I received a speeding ticket in December which I decided to contest
and the original notice of trial set the court date for April.  Due to
the weather that day, I was stuck in traffic and I was convicted in my
absence.

I filed for a reopening of the trial and it was granted.  I received a
trial date set for June.  However, on this new reopening, the
following things are incorrect:

My name (they juxtaposed my middle name and first name in both notices
of trial)
My postal code - completely wrong
My drivers license number (last two digits are switched)
The date of the offence (they wrote my birthday, 2002, as the offence
date)
The time of the offence (the original said 2:45, the new one says
3:02)

Here are my questions:
1) Is it possible to follow through with the trial and have this case
dismissed during my closing arguments as the notice of trial is
incorrect?
2) Is it possible that I will be convicted in spite of the errors?
3) Can I request a continuance based on the errors on the notice of
trial on the foundation that the data described above is more than a
simple typographical error. (especially the date)
4) What else can I do?

Please keep in mind that when responding, this is specific to Ontario.

Hello shimmy,

Usually it is easy to contest the first speeding ticket if you weren't
actually speeding. Most Canadian judges will take your word for it the
first time. Not showing up for your trial is not going to help your
case any, and I doubt that the trial will be dismissed simply because
of incorrect documentation. The proper thing for you to do would be to
phone the court and ask them to correct the mistakes.

Next, you should find any witnesses who know about your driving
skills. I remember a case where a guy was accused of speeding. The cop
was on the other side of the transcanada highway and there was a
similar vehicle which was travelling at 130km/h, but another person
was stopped. At the trial, the wife said "He doesn't even speed when I
am in labour." As usual, the judge said that the case would be
dismissed this time, but that there would be a record for a few years
and it would not be as easy the second time. We have to trust the
authorities as well.

If you were speeding, I say pay for the ticket. If you were not
speeding, you had better have a good story at this point, and also a
good story for missing your original trial date without showing up.
Your drivers license should be completely clear of all infractions. I
don't think the errors in the documentation are going to help you one
little bit, and I also do not think it would be in your best interest
to even try this. You should immediately phone the court to correct
this information.

The short version of answers to your question:

1) I don't think there is such a thing as "closing arguments" for most
speeding ticket trials. You will be asked what happened and that is
pretty much it (unless you have witnesses). This is not going to be
like a "real trial". It will be over quite fast. It will not be
possible to dismiss the trial based on errors in your court summons.
2) Yes.
3) You can try, but I can't see why it would work.
4) I answered this above. You can have respect for the judge and
everyone in the courtroom. Even with a good story for missing the
original date, you should have phoned the court and you will have to
hope that you will be forgiven for this. All in all, the case depends
on your record, your story, and the gut feeling of the judge.

I wish you the best of luck,

tisme-ga

PS: I submitted this as a comment (not an answer). If you are
satisfied with this as an answer, please let me know and I can submit
it. If you are not satisfied, please let us know what you are looking
for (very specific).

tisme-ga

Hi shimmy-ga...

I live in Ontario Canada and I also got a speeding ticket...
Well...2 actually :( 

The first one was in July 1999. I decided to fight it & hired a
paralegal who specialized in fighting traffic tickets. I won but the
only reason was because the actual court case was over a year from the
"offence" and the court ruled that anything over a year causes undue
"stress".

However, when I first met with the paralegal, he examined my ticket,
and asked me if all the information was correct. He said if even the
smallest detail was incorrect, the case would be thrown out of court.
Perhaps the same would apply to the court document you received. I
would strongly recommend that you have someone with legal experience
go over this with you.

Good luck !

1)No
2)Yes
3)No
4)Tell us more about the circumstances when you were ticketed. How did
they catch you, etc? Did the cop hand the ticket directly to you?

File for discovery & disclosure so you know whatever the cop knows!

When & where is your trial?

What are the mistakes on your TICKET? I don't think notice of trial
mistakes mean anything.