starchland

I still say fight it get a court date and plead innocent. you have a few scenarios that could help you. #1 being that torontos courts are back logged hopefully it will take you awhile to get a date, so you can argue that it took too long to go to trial. I think its 8+ months. I dont remember but youll have to read. cop doesnt show,etc,etc...only you know why it was a 'safe' lane change. I have seen alot of things get thrown out simply cause the person cared about the charge enough to go to court and show up in person.

CR EH

Maybe you could say he was riding in your blind spot? I mean how close was the cop? Perhaps you could say that you felt you had enough room...signaled...then made the lane change? (note that even if you didnt signal you could say you did to your knowledge) This could easily be just as much the cops fault for not paying attention to you trying to change lanes...maybe?

Either way i would be sure to apologise for making the cop feel he was cut-off as you would never intentionally cut-off anyone, let alone a cop...right?

s2kobsession

This guys from cambridge... I suspect he got the ticket somewhere in the KW area. If thats the case, he's got 2months until court appearance unless he postpones the date... no way 8months until initial appearance though.

starchland

ok didnt see the location that may be true though.

from my experience it is time between the offense date and actual court date where the cop shows up,etc,etc...in front of the prosecutor.

DISCONTD

did actually did happen in the GTA, i will tell you the full story:

on sunday december 6th i went to brampton to visit my grandparents before they went off to florida for the winter, i was using our van which i dont usually drive but they needed it to haul all their stuff, i went to fill up for them and was going down hurontario approaching the county court intersection. i had to make a right and was in the middle lane

so, i looked in the mirrors, check blindspot and saw a black crown vic coming up fast, so i put on my signal and waited for the car to pass, i check quickly back and did not see it so i started to lane change.

suddenly his horn goes off, and i get back into the middle lane, next thing that happens is i hear sirens and pulled over...

he asks me for the usual info, and gives me a ticket for lane change not in safety. he didnt even explain to me what i did wrong yet he asked if i had any alcohol. thinking back i should of asked him what i did, but the whole thing kinda shook me up.

hurontario was fairly busy, and i was in a vehicle i am not %100 used to. the cop was pretty ticked off i would of thought having a clean driving record and being a fairly new driver would let me off with a warning...guess not.

starchland

ever been to traffic court?

DISCONTD

nope, this will be my first time, i plan to get someone though. i would go myself if it was a smaller ticket, but this affects my insurance, alot

starchland

yeah the first time i would reccommend you get a paralegal or xcopper type. alot of people say its a waste of money and you can do the same thing yourself, which is true. however your first time you can learn the ropes by watching and going with your agent on your day. It really is not daunting like it sounds. Sure, its court, but with an honest explanation like youve done above, and it gives you a good chance of fighting it. Ive seen many times that with a good defense the judge will side with the civilian. Sure, you may have made an unsafe lane change, however it also sounds like the cop provoked the situation with his eradic driving. You were in an unfamiliar area, car,etc.

damn man if you can drive an S with its shitty blindspots, a van should be no challenge

If you did not cross the line, maybe you can argue that no lane change was performed and was averted...

CLEANs2000

i think you will definitely get this erased if you go there and slightly change your story.... like this

"on sunday december 6th i went to brampton to visit my grandparents before they went off to florida for the winter, i was using our van. I went to fill up for them and was going down hurontario approaching the county court intersection. i had to make a right and was in the middle lane

so, i looked in the mirrors, check blindspot and saw a black car which was about a km away, so i put on my signal and proceeded with the lane change.

suddenly I hear a horn go off, and i get back into the middle lane, next thing that happens is i hear sirens and pulled over... The officer must have been traveling at a very high rate of speed... without his sirens which was very dangerous in itself and caused this mishap."

i learned to alter the truth a bit through my many tickets including stunt driving... gl with the ticket

shamusodoofus

I would suggest trying to get a first attendance meet before you set up a court date. First attendance is basically like court except you are only talking to the prosecutor. On the day of the first attendance meet you will arrive at the court house and the receptionist will call you in. Upon entering the office, just explain to the prosecutor why you got the ticket. If he/she thinks it is minor mistake on your part, then you'll get pardoned. No questions asked.

I recommend this route through personal experience because a similar event happened a few months back when I got ticketed for failing to have my insurance card. Being 17 this would mean my insurance would go up roughly 500/year. First attendance meet took literally no more than 5 minutes. It saved me a lot of time and stress. Best part is, after a first attendance meet, if you don't like the results that you get with it (ie. the prosecutor doesn't drop your ticket) you can request a court date in which you will be tried regularly