Put the Odds in Your Favour

This is the most important reason why you should ignore your parking ticket. The Provincial Offences Act has very strict time frames to deal with parking tickets. These time frames apply to the municipality that wrote the parking ticket as much as it does to you. If they don't follow or exceed the time limit, your parking ticket must be thrown out.

By ignoring your parking ticket and playing the waiting game, you can force them to make procedural errors that could kill your parking ticket.

A full explanation of the law can be found under Understanding the Legal Requirements but here's a brief explanation of how it works.

You have 17 days to deal with a parking ticket (your parking ticket will say 15 but it's actually 17). If you do nothing, under the Provincial Offences Act, s.18 they must send you the Notice of Impending Conviction after the 17 days have elapsed but no later than 36 days. They must allow seven additional days for the mail to deliver it. You then have another 15 days to respond. This process could take up to 58 days.

Why is this important? If the municipality wants to convict you, under the Provincial Offences Act, s.18.1(2) they must submit all the paperwork to the court within 75 days. If you take up as many days as possible, this limits the amount of time they have to file the parking infraction charge. If you take up the maximum 58 days, you have used up 77% of the time limit.

By ignoring your parking ticket, waiting for the Notice of Impending Conviction and delaying your request for trial until the very last day, you shorten the amount of time they have to go after you.

Is your city competent enough to mail you the notice on time or to get the parking infraction charge filed in time? By doing nothing, you increase your odds of beating the parking ticket.