More Reasons to Ignore Your Parking Ticket

Get More Time

You have just over two weeks to respond to the parking ticket. That's not a lot of time. By ignoring your parking ticket and waiting for the Notice of Impending Conviction in the mail, you can extend that to almost two months. That gives you a lot more breathing space to do some research and decide what you want to do about the parking ticket. It also gives you more time to pay the ticket if you chose to do that.

Avoid the Line

If your parking ticket was issued by any of these municpalities you must appear in person to request a trial. Sometimes the officer made a mistake on the parking ticket or it is cancelled for other reasons. But they won't call you at home and tell you that. Rather than lining up to find out you didn't have to, wait for the notice in the mail because you won't get one if the parking ticket was cancelled.

For example, the City of Toronto cancels more than 420,000 parking tickets every year based on secret guidelines that were finally released after a public outcry. Here are some of the reasons they listed in 2008:

2008 Ticket Cancellation By Type
Reasons for Cancellation	Number
Cancelled by Parking Tag staff due to various reasons including utility or road work, by-law exemptions, missing signs, errors on ticket, etc.	147,770
Drove Away - offender drives away before officer can serve the tag.	111,215
Out-of-Province - Tickets issued to out-of-province vehicles where license plate and owner information is unavailable.	93,105
Plate errors - plate does not exist, plate is unattached.	58,630
Incomplete - information is missing.	7,198
Cancelled/Conviction by Justice of the Peace at Trial.	4,979
Spoiled - error on parking tag.	1,376
Illegible - processing staff are unable to read the tag.	589
TOTAL TICKETS CANCELLED	424,862

Source: City of Toronto Revenue Services Briefing Note: 2008 Parking Ticket Activity (April 6, 2009)