for them. For all he knows, you could be reaching for a gun. If you are at all concerned that the person who stopped you is not actually a police officer (for example, if the car that pulled you over is unmarked), you should ask to see the officer’s photo identification along with his badge. If you still have doubts, you can ask that the officer to call a supervisor to the scene or you can request that you be allowed to follow the officer to a police station.
• Should You Get Out of Your Car? An officer who stops you for an alleged traffic violation has the right to insist that you and your passengers get out of your car. You should do so if asked. Also, getting out of your car may make it easier for you to check road conditions, the weather, and the place the violation supposedly occurred. However, many police officers prefer that you stay in your car and will tell you to stay there if you start to get out. If this happens, obviously you should cooperate. If you get out of the car against the officer’s orders, don’t be surprised to see a gun pointing at you. Cops are trained to expect the worst.
• Talking to the Officer many people stopped by an officer make the mistake of saying the wrong thing to him and failing to say the right things. And a case can be won or lost depending on what you say or don’t say to the officer. Don’t speak first. Especially don’t start off with a defensive or hostile "What’s the problem?" or similar words. Let the officer start talking. He will probably ask to see your license and vehicle registration. Many people make the mistake of insisting the officer tell them why he stopped them before they’ll comply. Don’t make that mistake. Reply "okay" or "sure," then hand over the documents. One of the first things traffic cops learn in the police academy is to decide, before leaving their vehicle, whether they’re going to give a ticket or just a warning. They may act as though they still haven’t made up their minds and are going to let you off only if you’ll cooperate. Don’t fall for this. The hesitating officer may be trying to appear open-minded in order to extract admissions out of you, to use them against you in court if necessary. The strategy is to try to get you to admit either that you committed a violation or that you were so careless, inattentive, or negligent that you don’t know whether you did or not. The officer might start by asking you the sort of question whose lack of a definite answer would imply guilt, like, "Do you know why I stopped you?" Or, he might ask, "Do you know how fast you were going?" Your answers, if any, should be non-committal and brief, like a simple "No" to the first question or a very confident, "Yes, I do," to the second. If he then tells you how fast he thinks you were going or what he thinks you did, don’t argue. Give a noncommittal answer, like, "I see," or no answer at all. Silence is not an admission of guilt and cannot be used against you in court.

There are three types of Traffic Tickets. They’re referred to as Part I, Part II, & Part III.

Part I

These are what is referred to as minor offences. They usually carry a set fine so if your traffic ticket has a fine amount on it, it’s a Part I. Another feature for Part I offences is that the penalty is limited to $500. You also can’t be suspended by a court for the offence if suspension was one of the possible sentencing outcomes. Don’t let theminor nature fool you. There are some Part I offences which carry hidden administrative suspensions. Novice driver violations carry suspensions issued by the Ministry of Transportation and not a court. Paying these types of fines or pleading guilty to them means after you think the dust has settled, you get a suspension notice in the mail. In addition, paying the ticket is the equivalent to pleading guilty to the charge. That means you could be assessed demerit points, your insurance could go up, & worse. Visit the FAQs page (and some of our others while you’re at it) to see some of the negative effects of paying a ticket.

Part II

These are parking infractions. Unlike Part I offences, these tickets only have fines. No hidden suspensions or the like. Parking offences don’t go on your driver’s record. And it’s vicarious liability to the owner/lessee of the vehicle. That means loaning out your car can also mean you get a parking ticket.

Part III

Part III offences are the more serious of the bunch. These cases don’t have a fine on the ticket. It’s just a summons with a court date. You can’t just pay it. Some of the offences prosecuted under Part III proceedings are driving under suspension, Operate motor vehicle without insurance, Stunt driving, & Racing. There are way too many to list but those are a few of the big ones. Drive under suspension for example carries a possible jail sentence, a minimum Ministry imposed 6 month suspension & a hefty minimum fine of $1,000. The majority of offences under Part III are classified as strict liability. Part III offences should not be taken lightly. The fines can be astronomical and some of the other penalties associated with Part III offences can include, jail, license suspension, probation, and also subject to other orders.

The Supreme Court of Canada in the case of R. vs. Sault Ste. Marie, Set out three classifications of offences. These classifications of Offences apply to Traffic Tickets. It is important to know when defending a charge how the offence is classified. The three classifications are as follows: Mens Rae Mens Rae Offences are offences in which the prosecution must prove the mental element (the guilty mind), sometimes referred to as conscientiousness of guilt. Essentially, in addition to proving the actus reus (the guilty act), the prosecution must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intended to commit the offences. Strict Liability Strict Liability Offences are offences where the prosecution does need to prove the mental element (or intention) to commit the offence however the defendant can lead evidence to establish or advance a strict liability defence. This sometimes has the effect of appearing to be a reverse onus on the defendant. Read R. v. Sault Ste. Marie and R. v. Bellomo for more information. Absolute Liability Absolute Liability Offences are offences where the prosecution does not have to prove the mental element (Intention) to commit the offence. Simply proving the guilty act beyond a reasonable doubt is sufficient for conviction. Raising a reasonable doubt is somewhat trickier but there are still ways you could raise a doubt.

The elements of an offence differ from charge to charge. They are the ingredients of a charge. For instance if you were making Apple pie and had no apples, well... you wouldn’t have apple pie. By the same token if you were defending a stop sign charge and there was no evidence of a stop sign, well...there wouldn’t be a stop sign charge. There are common elements such as date, identification, etc but for the most part the actual charge or act is proven differently. When you defend any charge, in addition to finding out the classification of offence, you should also learn the elements of it as well.

Read some of the cases that we have argued at Traffic Ticket Paralegal.com.

We have begun ordering transcripts of successfull cases which we will be posting to show you how we argue.

Here is the case of R._v._Koumoudouros

In this case the defendant was charged with Speeding. Typically police use a radar or laser (Speed Measuring Device) but this person was paced. That’s when the police use their own speedometer to obtain a speed reading. There was a case from 1974 from the Ontario Court of Appeal. After careful review of the case, it was clear that people were misreading it. In fact, it was relied on at the Appeal from both prosecution and defence. The Judge agreed with the defence and overturned the conviction. Click to read the Traffic Ticket Appeal Transcript.

Case law is a previously decided case. A precedent. An issue which was decided by a court. You can use case law to help a court decide something. Visit our In the courtroom page to see if any of the cases we argued help you. You can also visit the canlii site and search for case law on almost any subject.

If you want (or need) to rely on photographs, there’s a few things you need to know. Photographs aren’t automatically admitted. They need to be qualified. Firstly, you’ll need the photographer. The photographer should be asked: If he took the pictures; When he took the pictures; There should be evidence that it accurately reflects the scene as it was when the incident happened. You may encounter an admissibility problem if the offence took place in the summer and you photographed it in the winter. They should be taken as soon as possible. Remember, they should accurately reflect the scene as best as it can. If the photos are not accurate, they could be considered misleading depending on what they are proving.

Submission are your closing argument(s). This is your chance to submit why you should not be found guilty. It is not an opportunity to repeat the evidence, although you can refer to it. You may for example, say something like "Your worship, I ask you to accept my evidence where it differs from the officer for the following reasons:" and then proceed to explain why you should be believed, or why your evidence is capable of belief, etc. This is YOUR opportunity to explain your case. Use the evidence that is before the court to your advantage. Point out problems in the prosecutions case, point out all the reasons why you should be acquitted.

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